Help with my fish!?

[Jonny Croft]

Hi.

My platty has been hiding a lot and only comes out to eat, is it pregnant?

Thanks

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

How long has the tank been set up for?

How often do you do water changes and gravel clean the substrate?

Have you tested the water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate & pH?
if yes, what were the results in numbers?

What other fish are in the tank?

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The yellow and red fish in the picture is a male platy and it is skinny. If the fish is hiding and only coming out for food then it is hiding because it is afraid. If you have other platies in the tank then there is probably another male in the tank that is picking on him.

Male platies have a long thin anal (bottom) fin, female platies have a fan or triangular shaped anal fin. If you can post a picture of the other fish in the tank we can see what sex they are.

Add lots of plants to the tank and monitor the fish. If it is being chased and harassed then put it in another tank or take it back to the petshop and trade it in for a female or something else.

 

[Jonny Croft]

Thanks for the advice I have always wondered how to tell them apart. When you say it is skinny, does this mean it’s not eating enough?

Tank has Been set up about 18 months. My friend who is a more experienced fish keeper and has all the best gear checks my water for me. He did this last week and everything was fine (I do have the numbers written down but have mislayed them at the moment).

I try do the water change about once a fortnight and clean the gravel about once a week. It is due a clean though as I have been away on holiday.

I have 2 other platties and about 8 tetra neon and ember.

I will post another pictures I have.

 

[Jack TH]

I've seen this before. It's internal parasites. Fish who get this disease have the characteristic flat, hollowed out abdomen and have minor weight loss in other places, and as it progresses they get frailer and frailer. Your platy fits that description pretty well.

As for treatment, your best bet is medicated anti-parasitic food. Some people will tell you to feed them garlic; in theory this works by improving the fish's immune system, but then you remember that the fish isn't getting any of the food, and it's all going to the internal parasites, so practically it's useless and possibly a negative thing if it happens to stink up your tank, which happens fairly frequently. If he doesn't start improving after about a week, then you should euthanize. He doesn't look too far gone though, it should be 100% survivable. Medicated food will also be good in case anybody else has caught it, as it will drive them out early. As for dosing, follow what the box/container says.

It's not losing weight because it's not eating; if another fish was bullying it that badly, it would be dead by now. There are many other diseases that kill a lot faster than IPs. IPs are a slow degenerative illness, and it doesn't come from nowhere. The fish has to catch it. If it was stress-related, it would have something like fin rot or fish TB. If it's coming out to eat and it eats, it wouldn't lose weight. Fish usually only lose weight if there is absolutely zero food intake. Besides that, platies usually aren't that aggressive, not even male/male. Some individuals are but most aren't. I don't think another fish is the problem.

Did you get any new fish, plants or decorations recently? Internal parasites can come from anywhere.

Hope I could help

Oh and also, your other platy looks like it's female. It's hard to tell though because the picture isn't very high quality. It's anal fin looks triangular and not pointed but I can't really tell. Another pic please?

 

[Jonny Croft]

Thanks a lot for all the advice guys.

How do they catch these parasites? Is it something I’ve done?

I have woke up this morning and the fish in question is no where to be seen. It has only been 15 minutes so I’m hoping he’s just well hidden. Although would it be possible he’s got too weak and been killed through the night?

 

[Colin_T]

If the tank has been set up for 18 months and you do regular water changes and the filter has not been washed out under tap water, the water should be fine.

When you do the water changes, how much water do you remove and replace?

When you do the gravel clean, do you use a normal gravel cleaner and suck the gunk out of the tank along with some water? Or do you have an electric gravel cleaner that sucks the gunk into a mesh bag and returns the water back to the tank?

As a general rule it is preferable to use a basic model gravel cleaner like the one in the following link. Use it whenever you do a water change (each week), and syphon some water out while you are cleaning the gunk out of the gravel. Then top the tank up with clean water that is free of chlorine/ chloramine.
https://www.about-goldfish.com/aquarium-cleaning.html

How often do you clean the filter and how do you clean it?

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If you set the camera resolution to about 2MB and use the flash, then take a number of pictures and put them on your pc, you should be able to find a nice clear image showing the fish's anal fin and we will able to sex it.

The fish in the new pic looks like a female but its a bit blury.

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The male platy in the original picture could have intestinal worms and or gill flukes. Most livebearers carry these and the stress of being bullied and these parasites could be causing the issue.

You can use Praziquantel to treat gill flukes and tapeworm, and Levamisole to treat thread or roundworms.
You should treat any tanks you have at the same time and treat the fish once a week for 3 treatments to kill the worms. The gill flukes will need treating several times a week for several weeks. The instructions should be on the packet.

Treat for tapeworm and gill flukes first. Then after they have been treated you can do the round/ thread worms.

To work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.

When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "How To Tips" at the top of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

Remove carbon from the filter before treating or it will absorb the medication and stop it working.

Wipe the inside of the glass down, do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean. And clean the filter before treating.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water.

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As long as the fish is swimming about and continues to eat, there is no need to euthanize it. Try the Praziquantel and keep feeding it and it should get better.

If the fish was swimming and eating last night it is probably hiding.

In the morning open the curtains or turn the room lights on. Wait 30 minutes or more before turning the tank light on. This lets the fish wake up slowly instead of being ina dark tank and then getting full bright light.

At night turn the room light on and then turn the tank light off. Wait 30 minutes or more before turning the room light off. This allows the fish to settle down for the night instead of being in a brightly lit tank that suddenly goes dark.

 

[Jack TH]

How do they catch these parasites? Is it something I’ve done?

Like I said, IPs can come from anywhere. They have to be traced back to another fish, a plant or a decoration. From what I've seen, IPs aren't a stress-related disease, and they attack whoever they want whenever they want, regardless of how healthy the fish appear to be. All it takes is to transfer a few cells to your tank and it's game over. I doubt that it's your fault.

When did you get the platies? Where from?

Have you had any other fish die recently? If they did they might have died from the same thing, he's eaten the corpse and now he's caught it. Once a fish has it, the only way for it to spread is for another fish to come into contact with anything that has been in contact with the infected fish's digestive system while it's still alive, and once it's dead, contact with any tissues. So for example, if the infected fish passes excrement, and another fish eats it or puts it in it's mouth, it has a chance of contracting it.

I have woke up this morning and the fish in question is no where to be seen. It has only been 15 minutes so I’m hoping he’s just well hidden. Although would it be possible he’s got too weak and been killed through the night?

I wouldn't think he's weak enough to die yet, but if something is stressing him out then it might have been the final nail in the coffin, or it might have been worse than it seemed. If you find the body, you must take it out immediately as if other fish eat it, they have a high chance of contracting it.

 

[Jonny Croft]

Wow thanks for all the info. I will try answer all those questions.

Tank is 100 litres

When changing water I take out about a third of the water.

The gravel vac I have takes the water with it so I take out a few inches when I do this.

I always wash the pads with the tank water not tap water.

Sorry about the pics I only have my phone to use and had to cut them down as the files were too big.

Update on sick fish. He is still hiding, must of just been well hidden this morning

 

[Jonny Croft]

Thanks jack. As above the fish is still alive. I bought them from abyss in Manchester area about 8 months ago. I did buy four and one died and I never found the body. This was however a month or so ago now. Would it take so long for the other fish to become ill?

 

[Colin_T]

Fish live in a soup of microscopic organisms consisting of bacteria, fungus, viruses, protozoa, worms, flukes and all sorts of other things. When the fish is healthy and these micro-organisms are only in small numbers the fish will be fine and often live with the parasites for months or even years. However, if a fish gets stressed from being bullied or lack of water changes, dirty filter, etc, or the disease organisms multiply and build up in numbers, then the disease organisms can start to overwhelm the fish and it becomes sick. Then you have to treat it or the fish dies.

Most fish found in petshops have intestinal worms and gill flukes and these are usually on the fish when they are sent from the fish farms in Asia. The petshops might treat the fish if they start dying but they don't normally treat the fish if they appear fine. You could buy some of these fish and put them in your tank and they get stressed from being caught and moved, then the diseases start to take over and fish die.

All new fish should be quarantined for a month before being added to your main tank to prevent unwanted diseases getting into the tank. Fish can be treated for gill flukes and intestinal worms while they are in the quarantine tank and that will prevent flukes and worms from affecting your fish.

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When you do the gravel cleaning and your normal water changes, you should try to take out a bit more water than you have been doing. I recommend a 50-75% water change and gravel clean the substrate each week. The bigger water change is more effective at diluting nutrients and harmful organisms in the water compared to smaller 30% water changes.
Make sure any new water is free fo chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Filters should be cleaned at least once a month and preferably more often. Every 2 weeks is great if you can. Washing the filter materials in a bucket of tank water is good

Because fish live in a soup of micro-organisms and their own waste, big regular water changes, gravel cleaning and filter cleaning, helps keep the water cleaner and the fish usually do better.

 

[Jonny Croft]

Thanks for all this guys. From what you have said My guess is because I have been away and my water change schedule has been affected this has perhaps caused the illness to escalate. I will get some of the treatment and keep up to the water changes. Thanks again

 

[Jack TH]

Thanks for all this guys. From what you have said My guess is because I have been away and my water change schedule has been affected this has perhaps caused the illness to escalate. I will get some of the treatment and keep up to the water changes. Thanks again

No problem. I'm guessing the other one that died had the disease, and passed it to him when it died. And yes, it can take a long time for IPs to start showing severe symptoms and even longer to start killing fish.

This one should survive if you start treatment ASAP.