Help Needed - Something Very Wrong With Platy

[daveyjay1]

Hi
 
I was hoping someone could help me. I have a very sick platy but I can't dfind out what is wrong - here are the details.
 
My tank is fully cycled and I test my water on a regular basis.
 
Ammonia and Nitrite 0.
All other fish in the tank are fine.
 
I noticed that my Platy, who is normally vwery active has just been sitting either at the top - or bottom of the tank lately - just hiding and hardly ever eating. I also noticed that his tail had a slight bend to it. I have therefore moved the Platy to a 10g hospital tank (with filter (cycled) and heater). After observing the Platy in the hospital tank - here is what I can see:
 
His tail is slightlty bent
His back fin is not fanned out like it used to be
He hardly ever moves - either laying at the bottom of tank - or right on the surface.
He is not very interested in food.
His side fins are moving rapidly.
Every now and again - he will swim a little - but then almost have some sort of spasm - which make him dart accross the tank (sometimes hitting something)
 
Obviously, something is very wrong but I coudn't work out what - so I got hold of some Esha 2000 which claims to treat a whole host of things. I started the treatment on Saturday - I still haven't seen any improvement.
 
Can anyone give me any clue of what this could be? I really want to try and save this fish.
 
Many thanks

Dave

 

[Mamashack]

It sounds like he is very stressed from your description. Would be useful to know what other fish you have in the original tank. Are there other platies in there? Could they have been fighting over a female?

 

[daveyjay1]

Hi - thanks for the response.
 
He is the only platy in the tank (I did originally have 2 - but I had to take one back to LFS as he was bullying this one). Since I took the other plty back to the store - this one has been fine and has always been very lively in the tank.
 
His tank mates are:
 
6 endlers
6 cardinals
4 ottos
Some cherry shrimp
Some amano shrimp
 
He has been living with all of these fish happily for months now.
 
I did recently upgrade the tank (from a 10g to a 24g) but he was already poorly before the move.
 
Thanks
 
Dave

 

[Mamashack]

I have no experience of the medication you are using altho I'm always wary of adding stuff when it's not known what the problem is to start with.
How long have you had him/do you know how old he is? Is he losing weight or does he look bloated? Has his tail always been slightly bent or is it a new phenomenon? That can sometimes occur due to inbreeding but would have noticeable before now I'd have thought.

 

[daveyjay1]

I added the medication as he looked in a really bad way and I didn't want him to die - so I figured it would be best to put something in that claims to treat all sorts of problems (I did read lots of reviews of the product first). I didn't know what else to do.
 
Anyway - I have had him since the end of January so I don't think he is very old. He lloks like he is losing weight - certainly not bloated.
 
His tail never used to be bent before.
 
Thanks for your help.

 

[Mamashack]

It sounds like he may have been attacked as I can't think of any other reason it would bend spontaneously. The only other reason I can think of would be an excessively bred female.
Try keeping the water clean and possibly add some stress-coat which is supposed to have a calming effect as well as dechlorinate the water. If he doesn't show signs of improvement in a few days and doesn't start swimming and eating normally then (and I know you probably don't want to hear this), it might be kinder to euthanize him rather than wait for him to slowly starve to death.