Swordtail w/fungus, shredded fins

[Inchworm]

Hi Polardbear

I wish I was in Arizona where it is nice and warm, instead of here in New York!

You can safely increase the amount of salt in the water for the salt baths, and do them every few hours, if you wish. With the antibiotics, however, it might not be necessary.

What the salt does, is eat away at the infected areas and clean them up so that they can heal naturally. It slows the reproduction of bacteria by eliminating all that it can reach. The Kanamycin will do the rest.

The directions on my bottle of Seachem Kanamycin say to give a maximum of 3 treatments, one every other day. I've exceeded this with no problems. I think it's better to give an extra than to have the bacteria continue. Since yours have been so persistent, I would do this. What brand are you using?

Once the disease is gone, nature should take care of healing the fins and tail.

I hope they are well soon.

 

[Polardbear]

The Kanamycin is from Aquatrol, Inc, It's in capsule form - 375 mg of Kanamycin Sulfate. Recommended dosage is 1 capsule per 5 gallons. "Lupe" is in a 10 gallon tank so I've been using 2 capsules per treatment. She's looking real good.

The Lyretail (now named Lacey) is getting ampicillin in 250 mg capsules. She gets 1 capsule per treatment in her 10 gallon tank. The ampicillin is mfg by Aquaticure - Eaton Vetrinary Labs. The instructions for it say - " 1 capsule every other day for a full 5 days (a minimum of 3 treatments is recommended). Repeat a full 5-day treatment after 3 days if necessary.

I've got 3 capsules of it left so I will be able to give her a full 5 day treatment. I'll play it by ear after that, I'm not holding my breath on her pulling through this, have to take it one day at a time with her.

Going to give her the 1st salt bath for the day now.

 

[WILDER]

I would get some more as I was treating my sister goldfish which I kept for three weeks with antibiotics, it can take time, and then a few days more to make sure it has gone completely.

 

[Angry_Platy]

I really do hope she pulls through this. Such beautiful fish.

I have a lyretail swordy as well.....I guess shes a wag swordy as she has a white and orange body with black finnage......so long and beautiful.

Good luck treating her and keep us updated. We all have our fins crossed for you

 

[MammaKitty]

I am a newbie to this and was wondering how you do the salt bath for them do you just disolve 1 tsp for 2 cups of water and put here in the bowl for a certain amount of time ? I just lost a molly this morning to cotton mouth and my gourami all of the sudden had a spot appear and for the last 4 days Ive been treating for ICH This whole thing gets alot harder before it gets easier. It's tuff and depressing can't work just sitting here wondering if my fish will be alive when I get home, after I stop and get some Kanamycin.

 

[WILDER]

Do a salt bath they say half an hour but it depends on the fish if he start acting weird swaying from side to side remove him back to the tank, I usually start with 5 minutes then increase a little bit longer once the fish learns to tolerate it longer, good luck.

 

[Polardbear]

This is how I'm doing my salt bath - I use a 1 gallon tupperware container, I pre dissolve the appropriate amount of salt in a smaller container of dechlorinated fresh water that is the same temperature as my tank water. I simply submerge the 1 gallon container in the 10 gallon tank and scoop up Lacey Lyretail with it and then pour out most of the tank water that came with her and then refill with clean fresh dechlorinated water and slowly mix in the container of the dissolved salt and water. I let Lacey and the 1 gal tupperware container float in the tank while she is enjoying her bath. While she's soaking I clean up her tank a little and then after about 30 minutes I use another smaller tupperware bowl to scoop her out of the bath and back into the tank. I find this a lot less stressful for her than netting her multiple times a day would be. She's learning the routine and when I gave her the 4th bath today she actually swam into the container on her own. Just have to be carefull to remove some tank water before starting so that I don't overflow the tank when I'm putting in the bath container! I keep a close eye on her while she's soaking to make sure she doesn't start acting distressed. If she did act distressed I would immediately scoop her out of the bath and back into her tank water.

Lacey Lyretail's condition has neither improved or worsened as of tonight. We shall see what tomorrow brings us.

On a happy note - after giving Lacey her last bath for the day I realized that Lupe Hi Fin needed a water change and another dose of her medication. Lupe has been extremely active all day, wiggling at me whenever I walk past and doing her loops at the front of the tank the rest of the time. I think she's practicing being cute. Started syphoning her tank and was chasing what I thought was a leftover betta pellet from the previous occupant when it suddenly hit me that it wasn't a betta pellet, it was a baby swordtail! Lupe had her babies today!!! Talk about not showing any signs! She never went off her feed, hid or hung out on the bottom or any of the normal things my other girls do. I don't know when she found time to have them, must have been shooting them out while she was doing her loops! I started netting them up to move them somewhere safe and counted 36 of them. That was about when I realized that I didn't have anywhere to put them.

Finally decided to leave them in the 10 gallon tank and move Lupe back to the 5 gallon tank. Once again Jake the crowntail betta was evicted from his home for the sake of a sick swordie. I don't think he was real happy with his temporary tupperware home. I promised him he'll get his 10 gallon back asap but I don't think he believed me. Moved momma Lupe out and did a water change for the new fry tank.

 

[WILDER]

That's a lovely thread, I just use tank water, then fill tank up with some fresh, I also use a container to put the fish back in tank, they prefer it to a net.

 

[mrplaty]

I think that your swordtail is looking much better than the first picture that you posted!!

 

[Polardbear]

An update on the 2 swordtails -

Lupe the hi fin female produced 6 more babies after being moved out of the tank that has her 36 other babies bringing the total to 42. Amazingly she showed no interest in eating them! Just to be on the safe side though they have been moved to the fry tank. Lupe appears to be fully recovered but I'm keeping her in isolation for a few more days to be sure.

Lacey Lyretail is still hanging in there. She was very quiet yesterday and spent most of the day laying on the gravel. I had pretty much made up my mind that it was time to euthanize her. I had some errands to run and decided I would do it when I got home in the afternoon. Lacey's little ears must have been burning because when I got home she was up and swimming around her tank. As of today, she is still cruising around so I'm continuing with the antibiotics and salt baths. I have to say she's a real fighter. I'm still not real optimistic that she's going to recover but I'll give her some more time.

The 3 new swordtails that I have in quarentine (purchased Monday) started acting lethargic and mopey. I started them on anitbiotics as well and they are much better. Thursday, out of curiosity I went back to the store where I purchased them and the remaining swordies in the tanks had all developed fungus on their fins. I was not impressed with the store's additude when I pointed out the 2 tanks of swordtails with fungus. They just shrugged and asked me if I wanted to buy any more. My reply was "only if they threw in free antibiotics with them" and walked out.

And in my main tank, the red painted swordie and the marigold wag swordie both snuck into the bushes and had babies. Lacey's sister is also ready to give birth at any moment and I'm trying to find a tank I can free up to put her in.

 

[WILDER]

Lovely to hear that some of them are on the mend, sad to hear that the lfs don't treat sick fish digusting, good luck.

 

[Polardbear]

Update on Lacey Lyretail - Lacey lost her ability to maintain her balance this evening so I decided it was time to end her suffering.

R.I.P. sweet little fishie.

Thank you everyone for all your helpful suggestions. At least I feel like I did all that I could to help her.

 

[C.j]

sad to hear it

you should be congratulated on youre dedication to you're fish.

out of curiousity how did you euthinase?

 

[Inchworm]

Hi Polardbear

I'm so sorry to learn about Lacey's sad demise.

Bur remember that you did your best and that's all you could have done for her. The experience you have gained will benefit other fish in the future.

 

[Polardbear]

I used several drops of benzocaine (Ambesol/Orajel) in a small container of water. It's very quick and appears painless.

Special thanks to Wilder and Inchworm for all your support.