Swordtail strange behavior...Help!!

[thall44]

I have a male and female swordtails in a tank togeather. I am fimilar with mollies behavior when they are pregnant. My femail swordtail hasn't eaten in the last 36 hrs or so she is kind of hiding in the corner and laying at the bottom of the tank. I wonder is she pregnant as she is showing similar signs to my molly when the molly was pregnant or could she be sick??

[thall44]

I can give more info if needed...ie recent stress or water peramiaters

[dizzydezzy]

Not eating and hiding are normal symptoms for a livebearer that is about to give birth, but laying on the bottom is a bad sign, usually means a disease, high stress levels or problems with water quality.

How long have you had the tank going? What are the water parameters? Has there been any agression in the tank, especially towards the female that is showing those symptoms?

[thall44]

first of all it's not really laying more like hovering over the gravel....the only agression i have seen is the male fallows her but little to no nipping and abosoutly no fin damage so i figured it was mating. i used the swordtails to in fish cycle a tank a couple months ago but then moved them after the cycle to a larger tank that has been established for over 2 yrs her color is good and seemed fine untill about 2 days ago now the male is leaving her alone the perameters are as fallows ammonia .5 ppm nitrite 0-10ppm nitrate0-.5 ppm gh 25-75 kinda soft but normal for my tank chlorine 0 ppm; kh 50 ppm; ph 6.8 kinda acidic but again normal for my local water quality.

[Goes to 11!]

Is having ammonia and TrItes typical for your tanks water quality?

[Cliff]

Sounds like your using test strips, nitrite 0 to 10ppm is quite a large range considering it can start to become toxic at 0.5ppm

Even if you water supply has up to 1 ppm of ammoina in it, your bacteria should be able to handle the ammoina introducted by a water changes in 12 hours or so. If you are maintaining 0.5ppm of ammonia in your tank with potentially high nitrites, I would think the tank is not cycled and could be causing the odd behaviors in your fish

[thall44]

well my test kit is thoses colored things that change in water so i compair to the chart and yes the colors have stayed consistant for months i do water changes once evey week for a while if i change anything like adding new fish but normally i do wc every two weeks

[thall44]

i'm judging on slight color changes it is between 0-.5 ammonia

[Goes to 11!]

What percentage WC do you do every 2 weeks?

[thall44]

i could get my water tested by my local store and get more accurate readings
i have a test kit but is is cheep so it's more of rough estamates instead of great readings

[thall44]

i do 20-30% when i change water

[thall44]

i do have a qt tank and a breeding net i could seperate her i'd put her in the net alone in the qt for awhile and see if she gives birth or gets sicker...if she gives birth pull her out of the net and let her destress in the qt for a few days if she gets sicker or shows other symptoms i can again let her out of the net and treat her