Swordtail with Body Flukes

JemZ

Fish Crazy
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My swordtail has been acting weird recently; more lethargic than usual. I started using Tetra Lifeguard on monday as a precaution but today I noticed his gills look white-ish and it almost looks like blood around them. His belly has gotten more white recently but I didn't think anything of it till today.

Today and tomorrow are last days of Tetra lifeguard.

Here is one picture I'm trying to get more
IMG_20201119_155417982_HDR_2.jpg
 
I can't tell anything from the picture.

The best treatment for livebearers with unknown ailments is clean water and salt.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using salt or medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water.

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SALT
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 (4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will affect some plants and some snails. The lower dose rate will not affect plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.
 
I've got a CAE so I might use the smaller doses. Here is another picture. To me, he looks cut and bloody in some areas I circled them in one photo but not in the other. His belly and gills are also whiter (almost raw looking) than usual although it is very hard for me to capture his underside on camera.

Screenshot_20201119-183313.png

Screenshot_20201119-183653.png
 
i would do everything that colin has said but to me it sounds like ur paramaters are up **** creek the reason being he has got white spots and gills going red which is a sign of ammonia and nitrite quote me if im wrong collin

another med that can work is sulfa tablets but really seems to me ur water paramaters
 

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