Female platy looks mangled

[CoCo13]

Hi all,

New here so not sure if I'm using this forum correctly - apologies if not.

I've got a 60L Biorb Halo tank, have had the tank for about 4 years but recently got the following fish over the past 2 months
6 cloud minnow
2 shrimp
8 platy
Of which, 2 are boys and 6 are girls

I noticed yesterday, sometime after the afternoon, the smallest female platy looked mangled.
I ordered a breeder box straight away as I do not have another tank to move her to which just came. Now I've moved her into it, I can properly take photos of her which are enclosed.

Water params are all fine, everyone was eating happily, the 2 males tend to bully the larger females (or aggressively mate?) and 2/6 females look quite pregnant. I've never seen the males interact with this specific female, though, but they are who I assume has attacked her.

As you can see, her tail has basically all gone and a lot of her top fin too. She's actually weirdly mobile considering she just has a stump but she's not currently eating in her little box. As she's closer to the light, I'm having the light on less so it's not as bright as on her.

As she's still alive, I can't cope with taking her out the tank to die but also don't want my other fish to get sick of she has a disease as opposed to having been attacked.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Rocky998]

Woo... War wounds... Ouch... Keep up with water changes and maybe even dose salt to the tank at a ratio of 1-2 heaped tablespoons per 5 gallons... I may be mistaken but I do believe fins will grow back... That is the worst ive seen though. I would be very careful introducing her back into the main area with the others. How big are the shrimp?

 

[CoCo13]

Woo... War wounds... Ouch... Keep up with water changes and maybe even dose salt to the tank at a ratio of 1-2 heaped tablespoons per 5 gallons... I may be mistaken but I do believe fins will grow back... That is the worst ive seen though. I would be very careful introducing her back into the main area with the others. How big are the shrimp?

Would adding salt to the tank affect the rest of the crew?

I assume they're ghost shrimp but it just said "shrimp" on the tank where I got them from. They've for sure got a big bigger since I had them but they mostly just stay inside this column. The bloke pitching them to me actually said I could have over 50 and I was like uh absolutely not thanks. They genuinely scare me but I didn't think they were capable of taking down a fish? I only ever see them when they fly out to collect goldfish pellets to take back to their lair.

 

[Rocky998]

Would adding salt to the tank affect the rest of the crew?

View attachment 156882
View attachment 156881

I assume they're ghost shrimp but it just said "shrimp" on the tank where I got them from. They've for sure got a big bigger since I had them but they mostly just stay inside this column. The bloke pitching them to me actually said I could have over 50 and I was like uh absolutely not thanks. They genuinely scare me but I didn't think they were capable of taking down a fish? I only ever see them when they fly out to collect goldfish pellets to take back to their lair.

Salt shouldnt affect the mollies much in that dosage amount... As long as you use the salt made for treating wounds on fish... These fish are also hard water fish so they can tolerate the minerals being added. Just make sure to also add the salt to any buckets of water being added back in, in the correct dosage.

I have heard of ghost shrimp clawing fish before which can be very damaging... In fact they can take down small fry even if given the chance. So just watch them carefully. They may or may not be the problem

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

You have used the forum correctly and this is in the emergency section where it needs to be.

Add some salt and monitor the fish for red areas around the damaged fins. Red is a bacterial infection and might need medication. You should also monitor the white fluffy bits because they are fungus. Salt should treat both of these problems but monitor the fish and post more pictures if it gets worse.

-----------------------------
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.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.

 

[CoCo13]

Thanks for all your suggestions, I did a water change with salt and thought she was perking up yesterday - she was swimming around her box quite a bit.

Unfortunately, when I checked on her this morning some of the other tank mates (3 minnow, 1 male, 1 female platy) had somehow jumped into her box. I let them out and she tried to make a break for it but I got her back into isolation.

I've just checked and it appears she's gone (photo enclosed, she's not upside down so obviously I'll double check before she goes off to the Great Beyond). She has some red on her I didn't notice earlier so perhaps it was an infection or the others just attacked her when they were stuck with her.

Thank you for your responses, though.