Dying Females

[graceofbass]

I have a community tank with a lot of dwarf platies and I have had a problem with my females throwing fry once or twice and then dying. I am wondering if platies are just delicate and giving birth places a lot of stress on the fish, if by staying in the same tank they are being re-introduced to males too quickly or if I just have bad luck. I have had similar experiences with guppies and swordtails, but lately my platies have had fry, and then died before they gave birth again (and I can see the eyes of babies inside them and it's very sad). Ideas?

The tank is a 35 gal. hex tank with decent water quality. The water in Idaho is hard and no amount of Ph balance helps, I have tried and tried. But the majority of my fish don't seem to mind it, I've had some raspboras, neon tetras and angelfish last for years, except I seem to have a high turnover rate with livebearers. I'm wondering if it's because I buy them from Petsmart (the only fish store with 2 hours closed several years ago) and they aren't healthy to begin with. I also have several babies that have grown to adulthood, and the males have lived while the females have died.

 

[Platygirl11]

Can you post your water stats?
How many males do you have to a female?
Yeah, a lot of fish stores don't sell healthy fish. I once went to one that had dead fish/ skeletons in the bottom of the tank.

 

[graceofbass]

I have maybe 3-4 males and 2 females (I know, not very balanced, but the females keep on dying!), and several babies that have not reached sexual maturity yet, so they still look like females. I only have a test for ammonia, and it's at .1 mg/L. I don't think it has to do with the water quality in this particular tank, however, because I've had this problem with every tank I've had, and this is the third (and largest). I also noticed something more alarming this morning. I recently had a female develop a swimming bladder problem, where she would swim in circles, but would then correct herself when eating. She died after 4-5 days of this. This morning I observed another female begin to wobble from side to side and occasionally swim upside-down, but again corrects herself after a little while of this. And only the females seem affected, none of the males are sick in this way. My tank is cursed. Or needs a fungus treatment.

 

[Platygirl11]

Pics would be helpful.
Not to be abrupt, but GO CHANGE YOUR WATER RIGHT NOW.
Perhaps you could take some of the males back and exchange them for females. After your tank is stabilized. How long have you had it? How many platys do you have? How long have you had them, and, if applicable, how long do they usually live?

Also, I just looked in your signature. A chinese algae eater?
They don't eat algae. They eat the outer coating off of other fish. Then said other fish die. Um.
So, might want to see about that...

 

[graceofbass]

Edit: I tried to get some pictures, but she was moving around quite a bit and my camera would not focus on her, making it impossible to get a picture that would be of any use for diagnosis. I have not observed any bloating, growths, ulcers, or anything unusual on her, and she will right herself to eat and when swimming around. It's like a partial swim bladder issue.

I now have 2 males and 2 females, one of the males and one female I raised from babies. The others I bought about 4-5 months ago. I bought four females originally, and had two other females I had raised from babies, and they have died, but the males survive. I did a 50% water change last week, but if I need to I guess I can do another one. This tank has been set up in it's current state for 10 months, with a Fluval 304 filter and separate air pump for aeration. I've had this problem with females dying with guppies as well, but with the guppies they stop eating and waste away (which was very tragic. I don't get female guppies anymore). It seems very strange to me that the females are the only ones dying after a few months of being in the tank.

Also, the Chinese algae eater really does eat algae, and although it is territorial, I've never seen it latch on to the other fish, they're too fast. I've tried otocinclus and they died, and the last time i had a pleco 15 of my baby platies disappeared (although I really do live plecos. Especially with angels). So I'm also at the end of my rope with algae eaters.