What's wrong with my platy?
- Thread starter Katerose91
- Start date
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The fish is covered in excess mucous, which is normally caused by something in the water irritating the fish. This can be poor water quality (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, incorrect pH for the species), or it can be chemicals or external protozoan parasites.
Check the water quality and do the following.
Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.
Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in.
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. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.
Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.
Maybe add some salt if there's no improvement after a big water change. See directions below for salt.
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The stringy white poop can be an internal bacterial or protozoan infection, or intestinal worms. The link below tells you about stringy white poop in fish and how to treat it.
www.fishforums.net
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SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.
If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres and if there is no improvement after 48 hours, then increase it so there is a total of 4 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.
Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.
The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate (4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will affect some plants and some snails. The lower dose rate (1-2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will not affect fish, plants, shrimp or snails.
After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.
If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.
Check the water quality and do the following.
Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.
Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in.
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. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.
Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.
Maybe add some salt if there's no improvement after a big water change. See directions below for salt.
--------------------
The stringy white poop can be an internal bacterial or protozoan infection, or intestinal worms. The link below tells you about stringy white poop in fish and how to treat it.
What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.
Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons. 1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be...
www.fishforums.net
--------------------
SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.
If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres and if there is no improvement after 48 hours, then increase it so there is a total of 4 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.
Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.
The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate (4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will affect some plants and some snails. The lower dose rate (1-2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will not affect fish, plants, shrimp or snails.
After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.
If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.
Katerose91
New Member
Thank you. Seemingly I have an ammonia problem and I cannot work out why, but this may be the cause of her behaviour. She is perkier today. I posted a few weeks back about having a cloudy tank after a water change etc, and I have no idea what is going on and I need some serious help FAST.
Checked my parameters last night in case something more sinister was going on, last tank clean was a week ago today, cloudy for a short while, maybe half a day that's all, filter done the week prior. Not over feeding, established tank I have had now for about 16 months roughly, not over populated, nothing new in the tank, no new fish, substrate vacuumed, tapsafe always used. The bloody ammonia was 80ppm! I was absolutely shell shocked. Immediately I did a 75% water change. As the day has gone on today the tank is getting cloudier and cloudier. I feel at a loss and really really panicking about why on earth this could be happening?!
Checked my parameters last night in case something more sinister was going on, last tank clean was a week ago today, cloudy for a short while, maybe half a day that's all, filter done the week prior. Not over feeding, established tank I have had now for about 16 months roughly, not over populated, nothing new in the tank, no new fish, substrate vacuumed, tapsafe always used. The bloody ammonia was 80ppm! I was absolutely shell shocked. Immediately I did a 75% water change. As the day has gone on today the tank is getting cloudier and cloudier. I feel at a loss and really really panicking about why on earth this could be happening?!
I assume that's a mis-typing? Our test kits cannot measure that high. My ammonia tester only goes up to 8 ppm, and that level would probably have killed any fish in the tank.
Did you mean ammonia was 8 ppm, or 0.8 ppm? Or perhaps nitrate was 80 ppm?
But any ammonia higher than zero needs a water change asap, as you did. Keep an eye on it in case it goes up again.
Katerose91
New Member
Oh christ yes I meant 8!
If you ammonia is 8, that is lethally high. And if the test kit only measures up to 8 it could be higher.
Is your tester still in date? At 8 ppm, I would not expect a fish to live very long.
Any time ammonia gives a reading above zero a water change must be done as soon as possible to get it down to zero. With 8 ppm, a 75% water change would get it down to 2 ppm which is still far too high. It needs to be zero. The tank needs as many back to back water changes as necessary to get it down to zero, then test every day and if ammonia is above zero again, do another water change.
Is your tester still in date? At 8 ppm, I would not expect a fish to live very long.
Any time ammonia gives a reading above zero a water change must be done as soon as possible to get it down to zero. With 8 ppm, a 75% water change would get it down to 2 ppm which is still far too high. It needs to be zero. The tank needs as many back to back water changes as necessary to get it down to zero, then test every day and if ammonia is above zero again, do another water change.
Katerose91
New Member
Yeah honestly I do not know what has caused this spike as I test my water regularly. Somehow my fish are ok. No cloudiness today. Massive water changes and testing being done at present. Last night it was 4, so it had halved. Nearly due to test and change tonight so fingers crossed it has gone down again. Just have no idea how on earth this could have happened. I feel I've been doing everything right RE care of my tank.
If the ammonia is anything other than zero, do a big water change. 4 ppm is still a very dangerous level, you need to get it down to zero. That's the only safe level (unless your pH is off the bottom of the scale)
Check nitrite as well. If the ammonia has lowered by itself, nitrite will probably have gone up and that needs to be kept at zero too.
Check nitrite as well. If the ammonia has lowered by itself, nitrite will probably have gone up and that needs to be kept at zero too.
Katerose91
New Member
TheTenthDoctor
Fish Herder
I recommend doing daily 30-40% water changes!
Katerose91
New Member
I am doing so. Tank has been cleaned again today too. Cloudy after a clean, my water conditioner seems to be making the water sparkly too. Something weird is deffo going on. Stock seem happy though!
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