Fat Platy

[avalon.clare]

My platy is extremely fat. I don't know his exact species, he's in a 55 gallon tank that was given to me by one of my dad's friends when she moved away and couldn't take her fish with her. There are many fish in the tank, including several different types of tetras, a silver dollar, a pleco, and one other platy. Of my two platys, one is male and one is female. The extremely fat one is the boy, so I seriously doubt it's pregnant. It's been fat since we got the tank, and I didn't realize that was so strange until I was at the pet store searching for guppies for a different tank, and I saw that all the other platys weren't nearly as robust. He was still acting like a normal fish until this week. Two days ago I saw him floating around at the top, vertically, I thought he was dead and I watched the tank for a moment in shock until I saw him move. He would only chill vertically momentarily every so often. Yesterday he was at the bottom and I once again thought he was dead until I saw him flip around and swim back up to the top. Today he's been diagonal/vertical for most of the day. We went to petsmart again to exchange one of our guppies who we'd gotten a couple days ago and was dead this morning. Once again, we looked at the non-basketball looking platys in the store and seriously wondered what was wrong with him. He just floats in there sideways and diagonal the whole day unless somebody taps on the glass right next to him. He's doing it right now. What is wrong with him? Any advice?

 

[BaylorPerez]

not enough oxygen in the tank more or less, do you use a air pump?

also, is that green tint from your plants or an green hair algae?

 

[RyanTheFishGuy64]

Its Algea Baylor, and it looks like Swim Bladder Disorder, where the organ that balances a fish gets messed up, usually from poor diet. I highly doubt you have an oxygen problem

 

[BaylorPerez]

might want to clean out that algae unless you have the algae remover liquid

 

[jag51186]

Its Algea Baylor, and it looks like Swim Bladder Disorder, where the organ that balances a fish gets messed up, usually from poor diet. I highly doubt you have an oxygen problem

 
Agree with this, try feeding the platy some shelled peas to see if it will move it's bowels better and correct the issue.

 

[RyanTheFishGuy64]

might want to clean out that algae unless you have the algae remover liquid

If you WANT the algea gone. It wont hurt anything, I kinda like it 

 

[avalon.clare]

Its Algea Baylor, and it looks like Swim Bladder Disorder, where the organ that balances a fish gets messed up, usually from poor diet. I highly doubt you have an oxygen problem

This seems to be the consensus, what exactly is Algea Baylor? I tried to look it up and google only showed me links from Baylor university...

 

[BaylorPerez]

its algae, baylor is my name.
 
if there was a algae named baylor then it be a ugly algae color

 

[RyanTheFishGuy64]

Sorry I meant: "Its Algea, Baylor, and..."

 

[avalon.clare]

Oohh okay lolol, anyway I'll try the peas and see if that helps!

 

[Far_King]

might want to clean out that algae unless you have the algae remover liquid

 
Personally I'd never go this route.  If algae is a problem then the root cause of it should be identified and remedied rather than adding chemicals.
 
Suddenly killing off a large algae bloom in a tank can cause more issues than leaving the algae.

 

[avalon.clare]

I usually don't bother with the algae, it always grows back anyway. I didn't feed any fish from any of my three tanks (one with goldfish, one with guppies, one with the platy in question) this morning and after exchanging a guppy which died recently, I went to the grocery store and bought two bags of frozen peas. I cooked and peeled about thirty and started feeding them to all the fish. A few of my guppies enjoyed them. The goldfish ate them and proceeded to attempt to eat some of the green gravel until I put more peas in. My 55 gallon with Buenos Aires tetras, Black skirt tetras, a black neon tetra, two regular neons, two platys, and a silver dollar, went absolutely crazy over them. They chased them down as they sank and now, ten minutes after, all of them are still searching through the gravel at the bottom of the tank trying to find more. I hope the platy will feel better soon, but if not at least all my fish are having more nutritious meals for a while.

I usually don't bother with the algae, it always grows back anyway. I didn't feed any fish from any of my three tanks (one with goldfish, one with guppies, one with the platy in question) this morning and after exchanging a guppy which died recently, I went to the grocery store and bought two bags of frozen peas. I cooked and peeled about thirty and started feeding them to all the fish. A few of my guppies enjoyed them. The goldfish ate them and proceeded to attempt to eat some of the green gravel until I put more peas in. My 55 gallon with Buenos Aires tetras, Black skirt tetras, a black neon tetra, two regular neons, two platys, and a silver dollar, went absolutely crazy over them. They chased them down as they sank and now, ten minutes after, all of them are still searching through the gravel at the bottom of the tank trying to find more. I hope the platy will feel better soon, but if not at least all my fish are having more nutritious meals for a while.

 

[avalon.clare]

Update: I've been feeding all my fish in all 3 tanks smashed, peeled peas for a week, I was at my mom's house over the weekend but my dad said the platy had pooped, but not much. Good news, and the water in my goldfish tank has never stayed so clean for so long!

 

[Blough]

I wouldn't clean out the algea, not with a pleco living in there. Plecos like to eat the algea.

 

[avalon.clare]

I'd really hoped that was the problem, but today (after two and a half weeks of feeding all my fish nothing but peas) I found him dead in the bottom of the tank.