Fins Clamping?

[Pabs311]

I have a female platy in my tank who has recently started swimming with her fins tight to her body.

Tank specs:
I also have another female platy, two female swordtails and two peppered corydoras in the tank with her. one of the swordtails has a light case of ich , which i caught early and immediately started treating. none of the other fish are showing signs of ich so i believe i caught it early enough. the tank is 20 gallons and the water quality is petty much on point, as i have been doing water changes daily because of the ich treatment (ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate pretty close to 0). i bumped the water temp up to 82 degrees, and am using rid+ich medication as well as aquarium salt to treat the ich.

The medication i'm using for the ich is supposed to work for all external parasites and fungus, so i dont think it would be anything external affecting her. could it be internal parasites or just a stressed fish? Please help...

p.s. she's also been hiding away from the other fish in the tank.

 

[WILDER]

Could be the med that stressing her out.
Have you increased aeration in the tank.

 

[Pabs311]

yea, i have. i added an airpump for a 20 gallon tank when i started the treatment. all of the other fish appear to be fine and unbothered. it's only within the last couple days that she started behaving this way, and i've been medicating the tank for 8 days now. should i wait and see how she acts once things are back to normal in the tank. i'm only gonna medicate for another 2 days, then turn the temp back down and return to normal filtration.

 

[WILDER]

Does she look pale or darker in colour. It could be the med as its knocks some fish.
Best to treat another week once spots have gone.

 

[Pabs311]

she seems the same in color.

the spots have been gone for about 4 or 5 days now, medicating for the next couple days just to be safe. like u said it's best to treat for an additional week or so to ensure all ich parasites that are hiding in ur gravel are dead.

i don't want to add any other meds into the tank, because the ich med warned not to do this. so if anything i'm gonna have to wait 2 more days before i can add in anything to try and help with the fin calmping.

i've been feeding flake food along with freeze dried tubifex and bloodworms. i know that sometimes these worms can carry parasites. even though it is unlikely that the parasites will survive freeze drying, from what i've heard it still can happen. that's the only thing that's makeing me think it could be internal parasites. is their an easy way to determine if this could be the problem?

I've heard of the stuff called jungle parasite clear tank buddies that's supposed to work pretty well with internal/external parasites and am thinking about using it once the ich medications cycle is done. i don't really wanna stress the fish out with another dose of meds right after. i'm kinda on the fence about wether or not to do this, but don't want to wait to long and possibly loose fish to disease.

 

[WILDER]

Frreeze dried tubilex should be fine. Feeding to mamy freeze dried foods can lead to constipation and swim bladder problems.
Introduce some green veg into there diet.

Internal parasite signs are.
Long stringy white poo, clear mucas poo, red poo.
Enlarged anus or red inflamed anus.
Worms prutruding from the anus.
Fish will look skinny or bloated.
Sunken in belly.
Bent spine sometimes.
Sometimes fish will swim on there sides.

 

[Pabs311]

doesn't seem like it's parasites from what ur saying. i'll try feeding some blanched lettuce tonight and see if that helps at all.
i heard that it's good to feed some rufage at least once a week but have kind of ignored the tip, i guess sometimes u gotta learn from expeirence.

thakns for all the help wilder, u've helped me out a couple other times with fish problems. u a fish doctor by any cahnce?

 

[WILDER]

Green veg, like cabbage, sproats, cucumba, peas, broc, spinage.

My livebearers loved peas, broc, spinage, but they didn't like lettuce.

Clamped fins are a sign of stress and desease.
Just keep a close eye on her.
But when a fish is stressed they can also look pale with clamped fins.

No i'm not a fish doctor lol.

 

[Pabs311]

i'm gonna try spinach today, see how she feels within the next couple days.
if things don't look better i'll have to try some meds i guess.
thanks again for the advice.

 

[Pabs311]

ok so i got some spinach.... how do a prep it for them. just boil for a few seconds, rinse with tank water and serve?

*this is how i preped the food, the fish seemed to enjoy it so i guess i did ok. its been about 4 or 5 hours since i fed her and she doesn't seem to be doing much better. i snapped a quick pic with my cell phone, dunno if it will help at all in determining what the problem is.

 

[WILDER]

You just blance the veg for a few minutes in boiling water, Than cut into small peices so the fish find it easier to eat.

Is she pregnant.

 

[Pabs311]

i don't believe so, i think she is just a little on he plump side from being fed well, or myabe being constipated like u had said. she's a fairly new fish, only had her for about a week, and i know they keep males and females together at the LFS so it's quite possible she could be. she doesn't really look it to me but i could be wrong, i don't think her belly has squared off enough to be pregnant. her belly looks to round to me.

 

[WILDER]

No symtoms only fin clamping.
How long did you climatise her for.\

 

[Pabs311]

got her home, had the bag in the water for about 20-30 mins before putting her into the tank, at that point the temp was around 78 deg F, and i wasn't treating for ich or anything. i got her with 4 other fish and they all are doin just dandy. it's just within the last 2-3 days she has been acting this way and i've had her in the tank for almost 2 weeks now. woke up today and she was hangin out on the bottom of the tank hiding around the bottom of one the plants, not moving much at all. only came out when i fed them this mornin.

other than the fin clamping and being anti-social, thats it for symptoms. she's been eating just as much as usual. i fed some rufage yesterday to see if it might be constipation, but things haven't changed so i'm thinking that's not the problem.

i have one more dosage of ich medication to give today. tmo i'm goin to do a 50% water change and return to carbon filtration. if she does not seem better in 24 hours i'm gonna have to try some meds i guess.

 

[WILDER]

When climatising fish you are meant to keep adding water to the bag.

Always test the bag water in ph and temp. This way you no how long to climatise for.