I need help with my platies

[jossswonk]

In April I was gifted 6 platies for my 20 gallon. 2 males and 4 females. A month or so after I got them one of the females died unexpectedly. She appeared to be pregnant when she died and all of the other fish in the tank were fine. A couple months go by and I get to today. When I woke up this morning another female was dead and she also appeared to be pregnant. All of the other platies are fine including 2 babies who survived being eaten. Water parameters are good because I test my water and do weekly water changes to keep it safe. I got these fish from a teacher of mine who breeds them. I'm not sure if this is important but I have an 18 year old clown plecostomus in the tank too. If anyone has any idea what could be going on I'd love the help.

 

[sharkweek178]

How many males and how many females did you start with?

 

[Ichthys]

What are the water parameters?

 

[jossswonk]

I started with 2 males and 4 females. I'm not at home so I can't water test but everything was 0 when I tested a few days ago and I've done a water change since then. My ph is about 7.5 and the temp is 80.

 

[Ichthys]

Needing parameters is a standard first question with livebearers, because if you're keeping them in soft water that will most likely be the cause. If the GH is zero, that's seriously soft water.

 

[jossswonk]

I would I test for GH? I've had a clown pleco in this tank for years and he's 18 but would GH levels not effect the pleco but effect the platies. It might be worth mentioning that I did have a group of male platies living in my tank about 6 years ago. But after having the males a few years they all eventually died of old age.

 

[Ichthys]

Platies need hard water. Plecs come from soft water. Different fish types often need different water. A fish that has evolved in hard water will not do well in soft water. This is why we need to know the hardness of our tanks, so that we can keep fish that are suited to the water.

 

[jossswonk]

I have kept platies in this tank before, and I got the ones I have now from someone who lives in the same area that I do. But how would I go about testing for GH?

 

[Essjay]

You can buy GH testers; or take some tap water to an LFS and ask them to test it (make sure they give you a number not words like soft or slightly hard or whatever); or if you are on mains water rather than a well, look on your water provider's website (again you need a number and the unit of measurement as there are several they could use).

 

[Ichthys]

I saw that you'd kept them before so your water is probably hard enough, but it's still something we'd need to be sure of to eliminate it from possible causes.
If the water was just slightly too soft last time, they would probably have taken a while to succumb to it.

 

[jossswonk]

I'll try to get to my LFS soon but it's pretty far away. Both females that dies appeared to be pregnant. Would that just be a coincidence?

 

[Ichthys]

Hard to say.

 

[JackGulley]

If both that died looked “pregnant”, it could possibly be worms

 

[jossswonk]

I considered that as a possibility but I had gotten them from a very good source who's tanks are healthy and my tank already had some stocking too so I know if they have worms then it isn't from my tank

 

[Fishfunn]

I considered that as a possibility but I had gotten them from a very good source who's tanks are healthy and my tank already had some stocking too so I know if they have worms then it isn't from my tank

Are you sure your fish that died didn't have dropsy?