Platy Looks Fuzzy.. Help!

my platy that i have had for a good eight months or so now looks very strange... the night before last i noticed a whiteish spot near her dorsal fin but didnt think too much of it and made a mental note to watch her carefully over the next few days. well last night i noticed that around where the white spot used to be had now turned a dark red and she was kinda fuzzy all over. there like white spots... i thought it maybe ich but iv had a fish with ich before and it doesnt look the same. it seemed to progress very quickly whatever it is. shes seems to be acting fine though... shes eating and swiming around the tank like normal. any idea what it could be??

id appreciate any help i could get... im rather attached to this fish. iv had her as long as iv had this hobby going.

I really need a picture, Do you have anywater stats, what are you feeding them?

i can get a picture to you tomorrow... i dont have any water stats. i can get it tested tonight. im feeding them tropical crisps and i also feed them freeze dried bloodworms ever so often. she still seems to be acting fine. im wondering if i should treat the tank for ich just in case?

I wouldn't, Because it could make you fish weaker, and other fish more likely to get it. But i don't think its ich, you would of noticed the build up before hand. And it would be spots.

How big are the spots. As spots can also be bacterial. Sounds bacterial with the redness.
Sounds like your fish have columnaris. Fish can get columnaris spots aswell.

Any signs of flicking and rubbing, darting, excess mucas, or laboured breathing.

Need water stats aswell.
Take a sample of your water to the lfs and ask them to write the readings down for you.

How many gallons is the tank.
How many fish and which type.

i didnt have a chance to get the stats last night... some stuff came up. the spots look kinda like she was sprinkled with fuzzy salt, thats the only way i can think to describe them. there all over her fins as well which seems strange. one of my other platys now has a spot or two on her but they seem to be progressing alot slower than with the first one. i have two adult platys and two younger platys, a rosy barb, and a pleco. the tanks 20 gals. all my fish are acting totally normal. the one with the most spots hasnt seemed to changed at all... shes not rubbing on aything and her breathing seems to be fine... she maybe darting a little more than normal but nothing that has raised a red flag.

i was thinking of changing my water today and vacuuming the gravel... would that be a good idea? also should i separate the two fish from the other fish? iv hear this is a good idea but everytime ive done it they seem to just progress faster. maybe it was just a coincidence, im willing to try anything that could make them better.

ill definitely get the water stats tonight. also the red spot seems to be fading but kinda moving at the same time... its smaller now but not the same shape it was and in a little bit different of a spot.

thanks for all the help!!

So the spots are the size of a grain of salt and there moving.
So the spots are red now.
Red spots can be septicemia to parasites.

A water change and gravel vac before adding the med.

Check the spots with a magifying glass to see if the move, are disc shaped with legs.

Need to find out if its bacterial to parasites.\

Small red spots (especially on the underside of the fish and companioned with flashing and rubbing) could be costia - the protozoan parasite Ichthyobodo. Sometimes costia will not always show up like this, but rather presents as slime coat changes and perhaps some blueness or blackness to the fish. A clear diagnosis sometimes requires a microscope. See a picture of it here and microscopic picture here. Costia should be treated with Rid Ich or Quick Cure. Though it has a short life cycle, it can be quite hard to treat and treatment requires several applications.


With a magnifying glass, you can see red dots on the fish, or you can see transparent disc shaped crustaceans Your fish are affected with fish lice

Also check the gills to see if they look pale with excess slime or red and inflamed.
Do the fish swim in a jerky movement.

i think i may have explained that wrong....

there is one red spot that is larger than all the white spots. the red spot is near her dorsal fin and has gotten smaller but seems to have moved a bit and changed shape. it also isnt as red as it was yesterday, it seems to be fading.

then there are all the white spots. there still white and are very prevalent! sorry for the confusion! is there anything i can be treating the tank with that might help whatever it is even though im not sure what it is? and should i remove the two fish from the other fish?

im gonna go take a picture and put it on here... that might make more sense of everything.

Ok.
If the spots are the size of a grain of salt and the fish look like there been sprinkled in salt I would treat for whitespot.
Darting can be a sign of parasites.
Whitespot can also look like fuzzy white spots.

Here a pic of whitespot. But the spots look bigger in the pic.

Pic of whitespot.

the fish are swimming fine... the gills look a little inflamed. i tried to take a picture but none of them were clear enough to see the spots. i have a treatment called super ich plus... but iv had it for a while, does it ever go bad?

also the other fish with less spots has three spots next to the gills on one side and one spot next to the gills on the other side. so it looks to me like its attacking the gills.

it looks alot like that picture just fuzzier... the fuzziness is what has thrown me off and how quickly it came on. it was so bad on the fins that you could hardly tell the fins were black. =[

Red inflamed gills can be gill flukes, bad water quality, bacterial gill rot.

I would add the med. But try and find the out of date marking on the box or bottle.
If you had the med more than a year I would throw it away.