Why Can't I Keep Swords?

[Mikaila31]

Apparently I can't keep Swordtails and it has been driving me crazy. I spent quiet a bit shipping some albino koi swordtails . I bought a trio and one gave birth to some fry shortly after I got her. I then lost one male and female suddenly. I found some locally and was able to get a few more. I have in total one adult female and 6-7 juvinials. I bought two new fish to go in the tank with them(rainbows). Then a few weeks later I lost a juvi and all the other had clamped fins and where flicking. The two rainbows I had bought are still healthy. There were no water quality issues. They are being treated with a parasite med and are very slowly recovering. I have had nothing but problem after problem with these fish. I am hoping to breed them and it has been a couple months, but absolutely no fry. There is one male in the tank, he is young but quite old enough to breed. They are in a bare bottom tank and get lots of water changes and good food. The only thing I can think of is that I have read that they like hard water. Is this true? I have soft water, but is this really going to cause all these problems I am having.

 

[kribensis12]

maybe they are too inbreed wherever your getting them from. The one in Peoria Illinois are perfectly fine. I never have issues.

 

[Mikaila31]

Well the first trio I bought came from a aquabid seller in California. One of the females gave birth and I have about 5 of her fry left. The other two I go from a shop in Minnesota, the shop said they came in locally. So I doubt they are related to the rest of mine. They are all having problems. They could all be inbred, since I have no way of telling.

 

[Colin_T]

livebearers do better in hard alkaline water but if the local bred ones are in soft water then they should be fine. Hard water will reduce the problems with bacterial infections.

The clamped fins and flicking is a disease and if not treated properly it will kill them.

I'm not sure why you have them in a bare bottom tank but most people keep them in a normal planted tank with gravel and lots of plants, particularly floating plants. This gives the young a place to hide when they are born.

 

[Mikaila31]

The shop I got the other two from is really an hour away from my house and technically in a different state. I will call the shop tomorrow and ask them what there water is like. Also would it be a good or bad idea to try to make the water harder? we have a water softener that all our tap water runs through. I don't know what it is like before it goes through the softener and I don't think I can find out.

I am treating them with Parasite Clear, most have stopped clamping their fins. But I'm thinking I will have to go through another treatment.

They where in a planted tank for a few weeks, then they got sick(ich). I moved them to the quarantine tank and treated them. I lost 2 of the original ones. The rest got better and where better for a while. Then the last original one I had started losing its scales, I have never had that happen before. I treated them again and they all got better. They where healthy for over a month and I was going to move them to my 55gal tank. Then they all got sick again with the flicking and clamped fins . They have some fake caves and plants in the tank. So far keeping these guys alive is harder than raising rainbow fry.

 

[Colin_T]

it wouldn't hurt to make their water a bit harder. I use Aquasonic Rift Lake conditioner at a half dose rate for rainbowfish and livebearers. Aquasonic also does a livebearer conditioner but it has too much salt in for the catfish in my tanks. The rift lake conditioner has more magnesium and calcium.

The ich/ whitespot is brought about by stress. Most commonly in winter when water changes are done and the new water is significantly colder than the tank water. The temperature of the tank drops and the fish get spots. It can also be brought about by new fish being introduced into the tank or agression. However, swordtails aren't normally that agressive.

Adding some salt to the tank will help with the parasites and might make things a bit better. Keep some salt in the water for a month or so and then slowly reduce the amount. You can use rock/ swimming pool salt, or sea salt. Pool salt is cheaper and works fine. Don't use salt if you have corydoras in the tank.

This is going to sound like a silly question but I gather the water is ok. There is no ammonia, nitrite or major levels of nitrate in the tank water. And the temperature is around 24C. I'm guessing it is but I just want to make sure. I have seen a few posts lately about faulty thermometers. Once the themometers were replaced the fish stopped dieing.

Also make sure you don't have carbon in the filter while you are treating as it will remove the medication from the water.

 

[Mikaila31]

I did all the tests I have, except for nitrate.
Amm-0
Nitrite-0
PH-7.6
Phosphate-1ppm
GH-10
Temp-81
nitrate-about 20ppm in tap, and 30% water changes done once a week.

If I am not mistaken, isn't my GH sorta high. So now I'm not really sure if I have hard or soft water. I am treating with the med a second time and I have salt in the tank. I am thinking they have internal and external parasite, the smallest ones are getting thin. A few are flicking, but I don't think it is ich. The med I am using is suppose to treat a wide range of internal and external parasites.

 

[Colin_T]

The GH of 10 is fine. It isn't soft but isn't really hard either. Normally 1 GH is about 18ppm. So 10 GH is about 180ppm. Riftlake cichlids from Africa live in hard water with a GH around 400ppm. The Amazon gets below 100ppm. Rainwater has 0ppm of GH.

Livebearers are commonly infected with costia and columnaris. Columnaris appears as a white mouth or lips and over a few days the mouth becomes red and inflammed before getting eaten away by the bacteria.
Costia appears as a grey or silver sheen across the top of the fish. They become irritated and scratch. Go off their food and die.
Waterlife Protozin or Cuprazin should do the job for most things. But any general "broad spectrum fish medication" should also work as well. Run a full course of treatment and see how they do.