Platy died, what was wrong?

[curtispoppy]

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

Hard to say by just looking at it...have you tested your water?

 

[curtispoppy]

Yes zero nitrites and ammonia fine. I wondered if its fin looked odd. Seems worn away

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

What was the reading for ammonia and Nitrates?

Fin rot is almost always caused by poor water quality, the fish didn't look to have it bad enough to kill it though...how much and how often do you do your water changes?

 

[curtispoppy]

We change the water every couple of weeks and use Prime. Both ammonia and nitrites were zero. We have also lost a guppy recently too. All the fish have been in the tank for just under a year and have been absolutely fine.

 

[curtispoppy]

We usually do a 25% change. We have in the past done a 50% change as the bogwood in the tank still leaks tannins (even after 8 months)

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

NitrAtes should be as close to zero but under 20 if you can manage it. Most of us here would encourage you to do a 50% water change every week, the bigger the better

Do the fish have any symptoms before they died that you noticed? Livebearers are notorious for being susceptible to worms and protozoan infections...Notice any white stringy poop or changes in weight?

 

[curtispoppy]

The water quality is good but we can certainly up the water changes. I haven’t noticed anything in particular. All the other fish seem well

 

[emeraldking]

Only by these photos, I can't tell what the cause cold have been.

 

[curtispoppy]

The fish was noticeably heaving breathing too

 

[angiemike6]

Another thought after listening to your saying the fish were noticeably heavy breathing too - platy's need lots of oxygen. They are fish that get their oxygen through their gills as opposed to Gourami's who have the amazing ability to gulp air from the surface of the water. Gourami's possess a unique labyrinth organ behind the head that allows them to extract oxygen from the air, supplementing oxygen attained through their gills. Oxygen reserves in water can easily get depleted and many factors can contribute to this including overstocking the aquarium, overfeeding your fish, which results in an increased waste production, and not keeping up with regular water changes.

As a minimum you should have the outlet pipe of your pump pointing up at the surface of the water to ensure that it is agitated, which helps create oxygen in the water. You could also get air stones, and even live plants that will help oxygenate the water.

I have found all this by accident. I came back one night and found that one of my fish had knocked the outlet pipe off of the pump, and it was laying on the gravel. This meant that the water had not been agitated probably all day. My Gourami's and corys (who can also gulp air) were constantly shooting up to the surface to get oxygen, but my 2 beautiful adult 8 year old Boesemani Rainbow Fish were both dead on the bottom. They looked absolutely fine, but had died presumably due to oxygen depletion in the water.