Velvet Swordtail sick

[XxlOaF]

One of our female swordtails have been acting very weird lately, just sitting on the bottem with her mouth sort of gulping it looks like. I didnt have a Q tank so I just kept her in there and hoped she would get better, but today we look in the tank and shes a lot worse.

Shes still on the bottem sort of swimming around but it looks like her scales are falling off, just white spots where it used to be orange/red with scales. Im not really sure what to do with her, I took her out of the tank and put her in her own little bowl for now so if she has something the other fish dont get it.

The rest of the fish are perfectly fine. Befor you ask for water paramater...I dont have any test kits, none of our local LFS has any master test kits and havent gotten to ordering one online. But I do weekly water changes, probably about 45% or so.

What do you guys think?

 

[Mako]

Hard to tell, but it's certainly being attacked by something, likely a bacteria. Keep a close eye on the other fish. Feed very lightly. Keep aeration and filtration full-speed. If you have only livebearers, add one tsp of salt per gallon -- I use regular cheap uniodized salt from Wal-Mart. Add it over the course of the next two days for safety. Livebearers seem to respond well to salt, though it won't stop a bacterial problem more than likely. Just makes things more comfortable for the fish.

As soon as you can, test the pH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Something's weakening the fish so it can be attacked, more than likely. Swords prefer an alkaline pH between 7.2 and 8.2. Ammonia and nitrite should be 0 and nitrate sub 40 ppm.