Dead Platy and others on their way - help!

[VikkiM]

I have a 54L with the following in it: 3 platies, 7 cardinal tetras and one black molly.

There were four platies this morning, but just found one dead at the bottom of the tank. One of the others looks a bit "thin and pale" and another has a faint white bloom on its black tail (at the base, not on the fins themselves). They all look fairly chirpy.

I have tested the water quality and it looks fine apart from the fact that the nitrates are showing quite high (50 on my Tetratest stick) so I will do a 20% water change (last one done on Saturday).

The only thing that has changed in the tank recently is that my other half replaced the gravel. Could it be this causing the problem or something else?

Thanks for any assistance.

Vikki M.

 

[WILDER]

What does it look like when the fish go to the toilet, the faint mark does it look like a patch or fluffy and cottony in appearance, what was your readings when he replaced the gravel, yes it's not wise as you are removing some beneficial bacteria from your tank

 

[Sorrell]

What type of filtration do you have? If it's not undergravel your bacteria shouldn't be drastically affected by the gravel change. There is a lot of bacteria in the gravel, but the bulk of it is in the filter.

I would do a larger change then 20% just to be on the safe side. Definately describe the white patch more so we can recommend a treatment

 

[VikkiM]

Thanks for your replies. We don't have an under-gravel filtration system, we have a Juwel Rekord 60 tank with integral filter system (don't know the technical name for it, I am afraid!).

We have had another really good look at the tank. About four months ago my partner bought a male and a female Black Molly. The female has had about 2 lots of babies (quite a few of which survived without any help and are now happily living in my Dad's huge tank). The female lost a lot of condition over about 24 hours and then died. Our water tested 100% fine.

We noticed a couple of nips out of our tetras and the fact that one of the female platies looks a bit rough (we had two males and two females, one of the females died yesterday). I watched the molly for about an hour non-stop yesterday and it is him! He just won't leave the platy and some of the tetras (I assume because they are smaller than him) alone. I think he is harrassing them to death!

I have just rung the shop we bought the Mollies from and have arranged to take him back this afternoon as, despite the fact he is gorgeous, at this rate we will have nothing left but him.

The white "stuff" on the male platy doesn't look fluffy, like I said yesterday (he was moving very fast at the time!), it looks like more of a lightening around the base of his tail and the bottom of his dorsal fin. Could he just be changing colour?

Vikki M
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[WILDER]

It could be columnaris here is a link for you to read.

 

[WILDER]

http/www.flippersandfins.net/flexibacter.htm

 

[bigfish]

Do you test ammonia, nitrite and ph as well as nitrate? It could be a ph problem hence the white bit on the tail, as i have just had a siimialar experince with a sunset platy i immediately tested the water for the above parametres and discovered that the Ph was like 5.5!!!!!!!!! I've slowly brought it back up to 7.0 with serveral small waterchanges so that i didn't put my fish into shock....she still going strong and is preggo (yay for sunsets)

How long You tank been running?
Did you cycle your tank?

We r here to help

 

[bigfish]

oh by the way wot did the dead platy look like??? was it covered in white fluffy stuff? bloated?

 

[VikkiM]

The dead platy (and another today!) looked completely normal. What a shame... did 50% water change today and fingers crossed. Molly gone to new home.

Thanks for help.

Vikki
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