Sick swordtail

[confusion]

I've been having some serious bad luck with my swordtails.

I currently have one that has a white lesion on one side of her body. It looks bleached - like the scales have been damage. She's been in a very peaceful tank - in fact her early tankmates died of something similar, though around their mouths.

After reading quite a bit, it really looks like a flexibacter infection. I've quarentined her to a smaller tank, and I have been treating her with maracyn for 3 days now. I tried feeding her the jungle anti-bacteria food, but she wasn't real interested in it. Up to this morning, she was eating pretty well, though - just plain flake food. As of this morning, she's not eating anymore, and she pretty much just hangs out at the top of the tank, moving around every now and then, but otherwise just staying in one spot or drifts around in the currents.

Here are the stats:

I brought her home about 5 days ago. She's in a 10G tank with live plants, and 2 other apparently heathly swordtails that I got today to keep her company.

I have about 2 tbsp of sea salt in the tank, the water is declorinated, and I have an air pump (probably redundant with the plants...)

Here are the stats:
temp: 81F
ammonia: 0ppm
ph:6.4
nitrite: 0ppm
hardness: 120ppm
alkalinity: 80ppm

Any ideas of what I can do to improve her chances of pulling through - particularly to get her to start eating again?

Thanks!

 

[Devilishturtles]

Hi confusion. Welcome to AA.

Does indeed sound like a flexibacter infection. The majority of flexibacter infections (flexibacter columnaris) are gram negative. Maracyn is more effective against gram positive bacteria. The good thing is that you can use both in conjuction to treat with.

If your fish is showing no improvement still, I would pick up Maracyn-Two as soon as possible. It is also a broad spectrum antibiotic that is more helpful with gram negative infections.

Keep an eye on your water quality. All antibiotics have the tendency to mess with parameters, causing ammonia spikes. Perform frequent water changes as well to keep water quality top notch.

Best of luck1

 

[confusion]

Many thanks for the advice. I just picked up some maracyn two and put it in the tank. The tank is in the early cycling stages, so I'm not too concerned about the effect on the bio filter.

The stats on the water are pretty good - ph is a little low, but not a big deal from what I understand. The water seems pretty "dirty" though. I think a lot of it is from the plants. I've done two 20% water changes in the past 24 hours to try to make it cleaner, but it's not had much impact. Hopefully that isn't contributing to the problem.

Any ideas of how long it will take before she starts eating again? How long can she go without eating?

Thanks again.

 

[RoK]

Swordtails are actually better off without salt; especially sea salt. Mollies and guppies are the ones that are more salt-tolerant. The plants also will do better without salt.
What about nitrAtes?
Maybe you should try another water change and not add any salt.