Sick platy

[Halfpint]

Tank size: 60L
pH: 7.6
ammonia: 0.50 ppm
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 0
kH:
gH:
tank temp:26

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior):
About 3 days ago I noticed that one of my plaies was resting on the bottom and not coming up for food with the others and when it did move it wasn't swimming like the other fish it was like it was having to try extra hard to reach the top. It's now not moving at the bottom of the tank and it doesn't swim anywhere. It looks as though it's dying

Volume and Frequency of water changes:
I normally do 30 percent weekly but after doing a water test today I did a extra 40 percent water change.

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank:
I use seachem prime with every water change gave the fish a methalyne blue bath yesterday and add aquarium salt with every water change
Tank inhabitants:
1 male betta
4 neon tetra
2 adult platy
3 baby platy
Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): platy has given birth in last month

 

[Halfpint]

Another pic for colour comparison

 

[JuiceBox52]

@Colin_T

 

[Colin_T]

It looks like it's about to die. You can trying doing a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. This will help get the ammonia level down to 0ppm, where it should be.

Make sure your filter is working properly and don't replace filter media/ materials.

Add some salt.
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres and if there is no improvement after 48 hours, then increase it so there is a total of 4 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

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 the higher dose rate (4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will affect some plants and some snails. The lower dose rate will not affect plants, shrimp or snails.

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.

 

[Aussie_Bristle]

Your ammonia is to high hun, should be 0. You need to do bigger water changes to help get that ammonia down. How much salt are you adding with the refill and are you adding the prime into the water before you put into the tank?

 

[Aussie_Bristle]

Oh there you go Colin got in to help

 

[Halfpint]

It looks like it's about to die. You can trying doing a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. This will help get the ammonia level down to 0ppm, where it should be.

Make sure your filter is working properly and don't replace filter media/ materials.

Add some salt.
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres and if there is no improvement after 48 hours, then increase it so there is a total of 4 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

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 the higher dose rate (4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will affect some plants and some snails. The lower dose rate will not affect plants, shrimp or snails.

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.

Thanks for the reply. I have done the 70 percent water change and added the salt as recommended. I think the ammonia levels may have happened because with the platy recently giving birth I haven't wanted to disturb the bottom because they have been hiding in the gravel and I accidentally killed one of the babies while cleaning it. I think I might of also overfed to try and make sure that they had food that reached them. When I have been doing the water changes in the past added the salt by putting dome tank water in a bottle adding the salt shaking until it has dissolved then poured it in once adding the fresh water. Is that ok or have I been doing it wrong? Thanks again for your help.

 

[Halfpint]

Your ammonia is to high hun, should be 0. You need to do bigger water changes to help get that ammonia down. How much salt are you adding with the refill and are you adding the prime into the water before you put into the tank?

Thanks for the reply. I normally add 1 teaspoon of salt back in with the water change and add the prime to the tank once the water has been added. Should I be adding anything else with the prime when I am doing my water changes?

 

[Colin_T]

yes it's fine to mix salt in with some bottled or dechlorinated tap water, mix it up and then pour it into the tank.

If you gravel clean the tank into a white bucket, you should be able to see any baby fish that get sucked out. Otherwise wait a few weeks until the fry are bigger and then gravel clean it.

 

[Salty&Onion]

Bettas are not community fish no matter what. They do better in a tank on their own. Either get a 5 gallon tank with filter and a heater or give him away back to the store and get two more neon tetras as they are schooling fish and will easily get stressed, they might or might not show it, when in smaller numbers and they also are soft water fish. What is your pH, GH and KH? Platies are hardwater fish, just like any other livebearer. I'm sure thar our dear @Byron can confirm.

 

[Halfpint]

Bettas are not community fish no matter what. They do better in a tank on their own. Either get a 5 gallon tank with filter and a heater or give him away back to the store and get two more neon tetras as they are schooling fish and will easily get stressed, they might or might not show it, when in smaller numbers and they also are soft water fish. What is your pH, GH and KH? Platies are hardwater fish, just like any other livebearer. I'm sure thar our dear @Byron can confirm.

Thanks for the reply. When I did the water test 2 days ago the pH was 7.6 I don't have a test for the gh and kh. I have uploaded pics from Yorkshire Water on the water levels in my area if that helps. The tank has been running for around 9-10 months and I've never had a problem with any of the fish been ill apart from the betta getting ick a few weeks after adding him. I got all the fish from the same shop and they advised me that the betta would be ok with what I already had in. I'm looking at getting a bigger tank so I will leave him in this one on his own and transfer the others to the new one.

 

[Halfpint]

yes it's fine to mix salt in with some bottled or dechlorinated tap water, mix it up and then pour it into the tank.

If you gravel clean the tank into a white bucket, you should be able to see any baby fish that get sucked out. Otherwise wait a few weeks until the fry are bigger and then gravel clean it.

I'm Continuing with the water changes and adding the salt do you think there is a chance of saving the platy or should I euthanize her as she seems to be getting worse? I've attached some pictures just taken for any advice, thanks.

 

[Salty&Onion]

Thanks for the reply. When I did the water test 2 days ago the pH was 7.6 I don't have a test for the gh and kh. I have uploaded pics from Yorkshire Water on the water levels in my area if that helps. The tank has been running for around 9-10 months and I've never had a problem with any of the fish been ill apart from the betta getting ick a few weeks after adding him. I got all the fish from the same shop and they advised me that the betta would be ok with what I already had in. I'm looking at getting a bigger tank so I will leave him in this one on his own and transfer the others to the new one.

Please do. Betta will either kill them or be stressed and not showing this and if I'm not mistaken, ICK comes also from stress where the ICK issue could be caused by putting him in the community tank.
Please don't listen to shops, they'll say and do anything for you to come out of their shop with a tank and a fish the same day and their 'we'll say anything just to sell' policy like @essjay said once.
Male bettas should not be put in community tanks no matter what.

 

[JuiceBox52]

I'm sorry but I think you should euthanize her, she looks like shes in pain

 

[Salty&Onion]

Euthanise the fish. It seems to be suffering and dying in pain.