Losing Fish

[ssharp1]

In the past month, I've lost a Mickey Mouse Platy, a Swordtail, and I'm on the verge of losing another platy, and they've all displayed the same symptoms, but only one fish has been sick at a time. The symptoms are rapid breathing and fin movement (they look like they're struggling just to stay upright) resting on the bottom, and not eating.

I see no spots such as ich or rust. I see no inflamed gills. They aren't bloated, swimming erratically, or gulping air. I see no visible injury or evidence of trauma. I test the water weekly, and all the levels are fine 0 ppm ammonia, 0 ppm nitrites, and very slight nitrates. The tank is not overpopulated (I currently have 4 danios, 3 pepper cories, 2 plecos, and 1 platy (dying), in my 28g tank. I have not introduced any new fish in well over 2 months and I have no live plants. I'm filtering about 50 GPH with a biowheel.

I'm completely stumped. I'd really appreciate any theories or suggestions about why this keeps happening. The biggest oddity, to me, is that I've never had multiple sick fish at one time. It's been one after another behaving as I've described, and then dying within 2 or 3 days of showing these symptoms.

Thanks, in advance, for any help with this.

 

[KrystaK]

I would guess it was some sort of internal parasite. But if you haven`t added any fish in over two months than I doubt it`s a parasite, they aren't exactly fast but they aren't glacial either. And they would have infected multiple fish.
I can't find anything that matches the symptoms you have listed; but here's the site I use, it may help you figure out what may be wrong with your fish:
http/badmanstropicalfish.com/fish_palace/tropicalfish_disease_identification.html
Sorry I can't be of more help

 

[ssharp1]

Thanks, Krysta! I'll have a look at the site and see if I can figure anything out.

 

[Luc401]

I believe its the shimmies i belive its called might want to do some searching online about that

 

[gregswimm]

It sounds like some sort of swim bladder problem possibly caused by osmotic stress. Plates and swordtails can tolerate water up to 100% ocean salinity. It might be advantageous to put them in a brackish quarantine (mix instant ocean to 1/4 to 1/2 strength). The salt may help sort out their swim bladder and may kill any parisite.

Make sure you are testing with liquid tests and not strips. Strips are notoriously unreliable.

50gph is not a lot of turnover, you want to aim for 5x total volume per hour minnnimum (roughly 150gph).

 

[phoenixgsd]

bear in mind corys cant tolerate salt