Dead Platy - Sudden Death And Erratic Swimming

[monkeyhanger]

The 3rd Platy bought at the same time as the 2 dead ones looked a bit lethargic yesterday evening, and I thought that i'd be seeing it floating when I got up this morning. When I got up, it was resting, wedged in one of the bushier plants, but the gill movement was normal, then it then went for a bit of a swim.

I'm not sure whether the other platies have known something was up with the new 3. The new 3 were all females, and of my other 6 platies, 2 are males. Those 2 males are always trying to get a bit of female action, but left the new 3 alone, the other 4 females are all pregnant.

It's seeming more like internal infection/disease from what i've heard on this thread. The biggest worry with the implication is that the 3 platys each came from separate tanks within the LFS where they were bought - so if it is an internal infection, it must be pretty widespread at the LFS.

I don't think i'll be buying from there again, despite their great stock size and variety.

 

[WILDER]

Can you say if the neons only showed signs of a bent spine as it will help alot.

Signs of a bacterial infections with no symtoms are.
The fish will be pale or darker in colour.
Fish will be listless and lethagic.
The fish will try to get off the bottom of the tank only to sink back down again.
Some times fish will lay on there sides.

How long did you climatise the new fish for.

 

[monkeyhanger]

The neons had developed bent spines over just a day or 2, and the dead ones were very dull in colour, especially the red bit - not so much the upper blue bit. Fins were all intact, no signs of being attacked whilst alive. Didn't appear to have developed a poor swimming technique over days due to illness. Some had a lumpy belly (like something pushing through from the inside) - lots of small lumps.

The neons never looked listless or lethargic, they were fine one day and dead the next morning, or when i'd gotten in from work (from being fine in the morning).

The last of the 3 recent Platys that is still alive is very lethargic and not at all sociable - swims around 1/3 of the time, but likes to sit behine the waterpump output where there is no tank current.

When it is resting it has no movement at all except gill movement (the tail doesn't even fflutter like all Platys tails do when they hover). That fish is looking very thin now (all my other females are chubby/pregnant), and excluding the head, has the profile of a keyhole shape. I don't think it'll last much longer. All the other Platys bought from a different LFS from quite a while back are ok, very healthy, very active, very sociable.

So far it seems that whatever the 3 Platys have had is not being passed onto the 6 others. Are a lot of internal complaints non-contagious if that fish isn't eaten when it dies?

The Platy discussed hasn't had a decent poo in days, and doesn't seem to eat anything at all when the food goes in. It had a little poo yesterday that was like a very thin white fluffy fibre, almost like white algae - the Platys have been known to hoover up the algae from time to time.

 

[WILDER]

I would put the sick fish out of there misery to save the rest.
I know it sounds awful but to be honest they sound in bad shape.

It could be ntd, internal parasites, fish tb.

The neon symtoms sound like ntd to me.

 

[Colin_T]

If the platy did a weird white poo then it has an internal infection. If you have an internal bacterial medication then perhaps treat it with that in a 10-litre bucket with an airstone. If it recovers and gets better then good. But if it dies then it will die out of the tank. Then keep an eye on the other fish and if any show any unusual behaviour resembling what the dead platies had, then treat the main tank straight away.

If the other fish don't eat the sick fish, then they don't always develop the disease. However, most fish diseases are introduced with new fish so there is a possibility the other fish will have picked up the disease organism. Keep an eye on them and treat them if they show any symptoms resembling what the dead fish had.