Whats wrong with my platy?

[Jstir4472]

hello all, I really need a solution to this, I have a cold-water platy who is a male about 2 years old, for the past two days he has been really struggling to get up off of the ground of the tank where the stones lay, he has way larger fins than usual and when I transfered him to his own tank, now he seems to be struggling to keep himself upright, he's definitely still breathing and he's still slowly dragging across the floor of the tank every once in a while, please let me know what's wrong someone

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

hello all, I really need a solution to this, I have a cold-water platy who is a male about 2 years old, for the past two days he has been really struggling to get up off of the ground of the tank where the stones lay, he has way larger fins than usual and when I transfered him to his own tank, now he seems to be struggling to keep himself upright, he's definitely still breathing and he's still slowly dragging across the floor of the tank every once in a while, please let me know what's wrong someone

Hi.
There's no such thing as a 'Coldwater Platy'...just Platy, which can cope with water as cold as 20℃, but no colder and water up to 26℃. The Platy is usually classed as a Tropical Fish, however, they can be found in colder waters.

What temperature are you keeping at?
Have you had him for 2 years and he is only just behaving this way?
He also looks very exposed, (no plants for security) and appears to be on his own.

What else can you tell us about the water he's in and the tank set-up?

 

[Jstir4472]

Hi.
There's no such thing as a 'Coldwater Platy'...just Platy, which can cope with water as cold as 20℃, but no colder and water up to 26℃. The Platy is usually classed as a Tropical Fish, however, they can be found in colder waters.

What temperature are you keeping at?
Have you had him for 2 years and he is only just behaving this way?
He also looks very exposed, (no plants for security) and appears to be on his own.

What else can you tell us about the water he's in and the tank set-up?

Hi, don't worry I've been to fish aquarium places before and spoken to lots of people, he's in about 23 degree water, it's a tank with 5 other platies In it and there are quite a few hiding spaces in there.

 

[Jstir4472]

Hi, don't worry I've been to fish aquarium places before and spoken to lots of people, he's in about 23 degree water, it's a tank with 5 other platies In it and there are quite a few hiding spaces in there.

He has been with me for about 2 years yes

 

[Myraan]

I was under the impression Variatus Platy was a different species than the maculatus.

I just checked Seriously Fish, it suggests 20-26 celsius for both species.

Most stores I've been in however market normal platy as tropical and variatus as temperate (unheated tank)

Going by seriously fish either could be either it seems assuming your house doesn't get too cold.

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

It's unlikely the water conditions are amiss, or the other fish would be showing similar behaviours.
Any poo to describe?

 

[Jstir4472]

I was under the impression Variatus Platy was a different species than the maculatus.

I just checked Seriously Fish, it suggests 20-26 celsius for both species.

Most stores I've been in however market normal platy as tropical and variatus as temperate (unheated tank)

Going by seriously fish either could be either it seems assuming your house doesn't get too cold.

My house is always around 17 degrees lowest

 

[Jstir4472]

It's unlikely the water conditions are amiss, or the other fish would be showing similar behaviours.
Any poo to describe?

It's been a bit more small and pale unlike usual

 

[itiwhetu]

The water is to cool, I would warm the water up and see if he gets moving. Platies have been bred for many color traits, the more highly coloured the more temperamental the fish are. At one stage I bred swordtails back to their green coloration and kept those fish in cold water. But have never been successful keeping highly coloured fish in a cold water aquarium.

 

[Jstir4472]

Thanks

 

[Colin_T]

I was under the impression Variatus Platy was a different species than the maculatus.

They are different species.

Both Xiphophorus maculatus and X. variatus can live in cool water. We have variatus in the Swan River in Perth and it gets down to 5C in winter. The platies here have been living in the river for 30+ years.

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Any poo to describe?

It's been a bit more small and pale unlike usual

That is usually caused by an internal bacterial or protozoan infection.

See following link for info about string white poop in fish.

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.

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...

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