Male Platy is Lethargic

[Bryan1957]

I have been treating my 55 gallon tank (208 liter) for ich for the last week. The ich is almost gone, maybe gone entirely since yesterday morning. My male platy seems lethargic, he is laying on the bottom, hiding in the cave and won't eat. I treated the tank last night with APPLUS+ Anti-Fungus. It contains Malachite Green so it should get rid of the ich and treat any fungus also. Last night all the other fish seemed normal, just my male platy acting tired. His fins are clamped, there aren't any signs of fungus, no gill flukes, scales aren't pinecone. He is only about 8 or 9 months old.
My water params are:
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
NitrAtes 20
PH is 7.2
Temp is 78 F

I have done a 25% water change last Monday, a 10% change every day since because I was treating ich. I don't see any signs of ich in the tank now. I added salt when I started treating the ich last week.

I would move him to another tank to treat him but they have quarantined fish from the LFS in them. I just got them 2 weeks ago and don't want to put them in the 55 gallon since I am treating the issues in there. I haven't added any fish or plants in two weeks.
I feed them a little flake every day, a couple of peas once or twice a week and BBS one or two days a week. I don't feed flake when I feed something else.
I have:
two female sword tails (one adult one juvenile?)
three female platys
two male platys (the one that is lethargic and one that was sold as female last month)
one female guppy
several fry between 14 and 10 weeks old (about 20 fry total all platys or swordies) none of the fry are bigger than 1" (2.54 cm)
Does anyone have any ideas? I could put him in a 1.5 gallon tank by himself but don't want to stress him out. He has a great personality when he acts normal.
Sorry I forgot to add, he swims normally when he swims, just a little slower than he was, he really reminds me of someone who has gotten old and can't get around very well. He doesn't shimmy when swimming, has normal balance. He acts depressed!!

 

[WILDER]

Clamped fins are a sign of stress, he might not be coping with the med or the whitespot, and if he has stopped eating sad to say it's not sounding to good im afraid.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Meds themselves can stress fish out over long periods of time; it could just be that he is beginning to find it difficult to handle the med and in that case i would just move him to a tank that doesn't have any meds or salts in it and see if he perks up a bit over the next couple of days.
On the other hand he could actually be still sick from the whitespot- the actual white spots that appear on the fish and give the desease its name is the only stage in the parasites cycle that are visable to the eye. Fish can be suffering from whitespot and not actually show any symtoms which is why alot of people end up buying infected fish from lfs's and not know until days later.
This depends also on how long you've been treating the desease and will determine how likely this is- my best bet is just to try do some water changes to lower the amount of meds in the water and see if things improve though .

Does his belly look sunken at all or unusually skinny?

 

[Bryan1957]

He looks a bit skinny, not sunken. I have a 1.5 gallon I can use as a hospital tank, I don't want to add to his stress. I'll try a water change, do you think some Stress Coat might help him feel better?
Thanks,
Bryan

 

[WILDER]

You could try some stress coat on him, good luck.

 

[Bryan1957]

Thanks, I will try Stress Coat. Maybe he'll feel better enough to start eating something.

 

[WILDER]

Good luck.

 

[Bryan1957]

Thanks for the advise Wilder. My platy made it through the weekend. I have him in a 1.5 gallon tank with Stress Coat. I have been feeding "First Bites" and some finely ground dried bloodworms. I took a chance that if he wouldn't eat normally he might get enough fry food floating in the water to bring him through this. So far he is hanging in there. I just thought I would let you know.
Bryan

 

[WILDER]

Glad to hear that he still with us, good luck hope the pulls through for you.