Female Sword TAIL!!

[Vam]

Today when I got home from school I found my female sword tail laying on the gravel gasping for air. This is a new tank!


pH 6.1
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 0ppm
Temp 79C


She is only 3 days old from the LFS and I have no idea what to do for her! Why could she be moving her mouth/gills like that?

 

[noelberg]

What are the tank mates?

6.1 pH is a bit low for swordtails, but if that's the same water pH where she came from, then it won't make a difference. From experience I can tell you that swordtails do not handle moving stress as well as other livebearers. The new tank might also have something to do with it - while your water quality has good readings, there might be other elements of a mature tank that your tank might not have yet.

 

[Vam]

I never read anywheres that swordtails require aquarium salt until I started searching this board. Do swordtails require aquarium salt?

Tank mates include:
-3 Spotted Zebra Danios
-2 Angelfish
-1 male Beta

40 gallon tank


I hope this little one doesn't die but shes breathing heavy. I noticed last night she was at the top of the tank for most of the night. Anything I can do for her? I suppose moving her to another community wouldn't do her any good at all?

 

[CMC]

My son has a male and female swordtail in his 10 gallon tank and we've noticed in the past few days the female is hiding a lot and she stays at the top of the water. Her tail fins also stay clamped most of the time. There are no other tank mates except for the male and his top fin messed up from the female nipping on it. We checked the water and all the readings are good. The male is acting normal and it's a matured tank so we haven't figured out the problem with her.

Vam, you said yours is a new tank. Did it go through the cycling process before you added the fish? If not, some fish will do ok through it, while the weaker ones may not make it.

Good luck to you.

 

[Vam]

I have transferred 50% water from another aquarium to this one and the carbon filter soaked in another aquarium before it was ran. I have since added a few doses of cycle and some gravel from an established tank.

Also the tank has been running for about a month now with 3 danios, we added the other fish two weeks ago seeing that we have excessive amounts of beneficial bacteria I'm not that worried.

Bi-daily water changes of 25% of course.


Wish the pH was higher thats the only thing I think might be making this fish sick.

 

[guppygirl]

I have this same problem with my guppies!!! It usually comes when I have really old fish die, i dunno. Recently I had it come back, so I did a 50% water change and they're fine now.
good luck!!!
Robin

 

[Annastasia]

Good Luck with your fish!!