Need Advice Please

[littlen]

Hi, i am not very experienced in the world of fish keeping so please forgive me

About a year and a half ago after the death of my angelfish i had for many years i decided to go for it and on advice i purchased 5 platys, 2 male and 3 female.
So ive had these five platys for around a year and a half now. About 6 months ago one of them had about 6 baby fish but only one survived. It is now 6 months old and still is quite small, i thought it would be almost full grown by now but it is only about half the size of the adults. It is happy in itself, swims about and isnt being picked on by the others and is eating fine. I feed them flakes every day and bloodworms once a week but it just wont grow!
I also have one snakey looking fish that ive had at least 3 years! I think its a loach of some kind i seem to remember, its very small and orange and black striped if that is relevant lol

Also over the past week the platys have gone crazy and have started fighting all of a sudden, 2 in particular have chunks taken out of their fins and one of the females has got very very skinny, so much that its belly has sort of gone in rather than looking rounded and it has lost half of its top fin! Does anyone know why this has happened all of a sudden when they were getting along fine for ages and how can i help get the skinny one in better condition

thanks!!

 

[Davo86]

Hi Littlen,

Do you ever test the water in the tank? if so can you post some results,
aggression can sometimes be caused when there is a water quality issue

Also it is really strange that your fish have only bred once in a year and a half, considering platys are usually prolific breeders

would you say that the skinny female has been the fish most picked on by the others?

could possibly be an internal parasite or bacterial condition, but we really need to see water stats

The orange and black loach is most likely a kuhli loach

 

[littlen]

Hi Littlen,

Do you eve test the water in the tank? if so can you post some results,
aggression can sometimes be caused when there is a water quality issue

Also it is really strange that your fish have only bred once in a year and a half, considering platys are usually prolific breeders

would you say that the skinny female has been the fish most picked on by the others?

could possibly be an internal parasite or bacterial condition, but we really need to see water stats

The orange and black loach is most likely a kuhli loach

Hi thanks for the reply.

I havn't tested the water. I dont really know alot about water quality etc as i usually just take a sample to the fish shop and they test it and it has always came back fine. I havn't done anything different to normal either, but i will try and get some form of testing thing as soon as i can. When i bought the fish tank i was given a bottle of something to help keep water ammonia levels down and you put in one drop after a water change i think but cant find the bottle at the moment, typical!

Im pretty sure they have only bred the once, well i have only ever seen fry that once and havnt seen any other signs.

Is it possible that the skinny one could have caught an internal parasite even though no new fish etc have been introduced for a long time?
I think she is picked on by the two males in particular, they tend to chase it away from the other 2 females but this has only started recently as before they all got along fine and it seems strange she has chunks taken from her fin and tail so im hoping it isnt an infection of some sort!

Oh and thanks alot i have had a quick google and found my fish is a khuli loach, but now im slightly worried as it said they enjoy large groups and mine is solitary (i had two but one was murdered by previous angelfish ) but im aprehensive about getting more due to a fear of overstocking, well i espeically wont be looking at getting anything else until the platys are healthy and happy again.

thanks again

 

[Davo86]

Things like parasites are usually present in a tank but it isn't until a fish becomes stressed or weak that the parasite can attack the fish, so to speak.
If the female is being chased a lot this will often lead to illness, whether that be whitespot, or internal or bacterial problems.

What size tank are they in atm?

I would do a precautionary 50% water change and if possible add a few more hiding places to the tank were she can hide.
water stats are needed asap tbh

 

[littlen]

Things like parasites are usually present in a tank but it isn't until a fish becomes stressed or weak that the parasite can attack the fish, so to speak.
If the female is being chased a lot this will often lead to illness, whether that be whitespot, or internal or bacterial problems.

What size tank are they in atm?

I would do a precautionary 50% water change and if possible add a few more hiding places to the tank were she can hide.
water stats are needed asap tbh

I think its a 20 gallon. i asked in the fish shop when buying the fish and showed him the tank and he said it would be fine with alot more than 5 fish, but i decided to stick to a small amount.

I will do a water change and see if i can buy some more plants. The tank has lots of slate in it so hopefully she can find somewhere to get away from them! and will try and get to the shop to ask them to test the water asap

 

[Davo86]

Ok, I agree you are fairly understocked and once everything is back to normal i would maybe consider adding 2 more females so that the male platys aggression is spread amongst a bigger group, which should lead to an overall more peaceful tank.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Littlen. Could you give us a bit of information on how much water you usually change and how often? You are very correct that by now the fry should be almost the size of the adults. Sometimes that can be caused by not doing enough water changes. Unfortunately, I have not seen fish suddenly get bigger when they were stunted like that.
Your females will most likely have been delivering quite a few fry every 4 weeks or so. If the cover or the fry to hide in is not very dense, you would probably never see them. The only way that I have had much success saving a lot of fry was to isolate my female when she was very pregnant in her own tank with lots of cover. The cover prevents the mother from finding all the fry and there are no fish to follow her around while she is giving birth to eat all the fry.