New fish swimming sideways

[Neleono]

Good afternoon,
Yesterday I got some fish to add to my 29 gallon tank. I originally had one platy and I added 3 more, and 4 neon tetras. The fish in question was fine this morning but just recently started to swim sideways. He doesn't have any difficulty going to the bottom or top of the tank and isn't hiding or laying on the floor. I will attach a short video of him swimming around so you can see what I mean. He is the only one who is doing this, all of the other fish look and are acting fine. I will provide tank parameters below. Please give any info you have and recommendations are more than welcome. I have (If this requires medication) Melafix, API general cure for parasitic disease, and aquaricure de-worming powder. I live next to a pet store so any other medications I might need I can easily get within a day. I will also note that the fish that was in the tank before the restock has been keeping close to this guy. I haven't seen any aggression between the two, but there's a possibility, which brings me on to a side point of, the fish that was there before the restock has chased the other 2, smaller, fish around a few times. Is this normal and will he stop?

FISH IN QUESTION:
Age: unsure, I purchased him from the store yesterday (2-7-21)
Type of Fish: Painted platy, yellow and black
All Started: A few hours ago I noticed the sideways swimming and seemed perfectly fine up until this point
Poop: Kind of dark brown in color, not stringy

Tank Info:
Nitrate: <10
Nitrite: 0
Ammonia: 0
pH: 7.0
GH: 120
29 gallon tank with appropriate size filter and heater. Only plants are moss balls.

Please feel free to request any additional info if necessary!!!


(Edit, I was unable to post a video of the fish so if there is a way to do that please let me know. I will however post a picture to give some idea of what is going on. Also the picture dulls the color quite alot. He is much less pale and has a red spot next to his eye which looks brown/grey in the picture.)

 

[Colin_T]

stick the video on youtube and copy & paste the link here. we can watch it at youtube

 

[Neleono]

That should work

 

[Neleono]

He seems to be doing much better this morning. Last night he was almost always sideways but today he only floats sideways every now and then. He has been floating to the top more, and gulping a bit, but I've only seen him do it once. The one fish that I had before has gotten a bit more aggressive. No nipping yet, but he is chasing them around a lot, mostly the sideways swimming fish.

 

[Neleono]

Ok, through out the day today he has been doing much better. Only like 3 times today did he swim sideways. Everything about him is still the same (Color, poop color, buoyancy) but because he is not fully better I still am looking for the reason behind this. Thanks!

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Hi! I'm not sure about the sideways swimming guy, at moments he looks like he's displaying to the other platy (male livebearers will display to each other while sorting out pecking order etc, whether there are females around or not), but it doesn't look quite natural either, like maybe something is a bit off with his swim bladder or something. Is he still doing it?

Are all of the platies male or are there any females in there? An all male tank can work, I have a male only guppy tank right now where some chasing and lots of displaying happens, but it's peaceful without any single fish being bullied or bullying. Occasionally though, you will get a male who is much more driven and relentless about bullying the others, and one of those just needs to be removed. It's rare though, I've raised a few hundred livebearer fry, and only had one male who was impossible in a male only tank. He was too much of a bully, and would only be happy in a tank with females. There are a few tricks you can try first though to find out if they can settle together, or if the bully just needs a new home or set up.

Regarding the chasing and things, they're sorting out a pecking order. The original one had the tank to himself, it was all his territory. Then the new ones entered his territory, he was bound to chase and pick on them First thing I would do is a water change. Fill a bucket with tank water, then catch all the fish and put them in the bucket. Put a towel over the top to prevent jumping.

Then give the substrate a good clean, and re-arrange all the decor. Think of it like this, if these fish were in the wild, they'd be in a river; they pick out hiding spots and know the best feeding spots, they get a feel for the territory they're in. Your original male was the only male in your tank territory, now he has intruders. You want to move everything around, maybe introduce some new decor - particularly things that provide hiding spaces and break lines of sight, like live plants, some tall wood or stone, things like that. You want it to look like the fish have moved to a new part of the river. They now have to sort out territories from scratch, and no one has picked out their own spots yet, since it all looks new to them once it's been moved around. They'll be occupied sorting out a new pecking order and hiding spots etc, less focused on picking on each other. If the tank is open and clear, so they can see each other at all times, they're much more likely to keep chasing. If they can hide from each other, the chaser is likely to get distracted and stop the chase once the other is out of sight.

That would hopefully sort out the bullying problem, but monitor it of course, and keep an eye for any particular fish being bullied, or being relentless and bullying all the others. If the re-arranging doesn't work, then it's likely a personality clash that means they shouldn't share the tank. Or if all the others pick on one fish, it can be a sign that something is wrong with that fish. If a fish is sick, that attracts predators in the wild, so it's natural for the others to want to drive away the sick fish. Horrible to see when it happens, but it's a perfectly natural behaviour, and another reason to have a quarantine tank or tote.

Also think about adding some live plants! Doesn't have to be expensive, carefully planned full on aquascape, adding a big bunch of elodea, wysteria or frogbit with its long roots can help a lot. Provides some dense hiding spaces, and fish interact with and appreciate live plants in a way that you just don't get with fake ones.

Like in this tank of mine, that mass of green is just limnophilia sessiliflora. £4.99 for a pot of it, it grows like mad, and both the fish and shrimp use it to hide. Easy to grow, just needs trimming back every few weeks, but gives a lot of environmental enrichment for the fish and means they can get a break from each other when they want. Some dense bits of live plant like that are essential, I personally think, to keep a peaceful livebearer tank

I hope the sideways swimming guy has improved, please let me know! If he's still doing it, then keeping up with water changes and keeping an eye on him is all I can really suggest, I'm sorry I can't help more there.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Ok, through out the day today he has been doing much better. Only like 3 times today did he swim sideways. Everything about him is still the same (Color, poop color, buoyancy) but because he is not fully better I still am looking for the reason behind this. Thanks!

Just re-read this and had a thought, have you been feeding flake food? The floating guy looks a bit big and bloated to me. He's definitely a male, but shaped more like a gravid female in the video. If you've been feeding flake, he might be gulping too much air while he's feeding, which would explain why the sideways swimming comes and goes.

Try avoiding flake food for a bit and see how he goes. I like Bug Bites for my livebearers, the light blue tub that is microgranules are a good size for livebearers and for tetra, and some will stay on the surface for a while, but most will gradually sink though the water, meaning the platies eat from just below the surface rather than gulping at the surface, and it's good for mid-water feeders like tetra too. Can also switch it up and use frozen food now and then too. I use cyclops, daphnia, brineshrimp, tubifex etc, those are great for dissolving into the water column and staying in a cloud throughout the water, letting fish feed at all levels of the water column, not just at the surface or sinking straight to the bottom. Also perfect for feeding fry, as they all get a chance to feed before the food sinks.

 

[Neleono]

Thank you so much for the recommendation! I have been feeding flake food and he always eats from the top the second it goes in so that is a likely cause. Thanks so much for the help, and I will look for different food as soon as possible! I have tried live plants in the tank many times before with no luck but i recently made an all natural tank and I have realized how bad I was at keeping plants beforehand. I'll start looking for some new plants for them and thanks again for your help!.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Thank you so much for the recommendation! I have been feeding flake food and he always eats from the top the second it goes in so that is a likely cause. Thanks so much for the help, and I will look for different food as soon as possible! I have tried live plants in the tank many times before with no luck but i recently made an all natural tank and I have realized how bad I was at keeping plants beforehand. I'll start looking for some new plants for them and thanks again for your help!.

You're so welcome! I hope that turns out to be what it was, and that he makes a recovery!

In the meantime while you're looking for a different food, you can soak a portion of the flake food in a container with some tank water for 20 minutes or so before feeding so it's water-logged and not so airy, will go below the surface quicker. Make sure you're not over feeding as well! Most of us tend to over feed our fish, they always act like they're starving and it's a fun interaction, but it's not good for them to be over fed either. They can easily go for days, even a week or so without food, so perhaps fast them for a day then if you're feeding twice daily, maybe cut to once a day for a bit and see how that goes.

Guppy grass is another good beginner plant that you can just float in the tank and doesn't need a lot of care or extra things like strong lights, ferts or CO2. Happy to talk planted tanks if you'd like to explore that more, and there are others here like @mbsqw1d who are brilliant with aquatic plants and can give you much better advice

Do keep us updated, it's always nice to hear how things go after incidents like this!

 

[Neleono]

I sure will! Thanks again!

 

[Neleono]

I thought it might be a good time for an update! I completely rearranged the décor in the tank and the bully fish has stopped being a bully. He still stays close by the others but he is no longer nipping at them or chasing them around! As for the sideways swimming fish, he has gotten quite a lot better. I bought him some of those bug bites and purchased some frozen brine shrimp. They love both foods and are eating midground! He is still swimming sideways on occasion but he has already gotten so much better. I also decided to add some live plants into the tank! I put in a large amazon sword and attached some Anubis to the rock structure to make some nice hiding spots. I do still plan to get a few floating plants though. Thanks again for all of the help and suggestions!

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I thought it might be a good time for an update! I completely rearranged the décor in the tank and the bully fish has stopped being a bully. He still stays close by the others but he is no longer nipping at them or chasing them around! As for the sideways swimming fish, he has gotten quite a lot better. I bought him some of those bug bites and purchased some frozen brine shrimp. They love both foods and are eating midground! He is still swimming sideways on occasion but he has already gotten so much better. I also decided to add some live plants into the tank! I put in a large amazon sword and attached some Anubis to the rock structure to make some nice hiding spots. I do still plan to get a few floating plants though. Thanks again for all of the help and suggestions!

This is great news! Well done for putting all that work into the tank, you're clearly dedicated to your fish!

The sideways swimmer might have a defect with his swim bladder; fish can have breeding, genetic, or health issues just like any other creature, so you might have to accept that he's a special needs guy. Plus livebearers are mass produced in huge fish farms abroad, they often have issues. I have three special needs fish right now. A platy with one eye, a platy that I bred that is deformed - not sure what exactly is wrong with her, she's just shaped wrong, too long and thin - so she'll live out her days in my female only tank so she doesn't breed and pass on whatever defects she has. Also a guppy who has a prolapse. The rest of the batch she came from were healthy and looked great, but she's had this prolapse since she was a tiny fry. So she's in the girl only tank too. She's grown and eats well, about a third smaller than the other female from the same batch, but since her intestines are prolapsed, it's not surprising. So she can live out her life in there without breeding. Just avoid breeding any fish that appears to have a health issue or is deformed, but otherwise they can live a pretty normal life with some care!

But doing things like feeding mid-water so he doesn't gulp air and make it worse is great. Hope you get many more years of enjoyment out of the tank!

 

[Colin_T]

The video of the fish leaning to one side is a threat display to the other male platy. They are fighting and the yellow one is losing but doesn't want to be at the bottom of the pecking order.