Platy hiding at top of tank

[crazyfishfamily]

I have a 29 gallon tank, which contains six guppies, a bristlenose pleco, an otocinclus, and a mickey mouse platy. All my other fish are acting normal but the past two days she has been hiding in the corners at the top of the tank, and at the bottom. Occasionally she will come out and act normal, this morning she wouldn't eat and she has her fins slightly clamped. I did a 10% water change two days ago, when I noticed her acting strange I tested my water. Everything was normal except my pH was low, yesterday I did a 30% water change to get the pH down. After testing it seemed to have gone back to a stable level, but she is still acting strange. She has done this one other time several weeks ago but the water change helped her get back to normal. I have live plants in my tank and have noticed some blackish purple algea on my rocks could this be a problem? My sand has also been clumping with black spots in it, again could this be contributing? Over the past few hours I've noticed her getting less active.

 

[Colin_T]

Any chance of a picture and short video of the fish?
If the pictures are too big for the website, set the camera's resolution to its lowest setting and take some more. The lower resolution will make the images smaller and they should fit on this website. Check the pictures on your pc and find a couple that are clear and show the problem, and post them here. Make sure you turn the camera's resolution back up after you have taken the pics otherwise all your pictures will be small.

If the video is too big for this website, post it on YouTube and copy & paste the link here. We can view it at YouTube. If you are using a mobile phone to take the video, have the phone horizontal so the video takes up the entire screen. If you have the phone vertical, you get video in the middle and black on either side.

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What is the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate level in the tank (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).

Depending on what the GH of your water is, will determine what fish you should keep.
Tetras, barbs, gouramis, rasbora, Corydoras and small species of suckermouth catfish all occur in soft water (GH below 150ppm).

Livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies) occur in medium hard water with a GH around 200-250ppm.

If you have very hard water (GH above 300ppm) then look at African Rift Lake cichlids or use distilled or reverse osmosis water to reduce the GH.

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Clamped fins can be poor water quality, low pH or GH, or an infection.

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Test the tank water and then do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Post pictures of the fish and the fish tank.

How often and how do you clean the filter?

 

[crazyfishfamily]

Ammonia - 0
Nitrate- 0
nitrite- 0
GH- 100
chlorine- 0
alkalinity- 20
ph- 6.5
this was before I did a 35% water change. I tested the pH after and it had gone up to 7.2 after the change. She doesn't seem much better. The picture was taken this morning and the video was during feeding (that's why the water is so cloudy) she isn't interested in food and I've also noticed her poop is white and stringy.
thank you for trying to help! I can't figure out what is wrong!

https/youtu.be/-w0EqInU4Ww <--the video

 

[crazyfishfamily]

I've had this tank for about 2 months and have changed the filter cartirage once and cleaned the whole filter once as well.

 

[Colin_T]

Filters should be cleaned at least once a month. Wash the filter media/ materials in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn.

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Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons.
1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be cured because massive internal organ failure has already occurred.

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2) Internal Protozoan Infections cause the fish to lose weight rapidly (over a week or two), fish continues to eat and swim around but not as much as normal, does stringy white poop. If not treated the fish dies a week or so after these symptoms appear. Metronidazole normally works well for this.

There is a medication (API General Cure) that contains Praziquantel and Metronidazole.

It's interesting that API and the Californian government have listed Metronidazole as a carcinogen. That's a concern considering it was widely used to treat intestinal infections in people.

Anyway, if you use this or any medication, handle with care, don't inhale the medication, and wash hands with soapy water after treating the fish or working in the tank.

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3) Intestinal Worms like tapeworm and threadworms cause the fish to lose weight, continue eating and swimming normally, do a stringy white poop. Fish can do this for months and not be too badly affected. In some cases, fish with bad worm infestation will actually gain weight and get fat and look like a pregnant guppy. This is due to the huge number of worms inside the fish.

Livebearers like guppies, mollies, swordtails & platies are regularly infected with gill flukes and intestinal worms. If the fish are still eating well, then worms is the most likely cause.

You can use Praziquantel to treat tapeworm and gill flukes. And Levamisole to treat thread/ round worms. If you can't find these medications, look for Flubendazole, which treats both lots of worms.

Remove carbon from filters before treatment and increase aeration/ surface turbulence to maximise oxygen levels in the water.

You treat the fish once a week for 4 weeks. The first treatment will kill any worms in the fish. The second, third and forth treatments kill any baby worms that hatch from eggs inside the fish's digestive tract.

Treat every fish tank in the house at the same time to prevent cross contamination.
You do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean 24-48 hours after treatment. Clean the filter 24 hours after treatment too.

Do not use the 2 medications together. If you want to treat both medications in a short space of time, use Praziquantel on day one. Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate on day 2 & 3. Treat the tank with Levamisole on day 4 and do a 75% water change and gravel clean on day 5, 6 & 7 and then start with Praziquantel again on day 8.

The water changes will remove most of the medication so you don't overdose the fish the next time you treat them. The gravel cleaning will suck out any worms and eggs that have been expelled by the fish. Repeating the treatment for 3-4 doses at weekly intervals will kill any worms that hatch from eggs. At the end of the treatment you will have healthier fish.

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If the fish has stopped eating and is doing a stringy white poop, I would euthanase it.​

 

[crazyfishfamily]

Thank you that is very helpful! Should I be concerned about the other fish in my tank? Should I quarantine her? Also, where do you recommend getting these medications, it's really hard to get anything with most stores closed right now and shipping so slow. Thank you!

 

[Colin_T]

If you have a spare tank to move her into then that is fine. Don't lift her out of the water though, because if she has an internal problem it will be made worse if she is lifted out of water. Carefully catch her in a net and then put a plastic container under the net and lift her out in the net in the bucket of water. Then move her to the other tank, which should have the same water as her current tank.

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Monitor the other fish and if more of them develop the same symptoms, then there is a problem in the tank.

You can reduce the chance of diseases being spread by doing a 75% water change and gravel cleaning the substrate every day for a week after any fish die. This dilutes the disease organisms in the tank and reduces the chance of the other fish getting sick.

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You can check on Ebay for the medication but if she has stopped eating and is doing a stringy white poop, it's probably too late and you will probably waste your money if you treat her.