Platies Laying On Bottom Of The Tank

Emily6235 · Dec 17, 2012

I bought three platies from lfs. They were purchased and brought home the day of the shipment to the lfd so started out stressed and I lost the male within hours, leaving two females. It has been a few days and they continue to hide in the rear of tank only coming out occasionally for food.

Tank: 20 gallons
1 juvenile betta tankmate (never seen him approach or appear to even notice platies)
ammonia 0
Nitrates 10 ppm
Nitrites 0
GH 150 ppm
Chlorine 0
KH 120 ppm
PH 7.2

Tank is planted and platies dont appear gravid. Also fins arent clamped if that means anything.

Oh, temperature is 78F

Emily6235 · Dec 17, 2012

Also, the fish look healthy. No spots, discoloration, and or fin damage and they're pretty vibrant.

Sbatty · Dec 17, 2012

When my platies were alive, they use to hide at the back of the tank and lay on the gravel. I read they are rather shy fish so will hide. I'm no expert (as you can tell all my platies have died in the last few day - it seems I'm a fish murderer

) maybe they are just finding their fins in a new tank and getting over the stress of the move?

yfaris67 · Dec 17, 2012

never put a betta with any kind of fish, they are probably scared to death! also your nitrates are a little tiny bit high. send a picture of the platies, it might be another reason.

rainbow-a-holic · Dec 17, 2012

were the fish accimilatised to the water of your tank....small quantities of water added to the bag slowly over time?? (this may explain the quick initial death). I wouldnt worry too much about the remaining two being shy for a few days, the will come around.

IMO dont worry about a nitrate readying of 10ppm, the majority of tanks will have a reading of much higher than this. i intentionally add nitrate to 'feed' my plants and constantly have a reading of greater than this with no problems to my rainbows

Emily6235 · Dec 17, 2012

Thanks for the advice! I did add plant fertilizer right before the water test so that may account for the reading, usually its closer to 5ppm. Could the fertilizer be bugging them? As far as the betta I *thought* I had done adequate research about a betta being in a well planted tropical community with non finny fish

I hope the betta isnt the problem, i'd feel terrible for the bunch if he's putting off some jerk aura or harassing the platies when I'm not looking. I'll get pictures asap if I can manage it through the plants. Should I remove the betta then?

Oh and yes, the fish floated to match temperature then I added a cup of tank water to the bag every ten minutes then netted them from bag to tank.

the_lock_man · Dec 18, 2012

yfaris67 said:
never put a betta with any kind of fish, they are probably scared to death!

Male bettas are highly variable. In my experience, I never had a betta that I couldn't keep in a community setting. I had one that thought cherry shrimp were lunch, other than that all mine were as placid as anything. To qualify that, I never had any type of fish that bettas were prone to disliking (eg guppies or gouramis). There are plenty of forum members that have kept guppies and male bettas together without issue.

yfaris67 said:
also your nitrates are a little tiny bit high.

Total complete and utter rubbish. Nitrates at 10ppm is perfectly acceptable, and frankly is fairly low compared with many tanks. My tap water has higher nitrates than that.

Emily6235 · Dec 18, 2012

Will leaving the lights off damage the plants? I dont mind replacing them, it would be great to avoid spending the money though lol

Emily6235 · Dec 18, 2012

Well, I'm stumped then

Could they be nervous about a lack of 'community' in the tank? Right now its just the three of them and a often as I see them the tank might as well be empty. As for the pictures I did the best I could to lure them out but there is just no good angle for a pic through the plants. Hope what I could get helps!

the_lock_man · Dec 18, 2012

I would say it's more likely that they are still recovering from the stress - they didn't have a chance to recover from the move to the LFS before they were bagged up again and moved to their new home. Try keeping the lights off for 2 or 3 days, see if that helps calm them down. As you say, they look healthy enough.

KCB · Dec 18, 2012

Agreed with lock man. They've yet to have the chance to get used to a new environment so they're probably still stressed out about that.

Your nitrates are perfectly fine so don't worry about that, my nitrates are 20ppm straight out of the tap. They're only dangerous at really high levels :good:

.

Emily6235 · Dec 18, 2012

Ok. Guess it probably doesn't help to have my big ole face peering in looking for them constantly! Oops... I'll give them a break and hope they come around. Thanka for the input and advice

the_lock_man · Dec 18, 2012

Emily6235 said:
Will leaving the lights off damage the plants? I dont mind replacing them, it would be great to avoid spending the money though lol

Obviously, the plants need the light to photosynthesize, but they'll be fine for a couple of days. I left mine off for a couple of weeks on my small tank, when the bulb blew, and the plants haven't died.

yfaris67 · Dec 18, 2012

Emily6235 said:
Will leaving the lights off damage the plants? I dont mind replacing them, it would be great to avoid spending the money though lol

i had to leave my plants in the dark once in my 15gal. aquarium when my light broke. my light broke right after my fish died! i was busy so i cleaned my (very dirty) aquarium after 4 weeks to find the plants alive! they are still living in my 26 gal. aquarium.

Emily6235 · Dec 18, 2012

Lights off it is then! I guess its not bright and sunny every day in the wild either lol thanks for all the great advice everyone!

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