Swordtail with Fading Belly

[fishn00b]

In my 29 gallon aquarium, I have a female Pineapple Swordtail. She seemed to be pregnant a while ago (I used to have a male before he suddenly died) but I can't find the babies if she did have any. Lately she seems to be less active and her fins seem to be closed tightly to her body instead of flowing outward. What really bothers me though is that her stomach, which is a white patch on her had small black dots discoloring it a few days ago. Since then the dots have seemed to lose the black color but give way to complete loss of color all together. It seems to me that she is losing the white color of her stomach in spots and something is eating away at her, but I don't know what to do.

Should I treat her as if she has a parasite, or is this something that they do? I had a Male Lyretail Guppy a few months back that seemed to have the same problem as the swordtail... he eventually died, and I do not want to have the same result with her. I thank you now for all of your help.

Also my pH is around 7, and all the ammonia and nitrates are at 0. If you have any other questions please ask.

[ohGODerin]

what's the temperature? if her fins are clamped and she seems to have trouble swimming normally like you said, it could be something called chilling which would usually affect all fish the tank. maybe even unborn babies? it happens if your heater is broken or the power is accidentally off. if there IS something up with your heater - just turn it on to the correct settings and let it heat up again slowly. if your heater is fine, it could be poisoning.

i'm no expert though, this is just something i read about. maybe you could use a second opinion? also, try posting this in the disease section, too.

good luck with your swordtail, i hope she makes it!!

[fishn00b]

My heater is fine and the temperature is kept at 77-80 degrees. All of the other fish are acting normally and fine.

Today I noticed now that my female swordtail has increased problems. All of the black dots and blank spots have gone away, but on her left side it looks like her scales are pushed outward (two of them near fin) and the blank spot under her belly has also two pushed scales but are now in a blood red color like she has internal bleeding. On her right side there are a few red dots of the same color. She is breathing very fast and heavily also.

I don't know what to do but maybe treat her with Melafix or some sort of parasite medicine maybe... any help would be greatly appreciated because it does not seem like she has much time.

I'll try to post pictures of her problem as soon as possible. Thanks again for all of your help.

[mousey]

Take her out of the tank and keep her away from the other fish.
You can cut the bottom off a plastic bottle, drill a hole thru the top ,insert a piece of wire and hang it in the tank so she keeps warm.
i have seen various fish in pet stores that have white patches arrive on their bodies. i will not buy them as it reminds me of leprosy in people. (It is contagious in humans.)
In neon tetra disease the tetra also loses color in patches and eventually dies. other fish can catch it.
Scales sticking out are a bad sign. Change her water every day in her small quarantine container toi minimize any parasites or what ever.
mouse

[fishn00b]

She doesn't have white patches on her stomach... her stomach is naturally white. Her scales that were out on the left side of her body have since flattened down but the blood patch on her stomach is still there and the black dots seemed to come back. I'm going to pull her out of the tank and put her in a separate bowl right now... but I just need to know what to do to save her if I even can.

Is there any chance of this happening to any of my other fish?

[Josh]

ok well the black 'dots' are probably a sign that she is pregnant, usually in the late part of the pregnancy they show those little black 'dots' by their stomach area, which of course is the fry showing through, the reason they went away was probably because she had some and your other fish, OR her ate the fry =(
They can get pregnant aLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL the time so i would say its at least a 90% chance that those were fry....Now for the other stuff, dont know sorry lol
Except that when their fins stick out like pine cones its a sign of some disease i do forget the name at the moment though....sorry i couldnt be more hlepful.

[fishn00b]

I know what the disease was where her scales stick out like pine cones, but it was only two scales that popped out. And I don't think she can be getting pregnant all the time because the male swordtail died just about a month or so ago. I know the sperm can live inside of her for a while and continuously impregnate her but I don't know if it could last this long. She still seems to be acting normal but she still has that large blood spot on the bottom of her stomach. I just don't understand and I hope that she turns out to be alright. I'll keep my eye out for the fry... hopefully she'll have them because I love her colors and I want another male in the tank .