Tank Info:
I have a 5.5 gallon freshwater tank that was set up 4 weeks ago. It's filtered and heated to 80-82 degrees with a fluorescent light about 8 hours per day. There are no live plants, and the fish eat a bit of flake food 1-2 times per day. The water is local tap water treated with Prime and left to sit overnight before adding. I used tetra safestart and some stuff from a friend's already cycled tank filter. I've been changing 10-20% of the water once a week. The LFS tested the water a couple times using the API liquid test kit and said they found no problems, but I don't know what their exact numbers were. I have a API liquid ammonia only test and that's been reading essentially zero (yellow color result).
Problem / Emergency:
I started with one swordtail (about 1") and one platy (about 1/2-3/4"). From the start, I noticed that one of the swordtail's pectoral fins looked a little frayed at the edge, and it had a white-ish color. About a week ago, it started swimming slower and a little wobbly- and it was continuously opening and closing it's mouth. The next day it was worse and the fish died that day.
Over the past week, the Platy has been fine- but today I see that he now suddenly has the same kind of white-ish color, etc. on one of his pectoral fins. He is still acting normal at this point.
Now I'm afraid that he's going to have the same thing happen! I don't know if this is a fungus, parasite, or bacteria problem. Can anyone help or suggest something I can do to help try to save this fish? Thank you.
I have a 5.5 gallon freshwater tank that was set up 4 weeks ago. It's filtered and heated to 80-82 degrees with a fluorescent light about 8 hours per day. There are no live plants, and the fish eat a bit of flake food 1-2 times per day. The water is local tap water treated with Prime and left to sit overnight before adding. I used tetra safestart and some stuff from a friend's already cycled tank filter. I've been changing 10-20% of the water once a week. The LFS tested the water a couple times using the API liquid test kit and said they found no problems, but I don't know what their exact numbers were. I have a API liquid ammonia only test and that's been reading essentially zero (yellow color result).
Problem / Emergency:
I started with one swordtail (about 1") and one platy (about 1/2-3/4"). From the start, I noticed that one of the swordtail's pectoral fins looked a little frayed at the edge, and it had a white-ish color. About a week ago, it started swimming slower and a little wobbly- and it was continuously opening and closing it's mouth. The next day it was worse and the fish died that day.
Over the past week, the Platy has been fine- but today I see that he now suddenly has the same kind of white-ish color, etc. on one of his pectoral fins. He is still acting normal at this point.
Now I'm afraid that he's going to have the same thing happen! I don't know if this is a fungus, parasite, or bacteria problem. Can anyone help or suggest something I can do to help try to save this fish? Thank you.
