?sick? platy and some other advice please!

[drbrad25]

Hello everyone,

I am newby to the wonderful world of aquariums and have a bit of a problem with my platies. From what i've read its good to be thorough with descriptions so if this is long winded, i'm sorry.

I bought my first tank about 10 days ago (An Aqua One AR980). It has a capactiy of about 190 Litres (about 40 something gallons). I set it all up and planted all my plants (treating the water with Aqua Plus to remove chlorine, added showmaster water conditioner and some plant fertiliser). No fish of course. Decided to measure my pH for a reference which was about 7.3. It uses a powerhead filter system with noodles, charcoal and dacron as filter material.

I asked my LFS about fishless cycling and they told me that it was very hard to get right so i'd be better with some hardy species of fish to cycle the tank. So about 5 days ago i added 6 platies to my tank (3 red ones and 3 yellow/translucent ones). They seemed to adjust pretty well to the new conditions. I bought a master test kit to measure all my levels and did a reading 2 days later which showed no ammonia or nitrite, ph of 7.8 (jumped up quite a bit), GH of 8 dH and KH of 4 dH.

A couple of days ago, i noticed that my smallest red platy had kind of a white strip with scales lifting off on her left flank (not very big). I've put a couple of photos below (sorry about the quality but geez fish are hard to photograph, they just don't sit still). Yesterday i noticed that she was just sitting on the bottom under a piece of driftwood and looked very lack luster. But when it came to feeding time she was certainly eating with gusto! She doesn't have any typical symptoms like scratching against rocks or anything.

I did a partial water change yesterday (about 10%) to see if that might help her but she was still a bit lack luster today and i've noticed that one of the larger red platies has got a similar white spot on her but much smaller.

These spots could have been there from the start and i just didn't notice them, i'm not sure.

Here are my water readings today:
Temp: 24 degrees Celsius
pH: (i used two different test kits and got two different results) 7.8 on one test, 7.5 on another
ammonia and nitrite still 0
GH of 9 dH
KH of 4 dH

From the research i've done looking at different fish disease websites have got 2 differential diagnoses in mind. Ich or Columnaris infection. Is there a way i can make a definitive diagnosis without having to spend a fortune?

another thing to note is that this female also seems to be a bit bullied by the larger red platies, could it just be a battle scar?

Do you think i should try to treat or just watch it to see if gets wors over the next couple of days? What's the best way to treat if you think it needs treating?

What do you think of my water's biochemistry? The pH seems a little high to me and the KH a little low.

I was also hoping for some advice about hospital tanks. At the moment, i don't have one. Should i get one and if so, what size do i need and what equipment does it need to have?

Also, what about food. I currently feed them flake food but today i decided to treat with live black worms. A lot of them just fell to the bottom though. Seeing they are live food, is that going to be a problem?

Any advice you could give me would be great!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks,
Brad

 

[Mamaschild]

Hi Brad. Your Ph is fine for Platies. Now, depending on what you intend to keep permanently, it still should be ok, just be sure to research, research, research . Getting different readings from different test kits happens. That is not a BIG difference, so don't worry about it too much.

The mark on your little Red Wag looks like a battle scar to me. It's possible she was running away from a bully and ran into a rock or something. As long as she is eating well, and doesn't show any signs of fungus or anything, she should heal fine. Just keep up your water changes. If you do feel she is getting worse, Melafix is a tea tree extract and is very good for minor cuts and fin damage.

A hospital tank needs to be able to house your largest fish. Determine that, and you can decide how big it must be.....with Platies a 2.5 - 5g should be fine. You don't want it to be too big, so the sick fishie doesn't have to swim around to find food.

Flake is good food. You can always mix it up a little by including frozen brine shrimp, bloodworms, spiralina (algea) flakes, and things like that. I have no experience with blackworms, but have had live bloodworms living in my tank??? Midge flys LOVE aquariums. But it's free food, so I didn't complain. Then the Cories ate them all

HTH

 

[drbrad25]

Thanks for your advice!!!

I've been watching her closely over the last couple of days (makes a good distraction instead of studying for exams) and she seems to be ok. The mark is still the same size but at least it's not getting any bigger or spreading and her behaviour is pretty normal.

Will be looking at getting a hospital tank in the next couple of weeks and setting it up so i can introduce some more fish into my main tank. My next fish will probably be a school of neon tetras (6-8) or a couple of bristtlenose catfish. so i guess i'll need a reasonable size quarantine/hospital tank for that. i was thinking 5-10 gallons (not used to talking in gallons as i'm an aussie). Any suggestions on effective cheap filtration?

Thanks again!

Brad

 

[Mamaschild]

Hey Brad. Glad to hear she's doing well. Yep, I would much rather watch the fish then MOST anything else

I have never had a hospital tank, or a quarantine tank, for that matter. But I do have a 10g fry tank running. Filteration for that is easy. Just a small hang on back filter. Whisper, Penguin, Marineland, and a few others make them that size. Or if you find a decently priced "whole set-up" the size you want, that should be fine. It's not like you will always have fish in there.....we hope so you don't have to get real elaborate.

Since you will have a cycled tank when you set up your hospital, you will be able to instantly cycle it Simply set the hospital up with whatever you plan on putting in, fill it, and get it to the right temp. Take some of the floss from your current tank (which is full of bacteria) and put it behind the filter in the hospital tank. The bacteria will transfer to the new filter and VIOLA, instant cycle Just make sure to do this right before you add fish, because the bacteria will die off with no waste for it to eat.

HTH