Platy side ripped completely off

[Jean Feil]

I have a baby platy just a few weeks old. He seems to be the only male in the "litter" and he's also the runt. Other than that, he's always seemed healthy and eats well.

Yesterday I noticed it looks like most of his right side has been ripped off. He's in worse shape than Nemo because he doesn't even have a fin on that side anymore. I have no idea how this could have happened. I've never seen the other fish in the tank go after the babies.

Last night I moved him, and a few of the other babies, to my hospital tank. I just fed them now and they all went after the food.

My question is, will any of what he lost grow back? Can fins grow back? I know you are going to want a picture, but he's only slightly bigger than a grain of rice.

Thank you.​

 

[Colin_T]

If the fish is only a couple of weeks old you won't be able to sex it. And it should be bigger than a grain of rice at this age.

Are you sure the skin and muscle has been taken off the side?
If fish are stressed they produce excess mucous on their body and fins and this can peel off and look like a layer or skin. The most common cause of stress is poor water quality or an infection.

Check the water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH. If there is any ammonia or nitrite readings or a nitrate reading above 20ppm, do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day until the readings are 0.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Make sure the pH is above 7.0.

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Depending on the filter you have, that might have sucked the fish onto the filter and damaged it. If you have an external power filter on the tank, put a round/ cylindrical sponge (from an internal power filter) onto the intake strainer of the filter.

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Fins usually grow back within a month or so.

 

[Jean Feil]

Thank you Colin for getting back to me so quickly. The platy is more than a couple of weeks old. I can't remember when he was born, but it's more like 4 weeks or more. He's definitely a male. And as for his size, like I said, he's the runt of the litter. His sisters are all about twice his size.

Anyway, it is hard to see because he's so small, but it looks like the fin and scales are missing on his right side. The rest of his body is a pale orange, but his right side is grayish.

The water in the 20g was 0, 0, 20, 8.2 before I did a water change yesterday. But I took him out of that and put him in my 5g hospital tank after that. I did a 50% water change on the hospital tank first and I just did a 30% one tonight.

All the other platys and mollies in the 20g are fine.

The tank is heavily planted, so I like to leave the fish poop there to feed the plants.

I hope he's going to be ok. He's a special little guy.

 

[Colin_T]

A cream, white or grey patch on the side of a fish can indicate a protozoan infection like Costia, Chilodonella or Trichodina. These can normally be treated with salt. See below for directions on using salt. If the fish was infected when young, it would hinder its growth. The fish could have a genetic problem or other health issues that might be slowing its growth rate.

Female livebearers generally grow faster than males because they grow larger than males.

If you can post a clear picture of the fish it might provide more information.

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You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres and if there is no improvement after 48 hours, then increase it so there is a total of 4 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate will affect some plants. The lower dose rate will not affect plants.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that.