Sick tuxedo swordtail

Question
QUESTION: I Have A Beautiful Orange Tuxedo Swordtail And A Yellow, White, & Black Stripped One. Both Are Male I thought they were getting along fine. About 2 weeks ago the orange one stopped eating & playing. I noticed the yellow one was swimming backwards in front of the orange one and going up under him as if smelling him. Everywhere the orange one went the yellow was constantly under him or pushing up against him. Now orange won't come out, eat, play or anything. He just floats to a back corner or in the cave and actually seems depressed or something. I do not see any signs of bites, missing scales, cloudy eyes, fin rot, etc... I have treated the tank for ich. What is wrong with my beautiful orange buddy? For now, I have placed yellow in a time out net in the tank to try to give orange a break. Any advice would be great.


ANSWER: It is an aggression issue.  The orange fish will die if you do not separate them.  You can add more fish to the tank potentially more females to help distract the yellow fish.  How big is your tank? and how often and what do you feed them and how much do you feed them?  dave

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QUESTION: I have a ten gallon tank since this is my first tank.  In the tank there are as follows: 1 snail, 3 rosy barbs, 2 tetras, 1 cherry barb, 2 red-eye tetras(?), and the 2 tuxedo swordtails.  What do I do with the yellow swordtail as I do not have a separate tank to put him in?  I put in the time-out net in the tank and the next morning one of the gray red-eyes had managed to jump in the net with him.  I scooted him out and later the yellow found his own way out back into the tank. Please advise.  Thanks for your help already.

ANSWER: how is the sick swordtail???? You can add more decorations to the tank so the wearer swordtail can hide... you can add more swordtails maybe 3-4 females... so the yellow one has something else to harass... you could feed them more since food is sometimes the cause of aggression... happy content fish don't fight??? maybe... dave

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QUESTION: I would love to add more fish to the tank, but I already have 10 + a snail in a 10 gallon.  I am planning to get another larger tank once I have this guys straightened out.  I put a divider in the tank, then put the yellow one and another overly bossy rosy barb behind a few minutes later the yellow was back in the main tank.  The orange one literally sat & starred at the divider until he figured out a way to jump across it.  Sure enough he did and seemed to miss the yellow swordtail.  Go figure!!  The same type of thing happened with the other rosy barbs.  They were freaking out until I put "Penelope" behind the divider with "Big Boy" & a few minutes later "Roscoe"  jumped over the divider to join the other 2 barbs. After a while he jumped back over the divider and actually seemed concerned about Big Boy when I finally let him out.  These are somewhat strange little creatures.  The Orange is still mopping around in corners, logs, whatever he can hide behind.  I gave them some freeze dried blood worms, then he come out for a few seconds to test them out and went right back into his log.  He will nibble at a little food now & then.  Is it possible he has a bacterial infection - something I have read about on the internet & in a package of Coppersafe.  If so, can I mix the Maracyn-Two in the tank with the copersafe I have already put in(for ich).  I put the snail in a separate 3-5 gallon tank for he would be safe from the coppersafe.  You have really been great so far and very quick to respond .  Thank you so much.  One of the ladies in the pet store told me I was spending way to much money on these fish, since there were only 10 & in such a small tank.  Maybe so, but I think I am becoming a fish addict.  I feel I spent money in buying pets so I have to be able to provide care for them just like any other pet.  I just wish I could have a healthy 7 happy tank.

Answer
lol.. I had a $4.99 rat... named raTical and she cost me about $1400 in vet bills... and I would have spent more on her because she was like my child.  I feel like my pets have enriched my life in ways that money could never have done.  It would not hurt you to add two more female swordtails to the tank. You will have to be up on your tank maintenance though.  The females may tame down the other males.  If the fish do not have ICH then I would stop that medication and try the Marcyn-2.  Live brine shrimp will work well too as a brine to the shy little fellow in the log.  dave