Hi Freya,
It sounds like your Sword tail had a parasite of some form, not
sure which one though , but would look at keeping eye on where
you getting your fish from, you may need to get something like
methyl blue and set up a small quarantine tank so you can dose
sickly fish, but use a small box filter with no carbon in it or
it will just remove effects of medication ,
hope this is helpful, good luck with your fishkeeping ,
Andy
--- In tropicalaquaria@..., "freyashephard
<freyashephard@y...>" <freyashephard@y...> wrote:
> Help, one of my female swordtails died yesterday.
> My tank is new, 125L, nitrate levels are ok (0.5ppm), 25 degrees. I
> introduced 5 zebra danios 1 week after set up, then 2 female
> swordtails & 1 male swordtail 1 week later.
> On Wed morning I noticed one of the female swordtails didn't eat,
by
> Wed evening she was sluggish and spent most of her time hovering by
> the filter (at ~45 degrees at various depths). I noticed she had 2
> white patches on her back, ~2mm diamater. She didn't eat again Wed
> night. Thurs morning she seemed a bit more lively but didn't really
> eat. By Thurs evening she was again just hovering near the filter
and
> she had rapid gill movements. Over 30mins - 1hour she swam
> occasionally very skittishly. Then 1 of the white patches on her
back
> turned red and she had about 5-10 mins of swimming uncontrollably
> (backwards, upside-down etc) until she finally came to rest on a
> piece of wood.
> Is this likely to be an infection that will affect the whole tank
(do
> I need to get some treatment). None of the other fishes seem
affected
> yet but the other female swordtail did start hovering near the
filter
> yesterday evening, she's still eating fine though.
> Help! Can I prevent this happening to the other fish?