what's wrong with my platy

[chris40]

i have a well stocked and healthy tropical aquarium, but my one and only platy just sits on the bottom of the tank with it's fins clamped. it seems interested in food to start with, but then goes back down again and sometimes swims around rapidly before coming to rest.

any suggestions would be appreciated

chris.

 

[bigfish]

What is your water conditions like ammonnia, nitrite and nitrate?

 

[chris40]

hi bigfish,

i haven't tested the water for sometime, but the rest of the fish seem ok.

 

[bigfish]

I would test the water you might have an ammonnia spike or nitrite spike, and go from their. when was your last water change?

Do you have salt in the tank?

 

[chris40]

thanks for the last reply bigfish,

my last water change was a couple of months ago, but i usually top up the water quite often due to evaporation,
sometimes as much as 5 litres every 2 weeks.

the rest of my fish are:
gourami's
silver sharks
zebra danio's
head and tail lights
harlequins
neon tera's
and other tetra's

all of these seem ok.

there is no salt in the tank, is this advisable?

 

[LesGerber]

Chris,
Platys are a brackish fish meaning they like a little salt in their water, the trouble here from what I see is Sharks and Neons dont do well in brackish water. What I do is I add a little salt at a time, for you I would say 1/8 the recommended amount and see how it goes. If there is any problems do a 20%water change every couple three days till the fish seem alright. If there is no problem with the salt then add a little more. Try to find that happy median.
As far as water test you need to do them weekly, otherwise you have no way of knowing what is going on in your tank.
Now on to your platy, is she plump, like she is going to pop. When my preggy girls get ready to drop they do just as your has, sit at the bottom, make half hearted attemps to eat and swim like fools to only go back to where they were and sit for hours.
Run a water test to help us better help you and we can go from there

Les

 

[mrV]

Platys are a brackish fish meaning they like a little salt in their water,

If only they need, every platys don't need. You shoud ask it from your pet store. Although fins clamped could be caused water without salt or just too soft water.

platy
- basic, hard water
- need salt if they has been grown in brackish water like LesGerber wrote.

gourami's
- what gouramis?

silver sharks
- oh boy! You need Ocean Although I think you are talking about Balantiocheilos melanopterus and in english it's bala shark or tricolor sharkminnow (I think)
- at the very least 500 liters, 2m long aquarium, the bigger the better. It is very fast swimmer and quite a big fish.
- slightly acidic, soft water

zebra danio's
- slightly acidic, soft water

head and tail lights
- Head-and-taillight tetra -> Hemigrammus ocellifer?
- slightly acidic, soft water

harlequins
- acidic-slightly acidic, soft water. (pH 5-7)

neon tera's
- acidic-slightly acidic, really soft water. (pH 5-7)

and other tetra's
- what tetras?

Check:

- pH, GH, KH, NO2- and NO3- and of course temperature

 

[LesGerber]

Thanks Mr V, your insight and wisdom is always greatly apperciated


Les

 

[bigfish]

Could be water quality problem especially if you have done a water change but seen as you dont test the water then im abit limited to say.

Do you use a gravel cleaner to clean the gravel bed of plant deberis and fishy poo?

How come you only have 1 platy? they like to have a few friends to swim round with maybe thats why it's so nervous and wont come out and play?

HTH

BIGFISH

 

[Pufferpack]

Hi Chris.

If the Silver sharks you mentioned are Columbian Shark Catfish you won't have to worry about your Platty for very long...because it will make a nice midnight snack. Those boys are eating machines. Oh they also grow more than a foot long.

 

[ostrow]

I'm surprised noone has asked you a basic question: how long have you had the fish and how large was it when you acquired it? Platies tend to live a max of about 2 years, and seem to average about 1.5 yrs.

 

[Kryten]

If you have one platy, this could be the problem. I have four platies and they all cope absolutely fine without salt. The more the merrier.

Salt will kill your tetras. Salt burns scaleless fish such as neon and other tetras. I would avoid this course of action and try making sure temperature is fine. You may also want to watch the fish for a while and look for signs of bullying and fin nipping, as this could cause the fish to become lethargic. Let us know how he/she gets on

 

[lila200098]

Chris,
Platys are a brackish fish meaning they like a little salt in their water, the trouble here from what I see is Sharks and Neons dont do well in brackish water. What I do is I add a little salt at a time, for you I would say 1/8 the recommended amount and see how it goes. If there is any problems do a 20%water change every couple three days till the fish seem alright. If there is no problem with the salt then add a little more. Try to find that happy median.
As far as water test you need to do them weekly, otherwise you have no way of knowing what is going on in your tank.
Now on to your platy, is she plump, like she is going to pop. When my preggy girls get ready to drop they do just as your has, sit at the bottom, make half hearted attemps to eat and swim like fools to only go back to where they were and sit for hours.
Run a water test to help us better help you and we can go from there

Les

are goldfish brackish,too?

 

[Kryten]

Goldfish are not brackish, they need no salt in their water lila. I don't know if they can cope with it or not. If someone else can pipe up here and let lila know (I'm interested myself now ) if goldfish can have salt in their water