Platies laying on bottom of tank?

i’ve Had this tank set up and run for 5 months with no real issues, however all my platies are now laying on the bottom / in decorations.

Currently treating the tank for ick, however the platies don’t look infected.

2 female sunburst platies
1 female and 1 male red wag platy

I added the 2 sunburst platies 2 weeks ago without issue. And i’ve Had the red ones for months.

Couldn’t get a photo of the red male, and the red female moved when I tried to snap a photo.

Also they’re not dead just laying on the gravel.

What are your water parameters? Gh, Kh, ph, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate.

I would recommend starting with a large water change (75%), gravel vacuum the bottom of the tank. Many diseases can be cured simply by good water quality.
Water parameters will help figure out what's wrong with the fish, also it's not recommend to treat with medication if the fish don't show symptoms of the treated disease.

Gh 100
Kh 120
Ph 7.5
Very low ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate
And I have a catfish and some tetras who have ick.

When I had ich in my tanks I used just heat, plenty of pwc, increased oxygen due to the temperature increase. I've never lost a fish. Maybe the medicine your using isn't agreeing with the platies?

I’m using api super ick cure, and what’s pwc? Bit scared to turn the heat up to high.

The fish have clamped fins and this is either from poor water quality, something in the water that is stressing them, or external protozoan infections.

Make sure you haven't overdosed the tank with medication. To work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.

When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "How To Tips" at the top of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

Remove carbon from the filter before treating or it will adsorb the medication and stop it working.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate. Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water.

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The safest way to treat white spot is to raise the water temperature to 30C (86F) and keep it there for 2 weeks. Then lower the temperature back down.

Make sure you increase aeration/ surface turbulence to maximise oxygen levels when raising the temperature.

SwiggyLurd said:

I’m using api super ick cure, and what’s pwc? Bit scared to turn the heat up to high.

Click to expand...

Sorry it means partial water change. If heat is increased slowly it's better for the fish.

86F won’t hurt your fish for that period of time. I use to use meds but now just 86F temp. I agree that the meds may be affecting them. As Colin advised, add an air stone during treatment. Good luck!

Ok ima try to up it to 86f and see if that helps, did a 50% water change and cleaned the gravel.thanks for the help!