Concerns About A Platy

[onebto]

Okay Details first:

Tank Juwel vision 450 with Sand substrate Some African jade stones some bog wood A few small plants and a few ornaments.

Filtration: Fluval 405 and a Tetratec 1200 external filters, the internal Juwel filter has been removed I only clean the externals when the water flow reduces and only one at a time so I guess once every 3 months each one gets cleaned and I am very careful with how I clean them.

Inhabitants: 11 Clown Loach, 6 Zebra Loach, 3 yoyo Loach, 8 Kuhli loach, 5 Dwarf Rainbow fish, 9 Cardinal Tetra, 8 Panda Cory, 3 Pristella Tetra, 4 Glow light tetra and 4 Platy's

Water conditions: Ammonia: 0 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 20 PH: 7.2 Temp: 26 to 27 Degrees.

My maintenance routine: once a month 50% water change everything out and cleaned (ornaments and rocks) All waste syphoned up and sand stirred gently, conditioner: Prime
Every 5 Days I do a 30 to 40 % water change as well as syphoning any Fish waste up.

Hopefully that is sufficient information.

The Problem: One of my Platy's "Red" I noticed Yesterday evening when I came in from work is Bloated what's more alarming is his fins are sticking up! He is still eating he appears to have no leash-ions he does stick to the top off the tank most of the time but does go down to the bottom from time to time I would say he is not as active as he usually is but he is still swimming around.

This is a first for me in my 2 years of keeping fish but a Quick scan of this forum tells me it could be Dropsy?

Fortunately I had today off so I set up my isolation tank and put Red in it (fortunately the filter a small internal was running in my main tank so it should be nicely cycled I filled the tank 50% with water from my main tank and 50% new then introduced Red as I would any Fish to a new tank) He seemed to take the move in his stride he is swimming around and I also gave him a shelled Green pea to try and help with the bloating.

Looking at my shelf of medications I have the following: Interpet no8 and no9 as well as Melafix and King British WS3. I am thinking of dosing my isolation tank with Interpet no9 as it mentions Dropsy (note I am in the UK so if you recommend a medication to me it has to be something that I can get here) I am aware if it is Dropsy things do not look good.

I am obviously concerned for Red and will do all I can for him but As a separate concern I am really worried about the Fish in my main tank none of them have any symptoms and I am observing them very closely so should I dose my main tank with anything just in case? I intend tomorrow to do a huge Water change 80% in the morning on my main tank, as for now I am going to hold of on putting any medication into any tank until I got you guys feed back

I would appreciate any help and advice Sincerely,

Regards onebto.

 

[Athena]

For Dropsy you could treat with Octozin but you need to treat dropsy asap in order for any meds to be effective. I've never used the Interpet range so can't comment on how effective it is, but I know it's a popular range so should be fine. Dropsy is caused by a mix of fungal/bacterial problems so you need look for any obvious causes for this.

Usually these things begin when a fish is stressed by something. Your water tests show there's nothing wrong with that (so it's not toxic poisoning), so something else could be causing it e.g. anything from overstocking, bullying, contaminated food, too much light/not enough light, too frequent water changes causing notable changes in water temps...oh the list goes on and on...LOL

If a fish is subjected to high levels of stress on a regular basis this soon lowers it's immune system and that's when these bacterial/fungal and other diseases crop up. Some fish are hardier than others so what may affect one type of fish may not necessarily upset another type. That's why it's good to research on each of the species we own so that we can provide the correct tank environment for whatever fish we buy.

Without seeing your tank and watching how it all ticks over on a daily basis I can't say what the problem could be, so that would be something you could do over the next couple of weeks and makes notes of anything unusual going on, any strange behaviour etc.

Just looking at your stock list...wow, 11 clown loaches, as well as all the other loaches? You do know clowns grow huge eh? Over a foot long. Hope you will be able to rehome some of those when they grow a bit bigger

Anyway, hopefully the rest of your stock will be ok. Sometimes you'll just get an odd case of one fish that gets it for whatever reason but nothing else is affected. Let's hope that's the case here.

All the best - Athena

 

[onebto]

Thank you so much for your response Athena and alot to think about

Be honest my routine has not changed in ages and I have had no new additions to the tank for quite a while. I have not observed any bullying, but then again we can never watch the tank 24/7.

Well I Started treating Red Yesterday morning with Interpet no 9 so we will have to see he is eating and swiming around in my isolation tank quite normally his bloating has subsided a bit but the fins are all still spikey.

On another matter thanks for the pointer on clown loach I am aware of there eventual size and life span, infact I have an 8ft X 2 X 2 tank ready to put them in (stored round my uncles place) but unfortunatley an insufficently sized property to put the tank in currently, my wife and I are waiting to see how the countrys financial situation looks after the budget later this year before looking at moving from our flat to a house.

Rest asured my beloved Clown Loach will not be treated badly infact my wife often says i spend more money time and love looking after them than I do her .

Regards onebto

 

[onebto]

Unfortunatley I found Red at the bottom of the tank lifeless poor little guy

What a vicious disease dropsy is!