SICK PLATY

Hello everyone.

I'm pretty new to fish keeping and have probably made a few mistakes already and have a sick platy (which I inherited and am told he is around 2 years old). We tried give the guy some friends and a new tank and have probably caused a bit of stress or introduced something with the new fish/plants. Basically we swapped him to a new tank, new media, new plants etc (rookie error). More detail is below. Is there anything else I can do, possibly medication, to help him?

Filter:
Isolation tank (essentially his old home)- Fluval 1 plus with new media (old ones got ditched)
New tank - Internal cartridge filter CF1 with new media
No transfer between old and new tank, haven't changed the media since we got it (4 weeks), rinsed in water removed from the tank when changing water

Water testing:
Basic tetra 6 in 1 strips (not sure on the reliability), no ammonia though.

For the isolation tank
Tank size: 20L
tank age: 15-17y
pH: 7.9
ammonia: NA
nitrite: 1.54
nitrate: 47
kH: 10
gH: 9
tank temp: 21/22

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior):
Clamped fins, hiding/lying motionless in the bottom corner, reduced appetite - almost looks like he wants to eat and cant (strange coughing like reflex with gills), weird swimming pattern, scratching itself on plants and filter repeatedly when he does move about. No visible signs of white spot or velvet but some loss of colour below his gills and above his eye from the scratching i think. Did have a velvety patch prior to adding salt - now gone.

Volume and Frequency of water changes:
30% once a week (this was in the new tank, he has only been in the isolation tank for approaching 1 week).
When transferring him to the isolation tank we used 70% new water and 30% from the other tank.

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank:
Filter boost - both tanks
tap safe when changing water
API aquarium salt - both tanks now at 2 tbsp/20L

Tank inhabitants:
Isolation tank - sick platy, plastic plants (use previously) and a small java fern offshoots

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration):
New tank - cory x 2, minnows x 3, mollies x4, platy x 1, unknown plant??

Exposure to chemicals: NA

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

excess mucous from poor water quality or an external protozoan infection.

you need to do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day until the ammonia and nitrite are 0ppm, and the nitrate is less than 20ppm.

salt will treat external protozoan infections like costia, chilodonella and trichodina. the dose rate you have (2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres of water) should treat it. Leave salt in tank for 2-4 weeks, or at least 1 week after the fish has cleared up and is back to normal.

Colin_T said:

excess mucous from poor water quality or an external protozoan infection.

you need to do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day until the ammonia and nitrite are 0ppm, and the nitrate is less than 20ppm.

salt will treat external protozoan infections like costia, chilodonella and trichodina. the dose rate you have (2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres of water) should treat it. Leave salt in tank for 2-4 weeks, or at least 1 week after the fish has cleared up and is back to normal.

Click to expand...

Thanks @Colin_T. Will do.

Should there be no change, we are around 2 weeks in total at that salt dose, in there a further step?

Could you do raise the 4 tablespoons per 20L after 4 weeks?

Depending on what other fish are in the tank, you can increase the salt to 4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres of water. However, that depends on the fish in the tank.

The fish that can tolerate the high level of salt are livebearers (guppies, mollies, platies, swordtails), rainbowfish & goldfish.

Tetras, barbs, angelfish, Corydoras, gouramis, Bettas, etc will not tolerate the high level of salt.

Make sure the water is good, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, less than 20ppm nitrate, pH around 7.0 or above 7.0.