What’s wrong with my male platy?

[Ben coombes]

My male platy is breathing faster than normal and he sometimes goes to the bottom of the tank please help. Thanks.

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Can you give us more information and post a picture and short 20 second video of the fish?
Set the camera's resolution to its lowest setting so the image will be small enough to fit on the site. Put the video on YouTube and copy and paste the link here.

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How long has the tank been set up for?
How often do you do water changes and how much water do you change?
Do you gravel clean the substrate when you do a water change?
Do you dechlorinate the tap water before adding it to the tank?
Do you have buckets specifically for the fish, or do you use any bucket in the house?

Have you tested the water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate & pH?
If yes, what are the results in numbers?

How long have you had the fish for?
What other fish are in the tank?

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Wipe the inside of the glass down using a clean sponge that does not have any soap or anything else in.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day until we work out what is wrong. Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

If the tank has been running for more than 2 months, clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks.
If the tank has been running for less than 6 weeks, do not clean the filter unless the flow rate has slowed down.

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The following link has information about what to do if your fish gets sick. It is pretty long and boring but worth a read. I recommend printing it out and reading it in bed to help fall asleep.
http://www.fishforums.net/threads/what-to-do-if-your-fish-gets-sick.450268/#post-3804819

 

[Ben coombes]

Hi there my fish tank is 57 litres fluval flex and it has been set up for 2 years now. I do water changes every 1 to 2 weeks and I don’t clean the substrate but if I should I will start cleaning the substrate. Also yes I use tap safe for the water changes and I have my own bucket just for the fish. I haven’t tested for anything in my tank I don’t have the test kit and I’ve had my teenager male fish for 3 months. There are 5 teenager platies,6 rabbit snails, 2 small plecos and 1 small catfish but I’m selling the catfish and the 2 plecos.

 

[Ben coombes]

 

[Colin_T]

You should be gravel cleaning any open areas of substrate every time you do a water change. Open areas of substrate are areas of the gravel where no plants grow. You gravel clean around the plants and any areas you can. If you have ornaments then lift them up, gravel clean under them and put them back down.

Just get a basic model gravel cleaner like the one in the following link. Use it to syphon water out of the tank and gravel clean the substrate at the same time. Then top the tank up with clean dechlorinated water.
https://www.about-goldfish.com/aquarium-cleaning.html

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I can't tell much form the video but it could be getting bullied by a bigger fish. The fish in the video appears to have a gravid spot (dark mark near its bottom). This is normally found in pregnant females. If the fish is female she might be getting harassed by the males in the tank.

You can check the fish's sex by looking at their anal (bottom) fin. Male livebearers (mollies, swordtails, platies, guppies) have a long thin anal fin. Female livebearers have a fan or triangular shaped anal fin.

Young males will have a fan/ triangular shaped anal fin until they reach sexual maturity at about 3 months of age. Then it changes into the long thin anal fin called a gonopodium.

If you are unsure of their sexes, post a clear image of each of the platies in the tank, we can check the sex of them for you.

 

[Ben coombes]

It is a male platy I don’t know about the gravid spots

 

[Ben coombes]