Male platy with red around gills/big belly

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Jackee

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Hi everyone,
Could someone tell me if my poor little platy might have internal parasites or what you think could be wrong with him? I have had him a few weeks and thought it was strange he would have such a round belly advantage a male...now his gills are red. I also purchased 2 females at that time. One of which I have noticed demonstrated some flashing/rubbing against objects, but she eats fine and is active. No clamped fins, etc.
 

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Ammonia-0
Nitrates-0
Nitrites- 0
pH- 7.4
temp is steady at 81F
 
LFS recommended something for dropsy. I have a liquid product that I bought for bacterial infections but my question now is could my other fish potential he be infected with this as well? Should I treat all of my fish? I feel like that is the rule of thumb for most fish illnesses but just wanted to check as I’ve never had a fish with a bacterial infection before.
 
The fish is probably just fat. If it's still eating well and doing normal poop, then do not treat it with anything.

Never use medications (especially anti-biotics) unless you know what the fish has.
Chemicals harm the fish as well as kill disease organisms in the water. If you add chemicals and there is nothing wrong with the fish, you are harming it for no reason.

If the fish is eating well and doing normal poop, and you haven't opened the medication, then return the medication and get a refund.

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Livebearers like guppies, mollies, swordtails & platies are regularly infected with gill flukes and intestinal worms.

You can use Praziquantel to treat tapeworm and gill flukes. And Levamisole to treat thread/ round worms.

Remove carbon from filters before treatment and increase aeration/ surface turbulence to maximise oxygen levels in the water.

You treat the fish once a week for 3-4 weeks. The first treatment will kill any worms in the fish. The second and third treatments kill any baby worms that hatch from eggs inside the fish's digestive tract.

You do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean 24-48 hours after treatment.
Treat every fish tank in the house at the same time.

Do not use the 2 medications together. If you want to treat both medications in a short space of time, use Praziquantel on day one. Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate on day 2 & 3. Treat the tank with Levamisole on day 4 and do a 75% water change and gravel clean on day 5, 6 & 7 and then start with Praziquantel again on day 8.

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If you want to treat the fish for anything, raise the temperature to 30C (86F) and keep it there for 2 weeks. The high temperature will kill any whitespot parasite that might be causing the fish to rub on objects. You can add some salt too. Salt will kill other types of protozoans that don't die from heat.

After the salt and heat treatment, I would deworm all your fish at the same time. If you have other tanks and share nets, etc, you should probably raise the temperature 30C (86F) on all the tanks for 2 weeks.

You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres and if there is no improvement after 48 hours, then increase it so there is a total of 4 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate will affect some plants. The lower dose rate will not affect plants.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that.
 
The fish is probably just fat. If it's still eating well and doing normal poop, then do not treat it with anything.

Never use medications (especially anti-biotics) unless you know what the fish has.
Chemicals harm the fish as well as kill disease organisms in the water. If you add chemicals and there is nothing wrong with the fish, you are harming it for no reason.

If the fish is eating well and doing normal poop, and you haven't opened the medication, then return the medication and get a refund.

---------------------
Livebearers like guppies, mollies, swordtails & platies are regularly infected with gill flukes and intestinal worms.

You can use Praziquantel to treat tapeworm and gill flukes. And Levamisole to treat thread/ round worms.

Remove carbon from filters before treatment and increase aeration/ surface turbulence to maximise oxygen levels in the water.

You treat the fish once a week for 3-4 weeks. The first treatment will kill any worms in the fish. The second and third treatments kill any baby worms that hatch from eggs inside the fish's digestive tract.

You do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean 24-48 hours after treatment.
Treat every fish tank in the house at the same time.

Do not use the 2 medications together. If you want to treat both medications in a short space of time, use Praziquantel on day one. Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate on day 2 & 3. Treat the tank with Levamisole on day 4 and do a 75% water change and gravel clean on day 5, 6 & 7 and then start with Praziquantel again on day 8.

---------------------
If you want to treat the fish for anything, raise the temperature to 30C (86F) and keep it there for 2 weeks. The high temperature will kill any whitespot parasite that might be causing the fish to rub on objects. You can add some salt too. Salt will kill other types of protozoans that don't die from heat.

After the salt and heat treatment, I would deworm all your fish at the same time. If you have other tanks and share nets, etc, you should probably raise the temperature 30C (86F) on all the tanks for 2 weeks.

You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres and if there is no improvement after 48 hours, then increase it so there is a total of 4 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate will affect some plants. The lower dose rate will not affect plants.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that.
So...you think my fish needs to be treated, or it doesn’t? You said don’t treat it, but then gave very detailed instructions on how to treat it. All 3 of my platies have red by their gills. Is this normal? The product I bought was Artemiss. I don’t know what’s in it bc it’s not listed on the bottle but I was told it’s ‘all natural’.
 
Is the fish eating?
What does its poop look like?

If you have fish that are rubbing on objects then raise the temperature to 30C and add salt. Use the high temperature and salt for 2 weeks to kill any protozoan parasites and gill flukes that might be affecting the fish.

After that give us an update and if they have stopped rubbing, then treat the fish for intestinal worms.
Just about all fish have intestinal worms and gill flukes and livebearers are one of the worst for these problems.

Using salt and heat is safe for fish and will kill most protozoan infections.
All fish should be dewormed as soon as you get them just to make sure they are clean and free of them. The deworming medications I mentioned in the previous post are safe for fish.
 
Is the fish eating?
What does its poop look like?

If you have fish that are rubbing on objects then raise the temperature to 30C and add salt. Use the high temperature and salt for 2 weeks to kill any protozoan parasites and gill flukes that might be affecting the fish.

After that give us an update and if they have stopped rubbing, then treat the fish for intestinal worms.
Just about all fish have intestinal worms and gill flukes and livebearers are one of the worst for these problems.

Using salt and heat is safe for fish and will kill most protozoan infections.
All fish should be dewormed as soon as you get them just to make sure they are clean and free of them. The deworming medications I mentioned in the previous post are safe for fish.

Yes, all of my fish are eating fine. The poop looks normal for the most part. Sometimes there are parts of the poop that are stringy and/or clear but only small sections of it. There is already salt added, but I can up the temp. The fish I posted a pic of is not rubbing, but a different platy was a few days ago (no other observable concerns in behavior or appearance). I’ll look for the meds, thanks.
 
Where can I find Levamisole? I looked on amazon but I’m getting search results for products that do not seem to contain that ingredient.
 
If you can't find Levamisole you can use Flubendazole. I know a number of people in the states that use to use it for round/ thread worms. I don't know where they got it from but they said it was easier to obtain than Levamisole.
 

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