disease symptoms?

[jdriller]

My Mickey Mouse Platy has black spots on her head and now she's developed a shiny coating on her body. She's in a 20 gallon tank with 6 other fish and an aquatic frog. No other fish is showing any distress. I just added a Molly and the frog.

I've been all over the internet and I can't find what this may be a sign of. Can anyone help?

Jennifer

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

How long has the tank been set up and do you have any recent stats for ammonia, nitrates and nitrites? Does the "shiney coating" appear like a grey/white film or slimey at all?

 

[jdriller]

The tank has been up for 3 months now. No stats. Every time I change the water out, I use a water treatment that's "supposed" to help regulate, but I'm thinking I need to keep better track now that we have a bunch of fish.

The shiny part is metallic looking, like rainbowy, like an oil slick would look like.

Jennifer

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

It sounds like normal coloring to me then, when livebearer fry are born and they are almost always very dull/bland in color in comparison to their parents. As they grow they develop more of there patterns and deeper colors, metallic coloring is almost always the last sort of coloring to mature- if you bought a reletavely young platy it could just be a case that she hadn't developed her metallic coloring yet and only did it recently as some platys have.
You must test your tank water for ammonia, nitrates and nitrites on a weekly basis at least during this early stage of the tanks maturity, it would also be useful you read up on new tank sydrome in the pinned articles at the top of the beginners section as it will explain how these 3 important stats work in your water chemistry. Fish keeping is more about keeping water than fish in many senses, even experienced fish keepers will test their water for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates if they are any good .
As far as chemicals go, do not use any ammonia, nitrate or nitrite removal chemicals as these mess up your water chemistry. The only chemical you should use in your tank is dechlorinator/water conditioner on tap water as it removes harmful chlorine and other toxins present in tap water. Avoid using PH boosters as more than often these are not nesarsary and most fish can adapt to a variety of PH's; PH boosters more than often cause more stress to the fish and are difficult to use correctly even if you are experienced in fish keeping.
In a mature tank ammonia and nitrites should be 0 while nitrates should preferably be kept under 40, water changes with dechorinator will lower all of these toxins although it is advised you don't take out more than 60% of water at a time, most people do a 40% water change once a week in a mature tank.
Never wash your filter sponge more often than once every 10days but only wash it in old tank water from water changes and only remove the realy gunky bits at best.
A 20gallon tank cannot hold many fish and only small ones at that, you have almost already stocked your tank to its limits for the time being depending on what you have.
If you follow this info your tank will do well .

 

[jdriller]

Wow, that was some awesome information. Thank you so much for the reply. That was helpful. As I look at all my fish, I'm noticing that others of the same age group have developed the same markings, so I accept your assessment completely. We have 3 adult platys, 3 very young, very small platys we grew from fry, 1 marble molly, 1 small sucker fish, and 1 african aquatic frog. They are all very small, but it sounds like that's the limit for this tank.

We are very new at this, but we are really enjoying the tank. I will take in all your advice, and I really appreciate the help. We homeschool our kids and this has been one of the best learning experiences. I may have to set up a larger tank when we get the hang of this one - which apparently may be awhile.

Thanks again.


Jennifer

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I am glad to help, fish keeping can be very addictive i warn you though- i started off with a 10gallon tank some years ago and now i have 2 30gallon tanks and a 50gallon and hoping to get some even larger tanks in the near future . There is so much to learn in fish keeping you never realy stop learning new things even years later but as long as you understand the basics and keep up with those water changes and clean your tak substrate and filter every now and then, then that is all you realy need to know.
Always research a fish as much as you can yourself before buying any, do not trust your lfs's(local fish store) word on things as they will often lie to you to sell unsuitable fish or merchandise, if you are unsure on anything feel free to ask here- there is also an extensive fish index with pictures and lots of info on this forum that is always growing and being updated if you need somwhere to research fish .