Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => Fish Health => Topic started by: Bazza2000 on November 06, 2019, 06:24:18 PM
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Hi everyone,
Had a uneventful few months with my little friends, no further loss and everything appeared to be fine, until today. One of my swordfish has developed white patches on her scales. Its literally appeared over about 12 hours, fine this morning, and now white patches all over which is really worrying. I'm no expert, but it doesn't appear to be white spot, I just wondered if anyone had seen anything like this before,
Thanks,
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It's definitely not whitespot - that looks as though the fish has been sprinkled with salt.
It almost looks as though the fish has lost some scales - you can see her properly, has she lost scales or is the white on top of the scales?
I am not very good with diseases, but it if the white is on top of scales it suggests an infection. We can't get very strong medication without a vet's prescription, the best two meds to try are eSHa 2000 or Waterlife Myxazin.
Something I do need to check with you - how hard is your water? All the other fish in your signature are soft water fish, while swordtails are hard water fish, which will suffer in soft water.
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Hi Sue, thanks for the quick response. Yeah, I had a post a couple of months back about the hardness of the water, I think I'm on the edge and in hindsight I wouldn't have purchased them, however, they do seems to have been thriving and I've seen fry in the tank recently from this female. I've just taken some more closeups, it looks like a few scales are flaking off.
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If the scales are coming of it could be injury rather than infection. Is there any decor she could have tried to squeeze though (especially if being chased buy a male)?; could she have burned herself on the heater (though in this case I would have expected it to be in just one place)?
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Hmm, possibly, he does pay her a lot of attention all the time! I only have an old galleon ship which has pretty big holes all over. I'll keep an eye out though. Would that mean she should recover over time? or will I need to take some action?
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Looks like a systemic fungal infection to me, breaking out through the skin. I’d treat with Protozin.
They’re Swordtails btw, not Swordfish. If you had Swordfish your tank would be a lot bigger and saltier. :)
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Looks like a systemic fungal infection to me, breaking out through the skin. I’d treat with Protozin.
They’re Swordtails btw, not Swordfish. If you had Swordfish your tank would be a lot bigger and saltier. :)
Swordtails ;) Sorry Yeah! Thanks for the info, will get some Protozin and see if that helps. Will I need to put her in a isolation tank?
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Chances are your other fish could well show signs soon aswell. Once it takes a hold it’s rapid. Treat the whole tank. It may be too late for this one. I’m not familiar with your tank but stress of some kind is probably involved.
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Swordtails ;) Sorry Yeah!
I've changed the topic title ;)
I agree that it appears fungal in the picture... Does it appear visually fluffy in real life? 3d and stickng out from the fish? Im also wondering if it could be damage with a secondary fungal infection...
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Thanks Matt,
She hiding at the back of the tank in the plants at the mo so difficult to see, but the top definitely looked to be sticking out.
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I had been reading about columnaris last week (and saddleback disease). I haven't (touchwood!) had any direct experience of this - can I check with others more experienced than me what their thoughts are on this being a possibility?
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This isn’t columnaris.
Columnaris (in its chronic form) is an off-white to grey colour and starts as separate small marks on the skin, which progress into fluffy fungus-like growths. (In its acute, systemic form it usually kills without visible symptoms).
This case is one large area of white growth, which is typical of a systemic fungal infection.
:)
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I've never been good at diagnosing and treating diseases. I'd always believed that Protozin only treated protozoan parasites. After reading @Hampalong 's recommendation a few posts ago, I looked at Waterlife's website in the hope that it now contains info on their medications, discovered it does and that Protozin is for treating fungus as well.
That's the thing about fishkeeping, we never stop learning something new :)
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Waterlife’s brand names have never been the most self explanatory.
Protozin does protozoans and fungi, and also contains a bacteristat to slow/halt secondary bacterial infections.
Myxazin does bacteria and contains a fungistat and a protozoastat (spelling?).
This makes them ideal for use when secondary infections are also present. You just need to decide which needs the most immediate treatment.
Sterazin used to be for all parasites. Now it’s for internal parasites (eg worms) and Parazin is for larger, external parasites such as lice and anchor worm. Sterazin also contains a bacteristat and fungistat. Parazin is relatively new so I’m not as familiar with it. No doubt it also contains ‘-stats’.
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Hi All,
Finished the course of "Protozin" yesterday and things are looking good. No other outbreaks on any of the other fish and the female SwordTail is looking in good shape. She hasn't shown any adverse sideeffects and has been swimming around and eating as normal so hopefully she will pull through. From what I can see (photos attached) she she looks to be improving, I assume the white on the scales will be replaced organically with fresh scales over time, but wanted to check with the forums to see if she looks like she's improving?
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Definitely looks a lot better. I’m quite surprised tbh as I thought she was too far gone. It’s good stuff that Protozin. :)
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Yeah, I thought she was a gonner too!, but she seems a hardy lass, she's been feeding and swimming around like nothing was wrong. :fishy1:
Wanted to say a big thanks for the all the advice, she definitely wouldn't be here without it! :cheers:
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Do you have males in the tank as well? Looks like there might be a swollen belly there...
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The first photo in the first post shows a male's tail in the background :)
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Hi, yeah, male in the tank and thought I'd seen fry before but must have been eaten by the other fish v.quickly. It does look like shes pregnant again, not too sure if the trauma will have any effect on the fry. I believe they only mate in ideal water conditions, so assuming I'm doing something right.
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Males no doubt get a headache if the water isn’t good. ;)
But females store sperm for half a dozen or more future batches of fry.