Should I Just Put This Fish Out Of Her Misery?

[SouthernCross]

Ok...so I've had this female calico platy since February - she was one of the first fish I bought when I got my tropical tank this year. Hence I'm a little attached to her and this thread makes me very sad.

All I can think of to say what's wrong with her is that she's seemed to fail to thrive - especially comparing her to my other four platies.

This is a photo of her not long after I got her:

Here's one of her now:


She has been like this for a long time - several months even. She is clamped 99% of the time, her swimming is bad, she hides in a corner nearly all the time. She does come out at feeding time, but I really can't tell if she eats anything (although still surviving I guess she must be). With her hiding all the time, its hard to see if she poops. Early on when she was declining (I made a few posts actually) occasionally she'd look better for a bit, but has since been consistently going downhill...

The skinnyness now is really getting to me - the photos below show how bad it is - parts of her body look concaved even. The shot from above shows her next to the healthy sunset platy (which is actually still a very young small platy - see photo further down to compare how little the sunset is to the adults - the calico should look like those adults!) and a pregnant female as comparison:





I have expected to find her dead one morning for a long time - I thought she must have been sick with something - but she's still here, and since the other platies are fine (and varied treatments of Protozin, Myxazin, and salt baths awhile ago had no effects) I don't think its an illness? I don't know whether she's always just been a poorly specimen, but its really not nice to watch her anymore...also:

She has stayed super small - the other platies I bought at the same time same place grew large, fat and healthy. The females regularly have babies - this calico she dropped once not long after I first got her, and I've not seen her pregnant since. I even have bought two sets of other baby platies who have grown up, been pregnant several times and overtaken her in size themselves (to nearly double!). Here's a shot of my other platies (the orange white and black is very pregnant, and as I said the sunset is still a bit of a baby too) so you can see how healthy and fat they are as a comparison:



The other platies (not my other fish, just the platies) have been picking on her a lot. They come near her, peck at her, and she seems to freeze up, and then shakes uncontrollable (literally like she's having a seizure!) while letting the other fish peck at her until eventually the fish loses interest or she manages to swim away. Her swimming is always kinda wonky too (but not like a swimbladder problem)

As I said, she's been like this for a LONG time now, but the shaking, the skinnyness, and the being picked on by the other platies seems to be worse (or maybe I've been watching more, I don't know...)

I really don't think there's a way to fix her, and clearly she's suffering. My tank parameters are all fine - and all my other fish are healthy - bar this one. I don't know whether I should just put her out of her misery.

What do you think I should do? Please don't flame me, I've been trying to help her for a long time now in the hope she'd get better and catch up physically to the others but its clearly just not happening...

 

[-germ-]

Thats awful. No idea, but a few guesses...
Do you feed live foods and vitamins? Might help...
Have you tried treating for parasites, maybe caused by an internal worm?
Could be a tumour obstructing her gullet?

Not a nice situation for you....

 

[WILDER]

She looks skinny to me.
Has she gone thin though not eating, as you could be dealing with internal parasites.

 

[amanda8beechwood]

I am so sorry to hear about this. I went through exactly the same thing with one of my platies. We eventually euthanised him and I was absolutely devastated. Ours had all the exact same symptoms as yours had and gradually got worse but it took a good couple of months and like you I was expecting to find him dead. We had to keep separating ours from the other platies as they kept pecking him. We treated for internal parasites, we did everything but he didn't seem to get any better. He was also swimming oddly but it wasn't swim bladder. If he were in a tank by himself, it seemed like he would be completely happy. We kept him separate from the others for about a week, he had like a red dot just above his anus and then one day he was sat on the bottom of the hospital tank gasping, when he did swim we saw like a red line coming from that dot all the way up his belly like he'd just had heart surgery. We couldn't bear him in anymore pain and it was obvious that he wasn't going to get better so we euthanised himx

 

[WILDER]

The thing is parasite meds can be to late as the nasty things have already done the damage to the insides of the fish, resulting in bacterial infections.

 

[ArauraDiscus]

I agree with Wilder definately a parasite. SHe will continually eat when offered food, but gets skinnier. Because the parasites will absorb the majority of the nutrients. Definately try anti-parasite meds and anti-parasite food. If she refuses to eat the smelly medicated food, try garlic extract or other taste additives and mix them with the food to get here attention. This can be easily solved IMO, no need to euthanize.

And the red dot and line was likely a hemmorage caused by the parasites or a secondary bacterial infection. If caught early enough, internal parasites can be very easily treated. A good rule of thumb is, if the fish is still eating, but looks super skinny, he has probably got some parasites.

 

[amanda8beechwood]

I wish I had found this forum when she first got ill. The LFS are absolutely rubbish aren't they, they said she was just a small fish tut. I really hope your little fishie gets better xx

 

[Miss Wiggle]

have you tried putting her into isolation, get a little 5gal or something and pop her in there. then she's no competition for food and can get her fair share. it'll be easier to monitor how much she's eating.

try vitamin enriched food and a good variety, platys like veg so make sure she is eating her greens.

it could simply be that she was from poor stock in the first place and may never thrive.

 

[AmberMc]

Sorry to hear about your situation. Good luck!

 

[Lynda B]

Miss Wiggle suggested exactly what I would.... if you haven't moved her to isolation for treatment yet, now would be a really good time. It's close to impossible to treat one fish in a community tank.....

 

[amanda8beechwood]

How is she now x

 

[Joemuz]

Hope she gets better soon x

 

[SouthernCross]

Thankyou everyone for your replies. But unfortunately, it's too late...

I had to go away for the last two days (Friday morning - Sunday night - that's why I haven't replied until now) and when I got home just now I discovered that she's died while I was gone. I was hoping to come home and put your suggestions into practice.

I didn't make any feeding arrangements while I was gone (most fish are fine for way longer than 2 days) but I would guess with the parasite, that going without for two days was too much for her. Perhaps my regular everyday feeding was what was just keeping her going up until now.

In particular I want to thank Wilder, Miss Wiggle and ArauraDiscus - after reading your thoughts, I think it was a parasite too . amanda8beechwood, it sounds like you did indeed have the exact same problem as me. I'm sorry your fish died too.
I could have put her into my betta's 5 gallon and popped the betta into a breeding net in my community for awhile. Not sure if it would have worked, but coulda been worth a shot.

Just a few quick questions (in case I ever have to deal with this again)
I've looked quickly on my online shops and none of them have medicated food available. However, I have Sterazin in my box of fish stuff - would this med have been the one to do the job?

Also, this is a bit of an icky question - but I have to ask. When the a fish with a parasite dies, does the parasite die with the fish - or is it able to exit the fish and find a new host? I just want to make sure it couldn't have gone and gotten in one of my other fish. I thought about dissecting her (I have a kit and did a lot of dissecting at university for awhile) too see if there was anything in her, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. She didn't look like she'd been dead long when I got home - she wasn't fuzzy or rotted or anything and it didn't look like any of the other fish had touched her. So should my other fish be fine?

Once again, thankyou to all of you.

RIP lil platy girl.

 

[amanda8beechwood]

I used flubenol to treat my fish chick, that treats the parasites. All my fish have been fine since apart from a power outtage x

 

[ArauraDiscus]

Hmm every petsmart or petco will have it. Look in the medications section, not the food section. SOrry to hear, good luck with your other fish, and fish to come.