The swordtail fish is a popular freshwater tropical aquarium species. They are often used as beginner fish because they are easy to care for. Similarly, they are hardy creatures and can tolerate a wide range of temperatures. You might think that these features make swordtail fish immune to fish diseases. But swordtail fish are delicate fish and need proper care. If you do not take adequate care of your swordtail fish, they will suffer from various deadly diseases.
Some of the common diseases in Swordtail fish are shimmies, skinny disease, cottonmouth, fin and tail rot, and Ich. Other problems include swim bladder issues, bulging eyes, velvet disease, etc.
Some infections can infect swordtail fish like Worms, Fungus, Gill Flukes, and Camallanus.
If you have swordtail fish, you need to keep a close eye on these diseases. This blog post will be the ultimate guide for you to identify the various swordtail fish diseases along with their symptoms and treatment.
Signs Of A Healthy Swordtail Fish
We love our pets and want them to stay healthy in the environment we provide for them. Before we get on to the clinical signs of illness in your swordtail, it is important to be familiar with the symptoms of a healthy fish.
Following are the characteristics of a healthy fish:
- Swims all around the tank freely
- The fish are active and attentive
- Fins and tails are erect and flowing
- The body looks healthy, well-filled abdomen
- Good appetite
- Good gill function
- Bright body coloration
If you see the following characteristics in your swordtail fish, they are in excellent condition, and you should consider yourself a proud pet parent.
Signs Of A Sick Swordtail Fish
Before you identify particular diseases in swordtail fish, you must be able to locate an unhealthy fish. Swordtail fish, in fact, most fish show general symptoms of the disorders at the beginning.
Therefore, if your swordtail fish exhibit the following behaviors, know that they are unhappy and maybe unhealthy.
- Loss of appetite
- Weakness and inactiveness
- Loss of buoyancy, floating sideways or upside down, staying at the bottom of the tank.
- Erratic/spiral swimming
- Staying alone in a corner, distancing itself from other fish in the tank
- Staying near the surface, gasping for air
- Labored breathing
- Scratching themselves against tank glass or other objects
- Clamped fins
These behavioral changes are clues that your swordtail fish might be ill. The signs mentioned above are early signs of diseases. Therefore, before identifying a particular symptom of an illness, check on your fish for these symptoms to get early treatment and prevention from fatal diseases.
Common Diseases In Swordtail Fish, Their Symptoms, And Treatment
Once you identify primary early symptoms, look for the signs of the following diseases. Below is an elaborative list of aquarium diseases that attacks freshwater fish like the swordtails:
Shimmies
Shimmies or shimmying is a symptom rather than a single specific disease. It can therefore occur alongside other symptoms associated with stress and water chemistry problems. For example, you can identify shimmying by the abnormal moving of swordtail fish.
Shimmies manifest in affected fish exhibiting behavioral changes like erratic and spiral swimming addition, g. Shimmies are an indication that your fish no longer has proper control of its nerves and muscles.
Cause
Poor water condition is the primary cause of this symptom in swordtail fish. Although livebearers like swordtails, guppies, and mollies are known to tolerate a wide range of water conditions, too high of a temperature and soft acidic water are dangerous for them.
Symptom
Shimmying is itself a symptom and not a particular disease. You can identify Shimmying as follows:
- Behavioral changes like rocking from side to side; swimming erratically; or in circles
- Some may twitch, vibrate, or shake their bodies and heads violently
- Labored breathing
- Production of mucus on the body
- Clamped fins
- Sitting inactively in the corner, etc.
Treatment
You cannot treat Shimmying until you find the root of the problem and maintain it. We know that shimmying is caused by bad water conditions like low temperature, ph, or alkalinity. So the first step to treating swordtail fish is to do a thorough test of the chemistry of the aquarium water.
You can then go on to fixing the detected problem, starting with changing the water. But, again, do gradual changes and keep the temperature constant to 75-80 degrees Fahrenheit.
If you cannot fix the temperatures, other treatment methods are the addition of livebearer salts or antibiotic injections.
Prevention
The best way to prevent any fish disease is to maintain the tank environment for your swordtail fish. Since shimmying is specifically caused by poor water conditions, regularly change and check your water.
25% water change every two weeks is the best way to keep the water conditioned and the fish healthy. Water changes will help you get rid of the pollutants build up in the tank. If, in some cases, it doesn’t, you can treat your water with antibacterial medications like Metronidazole.
Wasting Disease Or Skinny Disease
Skinny Disease is one of the most common diseases in livebearers. As the name suggests, Waa sting disease makes the fish lean, and the organs start to weaken and not function properly.
A typical case of wasting sickness is when you buy 20 fish, and after a month, five of them appear to be very slim while the others seem to be okay. Those five fish eventually die, and then a few months later, you notice five more fish are getting thinner and starting to die one by one.
Causes
This disease is usually caused by internal parasites like tapeworms or other types of worms. Apart from that, poor diet, stress, and lack of nutrition cause this problem.
Symptoms
The visible symptoms are:
- Loss of appetite
- Rapid weight loss
- Stringy poop
- Damaged fins and tails
- Development of sores
- Organ damage, etc.
Treatment
It would help if you started by quarantining your infected fish in the well-conditioned tank. Then treat the water with Melafix for bacterial infections, which will also help clear any open sores or wounds.
Then, it is vital to treat the fish with Parasite Clear that helps your fish get rid of the internal parasites.
Feed your swordtails with a properly balanced diet, in addition to vitamin A and C and potassium tablets to promote the healthy growth of the fish.
If nothing else works, it is probably too late to save your pet, so the only humane thing to do is euthanize it.
Prevention
Since internal parasites like tapeworms cause skinny diseases, you should do all those things to prevent worms or parasites in the fish to prevent the disease.
Always feed your fish quality flake foods or pellets or properly blanched vegetables and proteins not to contract parasites.
Make sure your fish does not consume debris and residues like dead fish.
Ich Or White Spots
Ich in swordtail fish is caused by ciliated protozoans of the genus Ichthyophthirius, often known as “white spot illness.”
White Spots can develop quickly; most infections appear within 12 hours of the fish being exposed to Ichthyophthirius.
An ich infection causes little white spots to form on the body and fins, which gradually grow in size as other parasites cover them.
When a spot grows larger than one millimeter in diameter, it can no longer retain zoospores and bursts, releasing the parasites into the water to infect other fish.
Causes
The leading cause of Ich is the protozoan parasite Ichthyophthirius. An overpopulation of free-swimming larvae causes Ich that attach themselves to the skin of your swordtail and start feeding on it.
Other causes are immune stress and sudden change in water temperatures.
Symptoms
The symptoms of Ich are:
- White Spots all over the surface
- Difficulty swallowing
- Weight loss through loss of appetite
- Swimming strange
- Labored breathing due to damaged or covered gills by the parasites
- Gasping for air at the surface
- Mucus production on the body
Treatment
It is important to identify and treat the white spot disease as soon as possible because the Ich parasite isis likely to multiply and start entering and feeding on tissues that can cause fish death.
The best way to treat Ich is to isolate the infected fish as Ich parasites are contagious and might attack other fish. Make sure the water temperature is appropriate, and remove any other carbon or ammonia chemicals. Raise the temperature to 85 degrees
After that, introduce your fish to salt baths to kill the parasites developing in the fish’s body.
The best medicines for the treatment of Ich are unionized salt
Prevention
Ich is usually caused when you bring the new addition to your tank, which might be infected. So, before adding new plants or new fish to your main tank, make sure to quarantine them for a week or two.
Similarly, take care of the water conditions so that the fish isn’t stressed, weak, and vulnerable.
Use proper filtration or do regular water changes to keep your tank water free from toxins like ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates.
Dropsy
Dropsy is known as the “aquarium plague.” This disease has a wide range of symptoms and is difficult to identify without a thorough understanding of fish diseases in general. You might be confused whether your swordtail fish is fat or pregnant, courtesy to Dropsy.
Fish suffering from dropsy have protruding scales and may roll over, making it difficult for them to swim freely.
The scales may also turn discolored, and the belly may swell. Furthermore, Dropsy can cause secondary infections, making it more difficult for your fish to fight infection and recover from it.
Dropsy causes the scales on the fish’s body to stick up like pins on a pin cushion, which can be pretty deadly if the fish can’t swim away.
Causes
Generally, internal organ failure of the kidneys or liver causes this disease, but a heart problem can also cause it.
Internal bacterial infections cause organ failure in swordtail fish, causing the organs to fill with fluid and bloat.
The failure occurs due to an imbalance in water quality, ammonia or nitrite spikes, and improper nutrition.
Symptoms
- Swollen belly
- Scales stick up like a pinecone
- Bulging eyes
- Pale gills
- Curved spines
- Stringy poop
Treatment
Move the fish to an isolation tank immediately for easy and undisturbed recovery. This also helps prevent the transmission of disease.
Similarly, adding salt to the water in the tank can be soothing. Low levels of salt in the water help get rid of the accumulated water in the body through osmosis.
Treat your fish with antibiotics, either by adding them to food or directly in the tank water. Maracyn-Two is one of the highly recommended medicine.
Prevention
Prevention of dropsy is similar to prevention methods of almost all livebearer diseases. The preventive measures are to test the water regularly to ensure a healthy environment for your fish.
Regular water changes and cleanliness of the tank are very crucial.
Moreover, do not tend to overfeed your fish out of love and use high-quality flake foods.
Swim Bladder Disease
Swim bladder disease is when a fish’s swim bladder expands, distorts, or becomes incapable of holding air.
As a result of this condition, the fish will be unable to hold its body upright and may sink to the aquarium’s bottom until enough air pumps out to allow it to balance itself.
Fish will appear to be swimming on their sides rather than upright. In addition, because they suffocate inside their bodies, they will appear lethargic or despondent and float to the surface for air.
Cause
The specific cause of the disease is unknown. However, it’s assumed to be linked to nutrition or the environment.
It is usually caused by compression of swim bladders in swordtail fish that help to keep the fish buoyant in the water.
Symptoms
The symptoms of swim bladder disease are:
- Sunken abdomen caused by compressed swim bladders
- Inability to maintain a proper upright position in the water
- Sinking at the bottom of the tank
- Lethargy
- Loss of coloration due to lack of oxygen, etc.
Treatment
This sickness will necessitate quick medical assistance for the affected fish. Antibiotics, on the other hand, will not cure it.
To help the swim bladder restore to the standard size, the owner might add salt or Epsom salts to the aquarium water.
If this doesn’t work, your fish may require surgery if your fish is in good enough condition to undergo the procedure.
The doctor will need to cut a piece of the dorsal fin and implant it into the entrance of the swim bladder, which is attached to the spine so that when you fit her, it can take in air. Then, the fin will be forced out, hopefully creating enough strain to push on the swim bladder.
If all else fails, euthanasia may be required, depending on how badly your fish has deteriorated.
Prevention
Poor water conditions are a simple reason for infections in fish. Keeping the tank clean and regular water changes will prevent swim bladder disorder in swordtail fish.
Moreover, it is crucial to keep water temperature a bit higher as this will help digestion and avoid constipation, another possible cause of swim bladder disorder.
Likewise, feed them high-quality food and avoid over-feeding at all costs.
Columnaris Or Cotton Mouth Disease
Columnaris is a prominent disease in freshwater fish species which is caused by an infection of gram-negative bacteria. These bacterias are present in freshwater and are fatal if left untreated.
A wool-like formation can identify the disease in the mouth of the fish. Fish that are stressed by poor living conditions are more susceptible to cotton mouth disease.
Cause
Cottonmouth disease is caused by a bacterium called Flavobacterium columnare.
These bacteria can enter the fish via the mouth and open sores on the skin and gills.
Symptoms
Common symptoms of Columnaris are as follows:
- Wool or cotton-like formation on the mouth
- Ragged and damaged fins
- Ulcer formation on the skin
- Accumulation of mucus in the body
- Lethargy
- Rapid labored breathing
Treatment
The few treatment options for columnaris in swordtail fish include antibiotics. You can treat your fish using antibiotics like Nitrofurazone.
Similarly, running a bath with salt, potassium, or methylene blues helps treat such infections.
If your fish has cotton mouth symptoms, try maintaining the temperature to almost 75 degrees Fahrenheit.
Prevention
To prevent cottonmouth disease, make sure your water is not infected through regular cleanup and maintenance. Similarly, feeding good quality medicated food can prevent cottonmouth disease.
Since bacteria cause cotton mouth disease, try all possible ways to keep your tank water and your fish far from the bacteria.
Fin And Tail Rot
As the name suggests, if your swordtail fish suffer from damage or wounds in fins and tail causing them to rot or decay, they have fin and tail rot disease. It is a bacterial disease that causes ulcers. It typically affects young fish under four months old.
Causes
Fin rot is usually caused by Aeromonas, Pseudomonas, or Vibrio bacteria.
Different species of bacteria cause fin and tail rot, but the primary cause is environmental and related to stress.
Overcrowding, constant movement, aggressive tank mates are significant causes of tail or fin rot.
Symptoms
Some common symptoms of fin and tail rot are:
- Discoloration on the edges of fins and tail
- Fraying of tail and fins
- Falling off of small pieces of tail and fins
- Fins are shorter due to falling
- Cotton Mouth can be seen
Treatment
Fins and tail rot might be the most common diseases in freshwater fish, but they are also the most curable and preventable diseases.
Fin rot disease is easy to treat. Several antibiotics are effective in treating the disease. However, the primary treatment is to address the underlying cause behind your fish contracting this disease.
Use high-quality food, and take notes of the food content as it loses nutrients once opened. Similarly, check the temperature, pH, and alkalinity and change the water if necessary.
Treatment with a drug that is effective against gram-negative bacteria is preferred, but only under your vet’s supervision.
A salt bath is another reliable method to treat fin rot diseases in swordtail fish.
Prevention
Like all bacterial diseases, good aquarium maintenance is the best prevention against fin and tail rot.
Change the water regularly (25% every two weeks), vacuuming the substrate, filtering water, clean, and removing algae, debris, and residue are the essential preventive measures of fin and tail rot.
Similarly, do not overcrowd your tank and keep your swordtails with compatible peaceful tank mates to reduce aggression and fighting. Swordtail fish are fin nippers. Fin-nipping can be a measure cause of fin rot, and you should avoid it.
Velvet Disease Or Oodinium
Velvet disease is a condition seen in most fish, which you can characterize by yellow, dusty, velvety patches on the fish’s skin.
Oodinium is a common disease in fish, and it usually develops when the immune system is weakened. The signs and symptoms of velvet include a loss of appetite, flashing (rubbing against rocks/decor), and excessive mucus production induced by scratching.
Cause
The causative agent of the disease is a protozoan: Oodinium pillars that attack ornamental fish like the swordtails.
Other causes include abrupt changes in water temperature, the introduction of un-quarantined fish in the tank, infected aquarium plants, etc.
Symptoms
The symptoms of the disease are;
- Behavioral changes like twitching, scratching, etc.
- Dusty and velvety patches on the body
- Excess mucus production
- Opaque eyes
- Ulcers in skin
Treatment
The most effective treatment of oodinium is the use of copper, however, if. If your fish turns out to be sensitive, Epsom salts, potassium, and methylene blue can be the best alternatives.
Likewise, to weaken the parasite, try covering the aquarium and preventing photosynthesis from preventing the growth of these parasites.
Increasing the temperature of the water can also help with the treatment.
Prevention
Identification of the cause of the disease is an effective way to prevent it. Since the disease attacks swordtails when they have weak immunity or are stressed, so make sure your swordtails are happy and healthy so that they get immune from such stress-induced disorders.
Pay proper attention to the water parameters and keep them balanced. Provide your fish with a healthy diet with essential nutrition.
Further, quarantine all new plants and fish before adding them to your primary tank.
Fungal Infection
When fish live in bad conditions, such as overpopulation, fungal infections in swordtail fish are common. It can attack their fins and skin as well as any other part of their body. Fungal infections in fish have causes, symptoms, and treatments.
Causes
Fungal growth is of many kinds. The various fungal infection affects freshwater fish species. They typically appear as furry growths on fish, but they can also be internal.
The leading cause of fungal infections is infected food, imbalanced water conditions, and open wounds.
Symptoms
The symptoms that showcase your fish has contracted a fungal infection are:
- Loss of appetite
- Lethargy and weakness
- Fins are frayed. It looks like they have been nibbled by something such as snails or other fish.
- They will eventually turn from a healthy white to an opaque color before turning red/pink/brown.
- Skin is covered in spores that resemble cotton.
- Brownish red or white cotton-like patches on the body and fins.
Treatment
Although treating fungus in swordtail fish is challenging since it can be lethal after it has progressed to the second stage, there are techniques to lessen the severity of the infection.
First, get a quarantine tank and move all diseased fish into it so that other healthy fish in their regular tank is not affected.
Second, stop taking the drug right once because some prescriptions can worsen fungal infections or even lead to secondary infections.
Only feed them a high-quality diet of brine shrimp and Mysis, which are both easily digestible by fish, especially if they have a fungal infection that makes them lose their appetite.
Improve their water quality so that they can swim in clean, filtered water.
Some effective medicines you can use are Tetracycline or Chloromycetin.
Prevention
One of the primary ways to control fungal infection in swordtail fish is to care for open wounds or broken fins and tails. Open and sore wounds are prominent causes of diseases, so make sure to mend those.
Balance the pH and temperature, so the fungus does not grow and reproduce. Keep feeding your swordtail fish with a nutritious diet to keep them strong and fight off the fungi feeding of them.
You have to be careful and patient with the cleanliness of your fish and the tank they live in.
Gill Flukes
Gill flukes are tiny parasites that attach to your fish’s skin. They prefer staying on the gills of your fish and reproduce there. Unfortunately, this causes severe breathing problems in your swordtails.
They can be deadly if not treated early on. In addition, this will cause wounds and sores, making your swordtail vulnerable to other infections.
Causes
Unhealthy fish are more prone to diseases as they cannot fight them off. Poor tank conditions are the primary cause of the problem, along with the ammonia spike-up.
Symptoms
The symptoms of gill fluke are:
- Damaged gills
- Gasping for air at the surface of the tank
- Mucus secretion all over the body
- Flukes make your swordtail itchy, so you will see them scraping themselves against aquarium objects.
- Wound and ulcers in fish’s gills and skin
Treatment
Treatment of gill fluke is not a big deal-it’s relatively easy as long as you do it early. Treating fish separately is recommended as treating the whole tank might affect your plants and other healthy fish.
There are many anti-fluke medications found in pet stores. Similarly, exposing the flukes to a salt bath is an excellent way of killing them.
Prevention
Proper maintenance of tank water conditions is the primary way to prevent gill flukes and the majority of fish diseases.
Keep your tanks clean to ensure that your swordtail can resist infections. Quarantine a new fish before adding it to the tank, Access water quality with regular testing of pH and temperature.
Likewise, provide your swordtail fish with quality food constituting an omnivorous diet. Most importantly, reduce stress in your swordtail fish.
Camallanus Worm Infection
Camallanus worms are among the most commonly encountered internal parasites for aquarium fish and may infect a wide range of fish species.
Causes
Camallanus worms are themselves the cause that affects the swordtail fish. There are numerous species of Camallanus worms and are found in different hosts.
Symptoms
Prominent symptoms to identify the worm infection are:
- Thread-like worms emerging from the anus
- Abdominal bloating
- Wasting
- Loss of appetite
- Swimming in circles
- Discomfort
Treatment
There are numerous medication options for treating Camallanus worms in fish, including fenbendazole, levamisole, and praziquantel. Unfortunately, these help to paralyze the worm, and your swordtail can efficiently excrete them out.
Similarly, antihelminthic medications are usually progressive in treating such infections. However, they can be toxic to other fish, shrimp, and snails. So make sure to quarantine your infected fish before introducing medications.
Prevention
Clean tanks, proper diet, and clear toxin-free water are vital to prevent worm or parasite infections in aquarium fish.
Feeding crustaceans to your swordtail fish might lead to Camallanus worm infection, so make sure to provide home-bred rich quality food to your fish.
Viral Haemorrhagic Septicaemia (VHS)
VHS is a common virus among aquarium fish, and it can be fatal if left untreated. It causes high mortalities and severely affects production.
Causes
The causative agent of VHS is a novirhabdovirus. The hemorrhage is evident in eyes, skin, skeletal and intestinal muscle.
Symptoms:
Some visible symptoms of VHS are:
- A loss of appetite
- Fish are stressed out or swim erratically when they have the infection because it makes them feel very uncomfortable inside their bodies.
- Eventually, you will notice small red spots on the skin which look like blood under the scales.
- Bulging eye
- Dark body coloration
Treatment
There is no specific treatment or cure for VHS. The virus is transmitted through diseased fish, by non-symptomatic carriers, plants or tank equipment.
If you identify VHS, you can use some drugs for treatment including oxytetracycline, and other antibiotics.
Prevention
It is important to prevent un-quarantined fish and even new plant or equipment addition in the tank.
Always keep the tank water well-conditioned and take proper care of the fish’s diet.
Pop Eye Or Bulging Of Eyes
An infection causes the condition known as popeye in swordtail fish in the eye. If left untreated, eyes swell and might bulge out of their sockets.
As time goes on, this will weaken your fish’s vision to the point that it will be difficult to perceive food or obstacles in its path.
The first sign of popeye is usually a hazy bump on the eye’s surface, but if left untreated, it can soon proceed to bulge eyeballs.
Bacteria and parasites and fluid build-up due to stress or other disorders like dropsy can cause popeye in fish. The best course of action is to consult with an experienced fish veterinarian.
Causes
There are various causes of bulging eyes in swordtail fish. If only one eye is affected, it might result from an injury rather than a disease.
The causative agent of popeye is infection through bacteria, fungi, and parasites.
Internal problems like kidney failure the fluid build-up can be other causes of popeye disease in swordtails.
Treatment
Putting your fish in a bath with an antibiotic solution is one technique to treat Popeye fast.
During treatment, make sure to change one-quarter of the water every day and only treat for three to five days.
If your fish isn’t eating, force-feed it and keep an eye on its water to ensure it doesn’t become polluted as the sickness progresses. Popeye can cause blindness or even death in your fish if left untreated.
However, antibiotics are frequently required for therapy, which can be challenging to obtain from a regular fish veterinarian.
Prevention
Many different factors cause diseases like popeye in swordtail fish, so there is no one-size-fits-all solution for preventing it.
You will reduce chances of Popeye striking if you maintain the tank conditions, change water partially, and provide nutritional food.
To assist tip the scales in your favor, keep an eye on the tank water chemistry and look for signs of disease in your fish daily.
Popeye is unlikely to occur if you perform primary care rigorously. And even if it happens, it is unlikely to be lethal.
These are some of the diseases that swordtail fish are prone to, along with their specific causes, symptoms, treatment, and preventive measures.
How Can You Keep Your Swordtail Fish Disease-Free?
You may have observed that most of the preventive measures are the same as you taught about diseases in swordtail fish and their treatment and prevention. These are the most crucial rules to follow if you want your swordtail fish to be healthy and free of diseases and stress.
Maintain Water Parameters
To avoid diseases or infections in your swordtail fish, you should keep the water parameters in check and test them regularly.
Ammonia toxicity, excessive nitrates, and low oxygen levels induce polluted tanks. As a result, ensure sure your tank has a robust filtering system as well as sufficient water circulation.
Balanced Diet
Because a well-fed fish is more resistant to infections and stress than one that is malnourished, you should feed it high-quality food in modest amounts many times daily.
Remove Dead Fish And Eliminate Stress
Remove any dead or dying swordtails from your tank as soon as possible.
You can identify stress in swordtail fish if it doesn’t eat properly. Similarly, they are also stressed if it hangs out near the tank’s surface, it is an
As a result, you must pay close attention to its behavior and remove any stressed fish as soon as possible.
Arrange Quarantine Tank For New Swordtail Fish Addition Or Sick Fish Treatment
You must not introduce any new fish in the tank right away. If you want to add fresh fish, they must be free of any or all infections.
As a result, you’ll need to set up a quarantine tank for them. A separate tank will help to prevent the diseases from spreading to other swordtail fish.
You will also be able to study their behavior and determine whether or not they are regularly eating.
Inspect Your Swordtail Tank Regularly And Seek A Vet
Check your tank for symptoms of sickness and infection regularly.
If you notice anything unusual in your fish, you should consult a veterinarian right away. That you can correctly identify and diagnose the problem without causing further harm.
With proper treatment and prevention, you could save a dying swordtail fish.
Conclusion
Finally, it’s critical to keep your aquarium clean and regularly maintain optimal water parameters, feeding schedules, and tank inspections. It will also aid in the prevention of illnesses and promote healthy growth in your fish.
If you see any signs of diseases or infections in your swordtail fish, consult a veterinarian as soon as possible so they can treat it before it becomes worse.
We hope you have found our blog to be informative and entertaining.
