Platys, guppies, thin and some dying

[Eliza]

Hi, I have had this problem for a while now but it seemed to have stopped but over the last week or two it has come back
Tank size: 130l
pH: 7.4 (tested normal ph and was dark blue 7.6 so tested high range and was 7.4)
ammonia:0
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 2.5-5
kH: don’t have a test
gH: don’t have a test
tank temp: 23.4 C

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior):

About 5 months ago (or more even) one of my platys got thin and died (stringy white poop and really thin) and then a few months went by and one of my other platys got thin and died.
I spoke to my local fish shop and they said to treat with esha 2000 and esha gdex (it didn’t seem to do anything)
About a month ago one of my adult platys got really thin all of a sudden (stringy poop) and so I QT her and treated her with NT labs anti fluke and wormer, it seemed to work and she got better so I put her back in my main tank.
And a few weeks ago one of my juvenile platys (medium size) got really thin and died and also some of my baby platys and then my platy which previously got better suddenly got really skinny and has now died.
Now all my guppies are getting thin and my last adult platy left has got stringy poop.
I would treat the whole tank with NT labs anti fluke and wormer again but I have amano shrimp and apparently it kills them (and I like my shrimp so I don’t want to kill them!!)
I don’t have a qt tank cycled at the moment so I can’t put any fish in there and I have a feeling it will be a whole tank treatment since i think it’s probably parasites.
I also have Esha NDX and it says that treats roundworms- is that callamnus? Because I haven’t seen any protruding red worms.
Do you think the ndx would work for this?

Volume and Frequency of water changes:
30-40% every 2 weeks (water changed yesterday)

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank:
Treated with esha 2000 and GDEX 1 or two weeks ago

Tank inhabitants: 4 adult guppies, 5-10 juvenile guppies, many baby guppies, 1 adult platy, 1 almost adult platy, 2 juvenile platys, 5ish 1 or 2 month old platys (I think a few have died)
5 amano shrimp.
I started out with just 5 guppies and 5 platys but they have had fry.
Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): I did a tank change around yesterday as I had loads of plant seedlings (I know it was probably the wrong time to do that!!)

Exposure to chemicals: None except the medicine around a week ago but I don’t think thats what you mean my chemicals!

Digital photo (include if possible
hopefully you can give me some advice,
Thanks

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Sounds like an internal problem...

@Colin_T

 

[Colin_T]

In the picture of your tank are 2 orange platies and just under them is a female guppy with what looks like a grey patch on her back and side. Are the fish getting patches like that on their bodies?

Can you post some pictures and a short video of the sick fish and if possible the fish doing a stringy white poop?

Over what time frame do the fish get skinny and start doing the stringy white poop?

Are the fish getting skinny because they have given birth?

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Camallanus and Capillaria are roundworm.
Tapeworm are flatworms

 

[Colin_T]

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, and do a stringy white poop. Fish can do this for months and not be too badly affected. In some cases, fish with a 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.

 

[Salty&Onion]

Sounds like an internal problem...

@Colin_T

I agree. Either internal parasites or something else..

 

[JuiceBox52]

We need the GH you should be able to find this on your local water providers website

 

[Eliza]

In the picture of your tank are 2 orange platies and just under them is a female guppy with what looks like a grey patch on her back and side. Are the fish getting patches like that on their bodies?

Can you post some pictures and a short video of the sick fish and if possible the fish doing a stringy white poop?

Over what time frame do the fish get skinny and start doing the stringy white poop?

Are the fish getting skinny because they have given birth?


---------------------
Camallanus and Capillaria are roundworm.
Tapeworm are flatworms

In the picture of your tank are 2 orange platies and just under them is a female guppy with what looks like a grey patch on her back and side. Are the fish getting patches like that on their bodies?

Can you post some pictures and a short video of the sick fish and if possible the fish doing a stringy white poop?

Over what time frame do the fish get skinny and start doing the stringy white poop?

Are the fish getting skinny because they have given birth?

---------------------
Camallanus and Capillaria are roundworm.
Tapeworm are flatworms

Sorry I just realised how bad my pic was!
a couple of the guppies have a dark patch near their fins but to be honest I can’t remember if they have always had that!
my guppies have always been pregnant every month and for this last month they haven’t been (my male died about 4 months ago so maybe they have just stopped being able to get pregnant)
But their bodies are just slightly more bent and they are definitely skinnier- but I have never seen them not pregnant and these are the first guppies I have kept (I have only had platys before) but I still think they are skinnier than average.
My orange platy has had stringy poop on and off for months but I was worried today because one of my other platys sadly died this morning.
They seem to start getting the stringy poop and then get thin over a week or so and then over night suddenly get really, really skinny.
My guppies have got skinny over the last two weeks but only properly noticeable over the last few days.
the worst looking guppy is the one with the blue/ green tail in pic.
I haven’t seen any stringy poop coming from them- just much, much skinnier than before, I have seen stringy poop from the baby guppies though.
The platy in the pic is the one which I have noticed with stringy poop (I will get a photo and vid tomorrow morning) she hasn’t got thin but I’m worried the same as what happened to the other platy is going to happen to her since she has got the stringy poop.
I have just read your symptom list and it most likely sounds like option 3, the only thing is they are getting skinny rather than looking pregnant (although one of my platys- the other platy in the photo, is starting to look more bloated than normal and I haven’t had a male platy in there since October when she was really small!)
I just looked it up and our water is hard water and it said the water hardness average was:110.4mg/l calcium
I hope this info helps!

Thankyou so much for all of your help!

 

[Colin_T]

Your GH is too low (110ppm) but that is not causing the problem. You want the GH to be around 200ppm+ for platies, guppies and swordtails, and 250ppm+ for mollies.

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The guppy in the picture has Spironucleus or muscle wasting disease. The muscle tissue under the skin is turning cream/ white. This is noticeable on the front half of the body on the dorsal (top) part of the fish.

The only treatment I know for Spironucleus is cleaning up the tank and adding a heap of salt.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.

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 is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. Wash filter media/ material in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn.

Then add salt.

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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 4 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water.

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 will affect some plants.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.