Platies mysteriously dying!!!

[madireeder]

The water quality in my tank is perfect, I test it frequently. Everything has been great otherwise but my platies keep dying! And very unexpectedly! I have two balloon mollies, I HAD two platies (now one), and 3 African Clawed Frogs (which i’m not very happy about because the pet store told me they were ADFs). It’s a 20 gallon tank. But anyway, this is now the second platy that was swimming perfectly fine one minute and dead the next. And each time I’m noticing damage to the tail. Could it be that the frogs are mistaking them for food and nipping at them? The frogs are way smaller than the fish and I know they don’t have teeth, but I guess it’s still possible. If it is the frogs, what is it exactly that’s killing them? Something internal maybe?

 

[TheTenthDoctor]

Okay so my thoughts are, 1. Maybe there is something wrong with your water, know you said that the parameters were fine, but you never know. 2. There is something wrong with the platies, maybe they are diseased, sick, or otherwise impaired, maybe the shock of the new tank was too much. 3. I don't think its the frogs.... 4. Maybe do a large water change, and find a better place to buy platies!!

 

[madireeder]

Okay so my thoughts are, 1. Maybe there is something wrong with your water, know you said that the parameters were fine, but you never know. 2. There is something wrong with the platies, maybe they are diseased, sick, or otherwise impaired, maybe the shock of the new tank was too much. 3. I don't think its the frogs.... 4. Maybe do a large water change, and find a better place to buy platies!!

I was leaning towards them being sick in some way as well. I live in a very small town with our own pet store, so it’s not a chain store or franchise or anything. I personally think they’re in it for the money, so they over breed and sell sell sell. I don’t think they’re too worried about the actual well being of their fish. These are the same people that told me the clawed frogs were dwarf frogs.

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Can you post some pictures of the fish (live and dead if you still have the dead one)?

How long has the tank been set up for?
How long have you had the fish for?
Have you added anything to the tank in the 2 weeks before this happened?

How often do you do water changes and how much do you change?
Do you dechlorinate the new water before adding it to the tank?
Do you have buckets, hoses, etc, specifically for the fish?

What is the ammonia, nitrite & nitrate in numbers?

What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply?
This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

Do you have any moisturising cream, hand sanitiser, oil, grease, perfume or anything else on your hands when you work in the tank?

 

[madireeder]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Can you post some pictures of the fish (live and dead if you still have the dead one)?

How long has the tank been set up for?
How long have you had the fish for?
Have you added anything to the tank in the 2 weeks before this happened?

How often do you do water changes and how much do you change?
Do you dechlorinate the new water before adding it to the tank?
Do you have buckets, hoses, etc, specifically for the fish?

What is the ammonia, nitrite & nitrate in numbers?

What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply?
This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

Do you have any moisturising cream, hand sanitiser, oil, grease, perfume or anything else on your hands when you work in the tank?

I don’t have any photos of it alive or dead. I just got the fish about a week ago. The tank has been set up for about a year. Nothing has been added to the tank recently. Besides that fish. I do about a 20% water change weekly, and use API tap water conditioner according to the directions on the bottle. Everything I use while changing the tank is only used when I change it. Not for any other things. The ammonia is 0ppm right now, but when I do test and ammonia is high I use API AmmoLock to treat it right away. Nitrate and nitrite levels are in the safe zone of the water tests. I’m not sure the quality of the water itself, besides that it’s heavily chlorinated. I’m careful not to have anything harmful on my hands while handling the tank. So not sure what the problem is. It’s rather annoying actually, because a year ago when I first started the tank this was all new to me and i’ve been trying to learn and do what i can for everything to be perfect. I always just had one betta before I started this tank so it’s a big change and a lot more work.

 

[Colin_T]

What sort of filter is in the tank?
What types of filter media/ material is in the filter?
How often and how do you clean the filter?

Can you post some pictures and video of the remaining fish so we can check them for diseases?

 

[madireeder]

What sort of filter is in the tank?
What types of filter media/ material is in the filter?
How often and how do you clean the filter?

Can you post some pictures and video of the remaining fish so we can check them for diseases?

Tetra Whisper Internal Filter. It’s a mesh dual-sided Bio-Bag with activated carbon. I clean the filter with every water change. I take apart all of the pieces that detach and use a scrub brush and just hot water to clean it. I replace the mesh filter each time as well. When I get a chance I will get some pics of the other fish.

 

[Oblio]

The ammonia is 0ppm right now, but when I do test and ammonia is high I use API AmmoLock to treat it right away. Nitrate and nitrite levels are in the safe zone of the water tests.

Tetra Whisper Internal Filter. It’s a mesh dual-sided Bio-Bag with activated carbon. I clean the filter with every water change. I take apart all of the pieces that detach and use a scrub brush and just hot water to clean it.

Your ammonia should stay at zero after your tank is cycled. Do you see a spike sometime after cleaning your filter? You may not have a large enough biological filter established. Nitrites should also remain at zero. Nitrates will slowly increase and are reduced by water changes.

 

[Oblio]

Tetra Whisper Internal Filter. It’s a mesh dual-sided Bio-Bag with activated carbon. I clean the filter with every water change. I take apart all of the pieces that detach and use a scrub brush and just hot water to clean it.

Forgot to add, any foam or fiber media that you are reusing should be rinsed or cleaned with tank water, definitely not hot tap water.

 

[Colin_T]

Just wash the filter under cold water. Hot water can cause chemicals to leach out of plastics and these might affect the fish.

Put some sponges in the filter instead of the bio bags. Then squeeze the sponges out in a bucket of tank water and re-use the sponges. You can use sponges from other brands of filter and cut them to fit with a pr of scissors.

When you replace the filter media, you get rid of the good filter bacteria and can get ammonia readings that can affect the fish. Ammonia is more of an issue in water with a pH above 7.0.

This may or may not have contributed to the dead fish but is something you can change in the future.

 

[emeraldking]

Besides the paramaters that have been mentioned overhere, it could also be something bacterial that has only affected the platies.

 

[Byron]

Colin normally catches water parameter issues but other issues mentioned may have intervened. What are the GH and pH? You are in New Jersey (I assume from "NJ") and if you have the very soft water like neighbouring New York City, that is one real issue for the livebearers. The pH is probably below 7 too, you can confirm. At the very least, this weakens fish that have evolved to function in water with a higher (much higher) level of dissolved calcium and magnesium, and if it does not kill them outright it can allow other issues to take hold.

Colin has dealt with ammonia, this too is particularly detrimental to mollies, they cannot tolerate any nitrogen issues (ammonia, nitrite, high nitrate). And "balloon" varieties of any species are weaker and more susceptible to disease and other issues because of their weakened state.

 

[TheTenthDoctor]

I was leaning towards them being sick in some way as well. I live in a very small town with our own pet store, so it’s not a chain store or franchise or anything. I personally think they’re in it for the money, so they over breed and sell sell sell. I don’t think they’re too worried about the actual well being of their fish. These are the same people that told me the clawed frogs were dwarf frogs.

Yeah....what a mess...if your ever in PA stop by and I'll give you some endler-guppies