Female swordtail - weird tail?

oacason27

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Anyone know why my female swordtail's tail might look like this? I just got these fish a few days ago and she came to me that way. I'm a newbie with these fish but thought it looked a little odd.

20211103_160526.jpg
 
Anyone know why my female swordtail's tail might look like this? I just got these fish a few days ago and she came to me that way. I'm a newbie with these fish but thought it looked a little odd.

View attachment 147096
Either broken when young, or deformed from birth.
I assume it gets about the tank well enough and doesn't miss out, come feeding time?
 
Either broken when young, or deformed from birth.
I assume it gets about the tank well enough and doesn't miss out, come feeding time?
I think if she is happy enough and at least can get some food, you should keep her, and she might grow a little tail back
 
Probably a bacterial or protozoan infection on the tail. Try adding some salt and see if it helps.

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SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt) or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres 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.
 
Either Bruce or Colin is right.
To me it looks more like if it has just grown like this. Well, that can happen from time to time that one will develop like this. Most of the time, they can manage perfectly in a tank. At least, if she's been swimming in a normal way thusfar, that is...
 
Either broken when young, or deformed from birth.
I assume it gets about the tank well enough and doesn't miss out, come feeding time?

She gets around fine. I do think another female is picking on her though. She stays in the back by the heater. I've seen my other big female (same size) chasing her.
 
She gets around fine. I do think another female is picking on her though. She stays in the back by the heater. I've seen my other big female (same size) chasing her.
Fish can be like chickens...any sign of weakness and a fish gets bullied.
The only solution for that is space and lots of live planting for fish to hide amongst and to break up line of sight.
 
Fish can be like chickens...any sign of weakness and a fish gets bullied.
The only solution for that is space and lots of live planting for fish to hide amongst and to break up line of sight.
Thank you for the help. She was out and about the tank this morning. They're in a 75 gallon. She kind of wobbles when she swims, but I also think that she was born like this. She came out to eat and the others left her alone. The tank is live planted with 3 pieces of manzanita and two terra cotta pots for hiding. I might add some more tall plants for additional coverage.
 
That can be a protozoan infection or soft water (shimmies).
Add some salt, it won't hurt but could fix the issue.

I will pick up some aquarium salt. The water here is very hard so it's probably not the soft water issue. However I have multiple species in the tank (2 angels, a few swordtails, tetras and barbs). As well as the live plants. So I don't want it to hurt them. Will it be fine if I do the low dose? None of the others seem to have any issues.
 
The other fishes will be fine with salt. Just start with 1 heaped tablespoon of salt per 20 litres of water. if there's no improvement after 48 hours, then increase the dose to 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres.
 

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