Platy Problems Forever

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PrairieSunflower

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Right.... ever since I've had platies (since September) I've had problems.  I am weary.  One after the other the same thing happens.  The pattern is the same.  They seem fine then one day they become a bit more reclusive, hide behind something/on something.  Basically despite seeming normal otherwise, they pretty much waste away and die (when I leave it to play out in full).  With the last one to start with those symptoms I decided to euthanize it early in hopes of saving my other 4 platies.... but... here we are a couple of months later and I have two blue coral platies doing the very same thing.
 
If I leave it to play out they end up susceptible to picking up diseases... some time back I had a huge really hard to cure ich outbreak and my platy was the source.  When the platy was gone the ich cured easily.
 
And I am there again.... do I euthanize my two platies to save my tank from diseases that will affect the weakened fish?
 
In the past I have attempted to treat my platies with (on separate occasions not all at once), salt, general tonic, anti-internal bacteria meds and even temperature.  Nothing had any effect whatsoever.
 
I'm at a complete loss.
 
 
Oh, and I should add, this is my 20 gallon tank (listed in my signature), ammonia and nitrite are 0 and nitrate is 10 (all tested today).  Temperature is 26c.
 
an interesting thing with diseases, even if your tank is at the proper stats, and you are treating and in the end it comes back and you have no idea why. I had an issue with one of my tanks getting ick, and it just kept coming back and back again like what you are having. Similar, but the cause was because my heater was defected. it was sending a electric pulse (didn't know) that would mess with the fish, which did not show any sign that it was the filter (swimming and acting normal, but had ick), causing the diseases. I was told this by a friend who is also into aquariums.
I changed the heater, and sure enough I never had a problem before. 
I would advise to try switching the heater. could be the culprit as strange at it might sound.
 
That does prompt me to add a detail that I didn't think to add above.  They aren't in the same tank.  I used to keep all my platy in the 10 gallon tank... that is where I had my massive outbreak and several platy deaths.  Once the platy with the mystery illness died and a period of time of a few weeks went by and all were fine.... I moved the remaining platy into my 20 gallon tank.  Now.... I had one platy that never got along with the other and always lived in the 20 gallon.... and the next to show signs of the disease was the platy in the 20 gallon after adding the platies from the 10 gallon.  I decided to euthanize her quicker than previous platies in hopes of stopping it there.... and I thought it had until now... there has been a good gap of time between all the previous illnesses and the two new sick platies.
 
So.... different equipment and the lot in there now.  My betta in now in the 10 gallon with all the previous equipment and is healthy.  Also... my guppies are with my platies and are just old not ill... so it seems (whether be true or deceptive somehow) to only be my platies.  I do have 4 neons and they are showing signs of NTD.... but I've been losing one at a time to NTD since I got them.
 
hmmm then i would take out the sick platies and euthanize them. do not get anymore fish for a few months, and then see how it goes from there.
I have never experienced that disease, so I wont be the best person to try to give advise. 
All the best and hope you stop losing fish!
 
I want to call it wasting disease... but I feel like that doesn't quite fit either.  Right in the very beginning when I started fish keeping as an adult, I got a guppy who had wasting disease... and it never spread to other fish.... and clearly whatever my platies have spreads to others... so far only platies it seems.
 
I'm not getting any more fish at all until all my fish are gone... I want to restock with just a few fish... either honey gourami or dwarf gourami (not done my reading up on those yet).  All my guppies are getting old... my neons are going to NTD and my platies have problems it seems.
 
well livebarers are weak because of too much inbreeding sadly and can easily wither away to a disease that iother fish might not be able to get because of stronger immune system.
 
I have removed the 2 platies this morning.  Only 2 platies left... the ones that have thus far seemed the healthiest of all.  1 of them survived growing up in my community tank without being feed properly (baby feeding) as I could never catch her. 
 
As I said before, I removed them this morning.  I've done a 90% water change and a thorough vacuuming of the gravel... hoping that removes anything that might be lingering there.  Will keep an eye on my remaining 2 platies especially.
 
OhIn the past I have attempted to treat my platies with (on separate occasions not all at once), salt, general tonic, anti-internal bacteria meds and even temperature.  Nothing had any effect whatsoever.
 
 
Well, considering you tried anti-internal bacteria meds which hopefully were broad spectrum and were supposed to treat the right disease, then I'd advise you try broad spectrum anti-parasitic meds.  It could be caused by a number of parasites but one such "wasting disease" is hexamita for example. You still haven't explored all options. Sometimes meds are not effective against what they say they are because there are thousands of possibilities. The fish dying doesn't mean your new fish won't get re-infected if the pathogen causing your fish to die likes the conditions your tank provides.
Platies are super hardy. I rarely had problems with mine even when I had the odd other fish dying and they can live quite long for a livebearer.
 
PrairieSunflower said:
What broad spectrum anti-parasitic would you recommend?
 
I am not totally sure to be honest.  Someone here before recommended kusuri wormer plus(flubendazole).
I've read a lot about Levamisole Hydrochloride as a safe broad spectrum antiparasitic medication(http://www.loaches.com/Members/shari2/levamisole-hydrochloride-1) It covers almost everything and whaterver it doesn't, prazuquantel does additionall so treating with one and then the other if the first didn't help is an option. From what I've read both are quite safe but I haven't done it.  I think you can find the LH on ebay.
For hexamita specifically JBL spirohexol is effective but LH should be too.
 
After a parasitic infection it's common for fish to suffer from bacterial diseases too, or even at the same time, so if any additional symptoms are present then treating with antibacterial meds in some time maybe an option but it depends how all goes.
 
I am reading up a bit more at the moment on wasting disease since it seems to fit the best to the symptoms.  But one thing is puzzling... while it says it is not unlikely for it to come in with a fish (which is likely what happened to me), it says it isn't something that spreads easily... but that it is possible for it to spread and develop very slowly so you may well have a couple fish in drastically different stages giving the appearance of just one getting it ever so often.  The hard part, is apparently it is notoriously hard to treat due to there being a lot of different similar (sounds like) bacterias that cause the same so choosing antibiotics can be really hard. But the article isn't explaining anything that relates to only my platies getting sick and none of the other fish with this.

It says that UV sterilization can have some effect on bacteria in the tank (not in fish).... how does one go about trying that?

snazy said:
 
What broad spectrum anti-parasitic would you recommend?
 
I am not totally sure to be honest.  Someone here before recommended kusuri wormer plus(flubendazole).
I've read a lot about Levamisole Hydrochloride as a safe broad spectrum antiparasitic medication(http://www.loaches.com/Members/shari2/levamisole-hydrochloride-1) It covers almost everything and whaterver it doesn't, prazuquantel does additionall so treating with one and then the other if the first didn't help is an option. From what I've read both are quite safe but I haven't done it.  I think you can find the LH on ebay.
For hexamita specifically JBL spirohexol is effective but LH should be too.
 
After a parasitic infection it's common for fish to suffer from bacterial diseases too, or even at the same time, so if any additional symptoms are present then treating with antibacterial meds in some time maybe an option but it depends how all goes.
 
 
I also have shrimp in my tank.  :/  My quarantine tank sprung a leak a few months back and I haven't been able to replace it.  Keep trying to catch tanks on freecycle and ending up too late.
 
UV sterliziation if installed properly and the correct size UV used can prevent some disease oubreaks but it won't cure them once they are already sick.
 
it says it isn't something that spreads easily... but that it is possible for it to spread and develop very slowly so you may well have a couple fish in drastically different stages giving the appearance of just one getting it ever so often. 
 
 
Don't think over that too much. Hexamita for example, once it spreads in a tank can affect many fish. In normal circumstance, fish can resist/fight of this disease as long as their immune system isn't compromised. And it's possible you bought platies that have hexamita but it isn't always fatal depending on the envorment and whether they are subjected to additional stress.  Some fish have immunity to some diseases and some are more succeptible to certain diseases, that's why you may notice a species related outbreaks. Concentrate on treatment.
 
Is hexamita the same as mycobacteria?  The article I read was only talking about mycobacteria.... and I don't really know what either one of those are.
 
Is hexamita the same as mycobacteria?
 
 
No, they are totally different, caused by a diifferent pathogen. Mycobacteria is bacteria, isn't curable. Hexamita is parasitic for the most part and on the contrary can be cured. Both diseases can manifest themselves via the same symptom-"wasting". Hexamita in late stages is also accompanied by lack of appetite. I suppose same can apply for mycobacteria but mycobacteria is often expressed via totally different symptoms as well.
In big fish, hexamita is often called hole in the head disease and is mostly external but in small fish it does internal damage instead.
 

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