Sick Swordtail?

[Mariie12]

Hello everyone.
Two days ago I got a new Swordtail for my 10 gallon tank. She was doing fine in the tank and everything, She wasn't eating but I thought it was just because she's in a new tank, she has to get used to it. Yesterday I was looking at her and I noticed a big white spot on her head, right above her left eye. I was thinking, maybe it's ich? I looked it up and the spot did not look like ich, It almost looks like some kind of fungus...I looked it up I found a disease in fish called Hole in the head....It almost looks like it but I am not sure at all. I read that the disease is usually in other types of fish. So I really need help figuring out what it is, and how to fix it! (I also thought I saw it starting to heal today, maybe it is! Or maybe I'm crazy)

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

It's not white spot or hole in the head disease.

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Can you post a picture of the fish from the front view so we can look at it from the face?

How much does the patch stick out?

How long has the tank been set up for?
What other fish are in the tank?


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You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres and if there is no improvement after 48 hours, then increase it so there is a total of 4 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate will affect some plants. The lower dose rate will not affect plants.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that.

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To work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.

When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "How To Tips" at the top of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

 

[Mariie12]

Very sorry, I couldn't get a picture of her in the front. She keeps swimming away from the camera, or the other fish think they are apart of the picture too and swim in front of her.

But the white patch I mostly flat, just a little raised. (If you still want a picture of her I can try but might take until later tomorrow, my fish are all hype right now and I'm busy tomorrow morning. And it takes forever to get a picture of that swordtail, shes the only one scared of the camera.)

The tank has only been set up for two months, I set it up towards the end of February. I do weekly changes, because they stink up the tank so fast. I usually take out 2 gallons every time. And sometimes take the plants out and clean them.

There are 9 other fish in the tank.

I have 4 Swordtails.

4 platys.
2 Blue Mickey Mouse Platy.
2 Sunset Wagtail Platy.

1 Molly because half of the Mollies I had died.
But I do have 3 baby Molly fry that I got towards the beginning of March. I don't really count them as 3 more fish because they are so small.

Thank you for the advice! I will definitely try adding aquarium salt.

 

[Colin_T]

It's probably just a graze on her head. Monitor it and if it goes red, or white and fluffy, then post pics immediately. Otherwise do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate, then add salt and see how she looks over the next few days.

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When you do your weekly water changes, you should change more water.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

You do water changes for 2 main reasons.
1) to reduce nutrients like ammonia, nitrite & nitrate.
2) to dilute disease organisms in the water.

Fish live in a soup of microscopic organisms including bacteria, fungus, viruses, protozoans, worms, flukes and various other things that make your skin crawl. Doing a big water change and gravel cleaning the substrate on a regular basis will dilute these organisms and reduce their numbers in the water, thus making it a safer and healthier environment for the fish.

If you do a 25% water change each week you leave behind 75% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 50% water change each week you leave behind 50% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 75% water change each week you leave behind 25% of the bad stuff in the water.

Fish live in their own waste. Their tank and filter is full of fish poop. The water they breath is filtered through fish poop. Cleaning filters, gravel and doing big regular water changes, removes a lot of this poop and makes the environment cleaner and healthier for the fish.

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If you have live plants in the tank, do not pull them out and wash them because you can damage their roots. If the leaves get really dirty you can cut that leaf off. Besides that, just leave them and gravel clean around them.

Plastic plants and ornaments can be taken out and washed off.