BobTheDog
Fish Fanatic
Hello.... my first post here. I have a 2-3 week old aquarium with a few platys and I'm having trouble with some of them. First, here are the stats:
55 gal aquarium with Emporer 440 BIO-Wheel Filter
pH = 7.2
KH = 90 ppm (alkalinity)
GH = 75 ppm (hardness)
Nitrite = .5 -> 1. ppm range
Nitrate = 0-20 ppm range
Ammonia = .5 ppm
Temp = 81 f
6 platys
gravel + plastic aquarium plants
As I said, this is a new tank. It's starting to cycle... ammonia falling, nitrite rising slowing and nitrate starting to rise. I did a 50% water change on the morning of Saturday, Nov 29th.... ammonia and nitrite were both just below "stress" levels. Until Sat, I had 4 male platys who seemed to be doing fine. I did have an ich outbreak about 2 weeks ago, but used Rid Ich and seemed to go away... treated for week and no sign of ich for 12 days (last 5 days during treatment plus 7 days after last treatment). Saturday afternoon I added 3 female platys to the tank. 3 of the males and been beating up on on of the other males and I thought if they had some females they might be a little more hospitable to each other. I got the females from the same LFS where I purchased the males. Watched them in tank briefly and they appeared to be OK. Method I used to 'acclimate' them to tank was to put them and their water in small container I use with the aquarium and slowly add water from the tank... over period of probably 30 mins. Then, I netted them and put them in tank, discarding water. All three had fins clamped but assumed was from stress of moving, new environment, etc. I also noticed that one of the females appeared to have some damaged scales or something near where her tail joined her body but I had family in town and we were going to dinner so pretty much didn't see them again until next morning. Got up, turned on lights and was watching them. One of the females seemed to be OK.... fins unclamped, swimming with the males, etc. However, the other 2 were still lurking at the other end of the tank.... fins clamped and not moving much. No signs of gasping, etc though. However, the one female definitely had something going on with her body. On the one side, top and bottom, her scales were all sticking out and she appeared to have some red, almost like blood or something on the side. The other female also had some kind of damage/disease at the base of her tale... very pale and appeared to have scales missing or something. I thought maybe the males were nipping at them or something, but I watched pretty closely yesterday (Sunday) and never saw any such signs. Got up this morning and the one female with the protruding scales was DEAD!!! Fished her out and disposed of her. Looked at the other female and she still has clamped fins and is moderately listless.... mainly hanging in one end of the tank. She definitely has something going on at the base of her tail, on her body. A "white patch" that looks almost like some flesh is gone or something... no fuzziness or anything like that, but just white and irregular and possibly sunken in. The other female still appears to be ok. Anyone have any ideas what might be going on. At first, I thought I might have damaged the other female getting her out of the "transition container". I had trouble with one of them and thought maybe I pinned damaged her with the net... maybe pinned for a second between the sides of the contained and the net. But, with both of them having what appears to be similar conditions, I don't think this is the case. Help!
55 gal aquarium with Emporer 440 BIO-Wheel Filter
pH = 7.2
KH = 90 ppm (alkalinity)
GH = 75 ppm (hardness)
Nitrite = .5 -> 1. ppm range
Nitrate = 0-20 ppm range
Ammonia = .5 ppm
Temp = 81 f
6 platys
gravel + plastic aquarium plants
As I said, this is a new tank. It's starting to cycle... ammonia falling, nitrite rising slowing and nitrate starting to rise. I did a 50% water change on the morning of Saturday, Nov 29th.... ammonia and nitrite were both just below "stress" levels. Until Sat, I had 4 male platys who seemed to be doing fine. I did have an ich outbreak about 2 weeks ago, but used Rid Ich and seemed to go away... treated for week and no sign of ich for 12 days (last 5 days during treatment plus 7 days after last treatment). Saturday afternoon I added 3 female platys to the tank. 3 of the males and been beating up on on of the other males and I thought if they had some females they might be a little more hospitable to each other. I got the females from the same LFS where I purchased the males. Watched them in tank briefly and they appeared to be OK. Method I used to 'acclimate' them to tank was to put them and their water in small container I use with the aquarium and slowly add water from the tank... over period of probably 30 mins. Then, I netted them and put them in tank, discarding water. All three had fins clamped but assumed was from stress of moving, new environment, etc. I also noticed that one of the females appeared to have some damaged scales or something near where her tail joined her body but I had family in town and we were going to dinner so pretty much didn't see them again until next morning. Got up, turned on lights and was watching them. One of the females seemed to be OK.... fins unclamped, swimming with the males, etc. However, the other 2 were still lurking at the other end of the tank.... fins clamped and not moving much. No signs of gasping, etc though. However, the one female definitely had something going on with her body. On the one side, top and bottom, her scales were all sticking out and she appeared to have some red, almost like blood or something on the side. The other female also had some kind of damage/disease at the base of her tale... very pale and appeared to have scales missing or something. I thought maybe the males were nipping at them or something, but I watched pretty closely yesterday (Sunday) and never saw any such signs. Got up this morning and the one female with the protruding scales was DEAD!!! Fished her out and disposed of her. Looked at the other female and she still has clamped fins and is moderately listless.... mainly hanging in one end of the tank. She definitely has something going on at the base of her tail, on her body. A "white patch" that looks almost like some flesh is gone or something... no fuzziness or anything like that, but just white and irregular and possibly sunken in. The other female still appears to be ok. Anyone have any ideas what might be going on. At first, I thought I might have damaged the other female getting her out of the "transition container". I had trouble with one of them and thought maybe I pinned damaged her with the net... maybe pinned for a second between the sides of the contained and the net. But, with both of them having what appears to be similar conditions, I don't think this is the case. Help!
