Urgent - sick Platy!!!

[bunny]

One of my platies has two small white bumps on her tail fin. There are small spots on the opposite side, but they are only raised, not white. She's looking as though she's lost weight and she's hiding. She's been lethargic for the past few days and remained hidden all weekend. I couldn't get a good enough look at her to figure out what was going on until this morning.

Last night I treated the tank with Maracyn (I also have Maracyn-Two, but I started with the other) and put some Ammonia Clear in the tank. I've been having problems forever with ammonia, despite frequent (40%-50% sometimes daily) water changes - I do suspect this is the source of the problem.

She finally came out this morning and ate a bit, but she's still lurking with clenched fins. She doesn't seem able to swim to the surface of the tank. Is there anything more I can do? The other fish don't seem to be affected. I still want to move her to the hospital tank, but I can't catch her and I don't want to stress her out any more than she already is.

And yes, I'll be doing another water change today.

Thanks.

 

[tstenback]

How long have you had an ammonia problem? Is there ammonia in your tap water? What do you do for tank and filter maintenance? How big is the tank and what are the occupants?

 

[jvis0606]

I have had this problem, too... for weeks I had high ammonia as part of the cycling process. I did water changes and used Ammo-Lock and still my fish were being affected and the ammonia just wouldn't go down! Now, finally, I think it is going down and the Nitrites are building up. The clenched fins thing - had that with two of my male platies who unfortunately eventually passed. Ammonia poisoning is pretty tough on the fish and even if they survive it seems their immune systems are worse. Good luck, keep doing the water changes, and add some aquarium salt to the tank, it helps with the stress and gills.

 

[bunny]

I've had the ammonia problem for about 5 months. It was up to 4.0 at one point, but it's now down to 0.50. The filter is a double Penguin Bio-Wheel that I've had for about two or three months now. The tank is 29 gallons with the 1 adult female platy and three young ones (about 1/2 inch in lenth, mom is about 1 inch). There are also 6 mollies about 1 1/2 inches long, around 10 months old.

As far as maintenance goes, I vacuum the gravel about every 2 weeks, but I've been doing water changes every day or two days if I don't get to it. I've been disturbing the gravel every once in a while too because I was told one that it's possible to get ammonia pockets/built up in the gravel. For the filter, it's only been running for 3 months at the most... what should I be doing to it at this point?

 

[bunny]

I just cleaned the tank again and she came out of hiding. So I fed them and she ate some. But her fins are still clamped. She was being harassed by one of her young ones so I decided since she was out, that I'd move her into her own tank where I could medicate her alone and she wouldn't be bugged by the others. She's a little stressed (big surprise) but she's got her own home now. Not sure it was a good idea to move her in her state, but I really didn't want to medicate the entire tank because after I cleaned it, I noticed two new molly fry in there. Who knows what the meds would do to the babies.

Edit: I just tested the ammonia in the 30 gallon tank and it's now down to 0. I don't know how this is possible, but I'm not going to complain. I'll test it again tomorrow and see what I get.

I also added some Maroxy to the 3 gallon hospital tank. When I got back from the store, she was swimming around and her fins weren't clamped. She seems to be adjusting to the new surroundings.

 

[tstenback]

Glad to see the little lady is on the mend. Hope everything settles down for you as far as the ammonia goes. Good Luck and keep us posted.

 

[bunny]

No! She seems to be doing worse again today. She just tried to swim to the top and then fell back down to the bottom of the tank. Her fins are clenched again, but there are no changes in the spots.

I'm treating with Maroxy. Am I supposed to add Maracyn to the tank as well, or is that after the initial treatment with the Maroxy?

 

[bunny]

She's worse! Much worse! Two hours ago, she was at least upright and swimming around a bit. Now she's in the corner on her side and wiggles, but can't seem to swim.

Anything that can be done at this point, or is it too late?

 

[bunny]

Nevermind.... It was definitely too late.

 

[shadow]

awwwww, sorry to hear about your platy

 

[Angry_Platy]

Bye Bye... was starting to get excited when I saw she was getting better in her new tank