Platy

[Joyous]

Hello ;
I have just started to keep an aquarium and put 3 Platies in on Sunday. I do not know if this is the usual behavior, but once in awhile the fish will swim madly up and down, up and down the side of the tank with the nose touching the glass. Also one likes to stay up at the top but not gulping air, near where the water is coming out of the filter. Then the smaller one, which is a darker color will stay at the back behind a plant quite frequently. Also the larger one will follow this smaller one around when it comes out and doesn't seem to touch it but just follows it, especially when I put food in the tank. They all do swim about relaxed also, but not that frequently at least when I'm near the tank anyways.
Also I notice when I feed them they spit out the food quite frequently, I use Bio-Blend from Marineland Labs. they are very small wafers and also some flakes that I crush small but they don't seem to eat all that much, more spitting out!! I don't really know how much to feed them either.
I would appreciate some suggestions or just let me know if their behavior is normal.
Thanks and looking forward to hearing from you.
Joyous

 

[-fish-fanatic-]

this sound really familliar!!

i have 6 tetras one of which keeps swimming p at the top of the tank and if i put my finger close to it..it JUMPS

well..its nto a problem anymore..because it died

i am not sure if its the same story in your case...but i dont think there is anything you can do.

 

[Thuggerz]

Hello ;
I have just started to keep an aquarium and put 3 Platies in on Sunday. I do not know if this is the usual behavior, but once in awhile the fish will swim madly up and down, up and down the side of the tank with the nose touching the glass. Also one likes to stay up at the top but not gulping air, near where the water is coming out of the filter. Then the smaller one, which is a darker color will stay at the back behind a plant quite frequently. Also the larger one will follow this smaller one around when it comes out and doesn't seem to touch it but just follows it, especially when I put food in the tank. They all do swim about relaxed also, but not that frequently at least when I'm near the tank anyways.
Also I notice when I feed them they spit out the food quite frequently, I use Bio-Blend from Marineland Labs. they are very small wafers and also some flakes that I crush small but they don't seem to eat all that much, more spitting out!! I don't really know how much to feed them either.
I would appreciate some suggestions or just let me know if their behavior is normal.
Thanks and looking forward to hearing from you.
Joyous

Hi, joyous, i own 8 platies myself and there always swimming madly up and down the tank, also my platies spit out there food but i think they do this if the flake is to big, you should probably give them 2 or 3 flakes each twice a day and see how much they eat so hopefully it will give you a rough guide on the amount to feed them....hope i answerd some of your questions .

 

[Xebadir]

Just out of interest have you cycled the tank before adding fish? or are you cycling with fish. What that sounds like is ammonia poisoning: Ammonia burns the fishes lungs causing a lack of oxygen absorbance, so to counter this the fish attempts to reach the richest oxygen source it can (the surface under your filter return). This may be the issue with that. As for the following: are they males or females: see the sticky thread for details but they are easy to tell by either the splayed or modified anal fin. It is not unusual in a moderate size tank to have a pecking order which results in one fish being kept low.

 

[Joyous]

Just out of interest have you cycled the tank before adding fish? or are you cycling with fish. What that sounds like is ammonia poisoning: Ammonia burns the fishes lungs causing a lack of oxygen absorbance, so to counter this the fish attempts to reach the richest oxygen source it can (the surface under your filter return). This may be the issue with that. As for the following: are they males or females: see the sticky thread for details but they are easy to tell by either the splayed or modified anal fin. It is not unusual in a moderate size tank to have a pecking order which results in one fish being kept low.

Thanks everyone for your replies, appreciate it

I will make the flake food a little smaller and see what happens. Do Platies just eat the food that is floating, if so it doesn't seem to float very long, or will they go down to the gravel and pick some off there also?

I thought I would use these fish to cycle and had planned on taking off the 15% once a week, should I be doing it sooner? Also I had written in another post here about my water: I live on the farm and we have our own well water which is piped into the house and goes through a water softner. I tried using the water from the outside tape as it doesn't go through the softner but the tank, heater etc. got so coated with white I am now using the Reverse Osmosis water they we use for drinking and then put about the quarter of the tank with tap water from town. I did de-chlorinate it tho before I put it in the tank. I did this because I was told using just straight Osmosis water would not be good as it is lacking the mineral fish need. I thought I would use osmosis water 3 times with 1 time tap water. Do you think this is a good idea?
I tried to see the fins but am having a hard time to see the smaller fishes fin, the other two look like they would be female.
Hmmm I didn't know fish had pecking orders too!
Thanks, I know I will learn more about aquariums and fish from this forum.

 

[Joyous]

Hi again;
I meant to add this to the previous post; I used "Aqutan Water Conditioner" in the tap water. It says it protects the mucous membrane of fish: binds heavy metals: reduces stress in the aquarium and during fish transport: crystal clear water: neutralizes chlorine and chloramines. The other liquid I used after the Aqutan was: "Nitrivec" Biostarter. It says it breaks down ammonium and nitrite. With long-term effect these microorganisms immediately remove the pollutants and provide clear water for the aquarium. The directions said to add the fish after 24 hrs. it wasn't until 48 hours that I added the fish. I asked the person at the pet shop if I should be adding more of this each day for the next 10 days as it suggested that this could be done in the directions and he said no that it wouldn't be necessary since I was only putting the 3 fish in.
Do you think that I should be adding more, it says in the directions to add 2ml ( 2 teaspoons) per 100 liters (26.4 gal) of water daily for 10 days.
The ingredients are: nitrosomonas/nitrobacter 16/10 bacterial cells /ml, aqua purifcata ad 100 ml

I hope posting all this is not too much of a nuisance. I want to learn as much as possible about my fish caring.
Thanks

 

[drango91]

platies go down for food sometimes, i find mine to continously looking, i crush my pellets to make sure they get the food in

 

[Joyous]

Thanks drango91
I think I have it good now, they ate better today as I made the flakes a better size and took out the smaller moist pellets for them.
I have decided to use all well water from another well that we use to use for our drinking water and it is nice and clean, so am taking out 25% each week so by the end of the month the aquarium will have all the same water source. Cleaning the gravel also and I could see that I was giving too much food, so hopefully it is the right amount now.
Thanks all for your support.

 

[GuppiesRGr8]

it could be that there is salt in the water coz my platies were doing that and it was salt in the water so i toke ouit all the water and put in water with this treatment for salt and wot do u no it stopped.

 

[Annastasia]

Livebearers don't have molars, or chewing teeth really. Eating food and spitting it back out is a common way for them to make it smaller, and therefore easier to eat. That's why you saw the difference when you made the food size smaller.

The up and down behavior is common, my Platies do that too. The other behavior is most likely normal dominance/aggression.