Swordtail fin rot or injury??

[Rianyu]

Hey guys,

So I bought some swordtails last night from a trusted LFS. Not quite sure if I just missed it or she developed these overnight but I woke up and found these white parts on her fins and tail. The other two are fine so I have temporarily QT'd her just in case.

Can anyone help me identify this? And if it's a sort of disease, should I return her or try to treat it? I've never had to return a fish from this place before but they are usually pretty good about exchanged for other products.


Thanks!

 

[Rianyu]

Sorry for some reason my pictures didnt attach

 

[BBradbury]

Your Fish

Hello Ria...

The best thing to do for your fish is keep it's water as clean as possible and feed it a little variety of flakes, freeze dried and frozen foods. I keep Swordtails, Guppies and Platys and have a couple hybrids of these fish and the key to keeping them healthy is to change a lot of water and change it often. I remove and replace roughly half every week. This will keep dissolved wastes out of the water and the fish thriving. I would add some floating plants too to help keep the tank water stable between changes. Plants are a good addition to the fishes' diet. The algae that forms on the leaves is nourishing.

Livebearing fish like a bit of standard aquarium salt added to their new water. It keeps gills and the immune system healthy. A teaspoon or even two for every 5 gallons of new, treated tap water is beneficial. I've used a little for several years.

Take good care of the water and the fish should be fine.

B

 

[Rianyu]

Thanks for the tips! I am really diligent about checking water parameters and changing 25-30% of my water once a week and I feed once a day. The tank is currently moderately planted with plants that will fill the tank in a couple months as well as some duckweed floating on top.

Will the salt be ok with neons, cories and otos? I wouldn't mind adding that to my maintenance routine, just need to be sure I won't be compromising anything else in the tank.

As long as this doesn't look like a disease I'll be relieved, poor girl looks a bit beat up

 

[BBradbury]

Your Fish

Thanks for the tips! I am really diligent about checking water parameters and changing 25-30% of my water once a week and I feed once a day. The tank is currently moderately planted with plants that will fill the tank in a couple months as well as some duckweed floating on top.

Will the salt be ok with neons, cories and otos? I wouldn't mind adding that to my maintenance routine, just need to be sure I won't be compromising anything else in the tank.

As long as this doesn't look like a disease I'll be relieved, poor girl looks a bit beat up

Hello again Ria...

I keep Corydoras and Plecos too. They're both fine with a little salt in the tank water. If you keep the dose low, the salt is beneficial. The plants can also benefit from the minerals in the aquarium salt.

B

 

[Rianyu]

Sweet I will do a large water change tonight and add some aquarium salt in as well. Going to get a stronger filter too since the one I have currently doesnt seem to be doing as good of a job as advertised.

Thank you so much again, I'm less worried now and hope to see some improvement after the changes

 

[Rianyu]

Just checked her when I got home. The patches seem fuzzier and raised more. She's not using her right fin as much and it has a visible white patch.

 

[Rianyu]

Update:

it's been getting worse. I've been changing the water every day, about 50% with salt. Any advice? She seems very lively still, just stressed out she cant join the other two swordtails in the main tank.

 

[Coursair]

Be very careful with Salt. BBradbury and I hold different opinions about salt in tanks.

Cories and plants dislike salt. A very small amount may be ok. But it's very easy to over salt a tank.

I would set up a QT tank.
Fin Rot can be a sign of poor water quality. It can also be from bite wounds.

Here is a pretty good site
http://bettasplendid.weebly.com/fin-rot-101.html

A QT tank can be a plastic bin or anything you can hook up a heater and filter. I would use 5g size. Easier to treat.


Smoke signals from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Rianyu]

Yeah I currently have her in a QT tank, doing changes every day and making sure it's pristine. I'm not sure where this came from and why it's not getting better.

Salt didn't seem to do any good so I've started to reduce how much I use slowly. I've read up on this a bit and some people suggest trying tetracycline? How effective is it? I have some API T.C. Tetracycline on hand

 

[Rianyu]

Fish seem to be doing ok with the Tetracycline though any improvements is minimal if not imaginary....