Sick/injured sword tail

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Squigley

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Dec 5, 2017
Messages
36
Hi I noticed yesterday one of my sword tails mouth area looks almost rotted, I have it in a breeder tank at the moment as it looked like it was struggling alittle to swim and I wanted to keep an eye on it. Could anyone give me advice in what it is and what I should do, I'll post some photos
 

Attachments

  • 20180204_183919.jpg
    20180204_183919.jpg
    106.6 KB · Views: 58
  • 20180204_183909.jpg
    20180204_183909.jpg
    112.5 KB · Views: 69
I can put more photos up if needed, I put some tonic salt in the tank as a precaution as I'm really not sure where to go with treatments
 
That looks like columnaris.
The mouth rot type.
Clean water and maybe a little salt may help...
Keep an eye on your other fish..
 
Should I treat whole tank and what would you recommend for treatment? I'm so worried now, but really appreciate your advice
 
I've seen fish that have survived infections similar to that before. The disease eats the flesh leaving a gaping hole where the mouth used to be. The fish spends the rest of his life struggling to eat. It's difficult to watch. IMO it's better to euthanize the fish then sanitize the tank by either a super cleaning (big WC, gravel vac) and / or a treatment of salt and meds as noted above.
 
How transferable is it to the other fish? I'll have to go to the pet shop And find a medication, The tank is double filtered (canister and over the top) will I need to clean or change any of the filter media? I havnt had a chance to read the article yet but I will in daylight hours, I havnt had much sleep I'm so worried now. I have 4 tanks but this one has mostly really hard fish to find in nz And it's taken me a long time to find and get this tank thriving so I'm very shocked and sad that this has happend. I'll definitely consider euthanize but will give it a few days while I do more research, thanks all for the help I was so stumped about what was wrong and how it happened but I thought it just could have just been in a fight with one of the other fish.. naivety on my part :(
 
Relax, things will level out. Nobody can tell for sure how contagious the noted disease is, but the longer you keep the poor fish in the tank, chances for an outbreak increase.
Personally, my first move would not be to medicate, it would be: remove the fish, super clean the tank, then closely watch for additional infections. Chances are there wouldn't be.
The growth could be a fungus, eating the dead flesh on the mouth, possibly an injury resulting from a fight, or as CB noted, a Bacterial / Columnaris infection. One thing is sure, if the fish survives, it will be minus a mouth. The tissue damage is irreversable.
 
I will look into euthanizing the fish (I havnt done it before) from what you said about the tissue damage it's just cruel for the fish long term regardless if I get rid of the problem. Thank you all for your help and advice, I'm going to have a busy day ahead sorting the tank out but it's nice to know there's help on here!
 
I will look into euthanizing the fish (I havnt done it before) from what you said about the tissue damage it's just cruel for the fish long term regardless if I get rid of the problem. Thank you all for your help and advice, I'm going to have a busy day ahead sorting the tank out but it's nice to know there's help on here!
Get a bowl of ice, let the water trickle over it to make it ice cold make sure there's plenty of water , put it in the freezer for 10 minutes to make sure it's super cold (don't let it ice over) take fish out and put him/her in the bowl of ice water fish will pass fast, it's not going to feel good too do this but it's the humane way.

On a good note I've had this happen to a barb and no other fish got infected my fish looked like a zombie missing its whole top lip.

Are you water parameters prestine?

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5-20
 
You could use clove oil, it will knock the fish out humanely , in a seperate container put in enough for the fish to lose consciousness then put in more to kill it. IMO its the most humane way.
 
Back
Top Bottom