What's going on with my swordtail?

[phinny99]

So, I noticed this evening that my swordtail has what looks like red spots on his body. He's been staying off by himself a lot in the last few days but does still come out and swim around and eat.

I am attaching a couple of pics. The quality isn't great but hopefully you can see what I am referring to. I have been searching online but can't much about red spots other than fish who have a single spot or two that look like wounds.

Would love to hear what your thoughts are and what I can do to help him. All of my water parameters are good and all of the other fish are acting fine.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Andy Sager]

The fish appears to be a little skinny but that could be the angle of the pic so check behind the head for any shrinking or thinning. If it is skinny, this could be a reaction to the lack of food or improper nutrition.
The other possibility is septicemia which is a weakening of the blood vessels causing the bleeding. The problem with this is that it can be caused by a number of things from Bacterial to Viral and the only way to know for sure without medical intervention is to try remedies to see if they work. If they don't work for Bacterial, it's most likely viral. If it's viral, there is no cure but the fish does not always die from it but can become a carrier and infect other fish.
The bottom line to any of the 3 possibilities is that the fish should be isolated in another tank to either be treated or fed a better diet. If this is not possible, the fish should be euthanized as a precaution to not having it spread throughout your tank.

Wish the news could be better.

 

[Colin_T]

Have you added anything to the tank in the 2 weeks before this started?

It could be a bacterial infection or an external protozoan infection, however I think it's bacterial. Try cleaning the tank and adding some salt, see if it helps. If there's no improvement after a few days with salt, post another picture, and maybe post a 1 minute video so we can see how it's swimming. That might offer a bit more info.
You can upload videos to YouTube, then copy & paste the link here.

I agree with Andy about the fish looking a bit skinny. It's not major but is noticeable around the head. This could be from intestinal worms, gill flukes or whatever is causing the red spotting on the body (which is interesting for me because I haven't seen the red spotting to that degree before).

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WHAT TO DO NOW.
Test the water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate today, and if possible every day for a week. The water change/s and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
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 the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens so any medication (if needed) will work more effectively on the fish.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Add some salt, (see directions below).

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SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), swimming pool salt, or any non iodised salt (sodium chloride) to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres (5 gallons) 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, Bettas & 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 (1-2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will not affect fish, 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.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.