Need help identifying problem and treatment

[jwilson2k]

Hello all.

I discovered a problem with one of my platies this morning. She looks like there are white spots on the tail and also a chunk is missing on tail fin area. She and another fish have their fins "clamped" and I'm wondering if this is ich. Since she is yellow it's hard to see if there are any spots on her body. Other fish in this aquarium don't have spots. Only one other has clamped fins and is hanging out at the top of the tank in back by the heater. I don't know what to do. Please see attached pictures.

This is an established 20G tank with 5 platies and 6 neon tetras.
GH: 180
KH: 80
pH: 7.0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 80 (Doing a 50% water change and will repost stats)
Thanks in advance.

John

 

[betta4ever!]

Does it look solid or more like its fluffy( not the ideal word but you know what I mean)?

 

[Byron]

Welcome to TFF.

Members will want more data to assess this. Can you post the parameters, which refer to GH (hardness), pH and temperature. Also conditions, meaning ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Also, tank size and fish (species and numbers).

What is generally referred to as fin rot seems to be present, but there may be more to this.

EDIT. For some reason, I missed this data in post #1, sorry about that, not at my best today.

 

[jwilson2k]

Does it look solid or more like its fluffy( not the ideal word but you know what I mean)?

It doesn't look fluffy like cotton.

 

[itiwhetu]

Your nitrate is just way too high, bring your nitrate level down to near zero and the fish will cure itself. Water changes are required.

 

[jwilson2k]

After water change:
Nitrate: 40

Going to do another water change tomorrow to get this lower.

 

[Colin_T]

The yellow platy in the picture does not have white spot.

It appears to have calcium deposits in the fins. The white bits are on the fin rays and don't appear elsewhere on the body.

The clamped fins and excess mucous could be from poor water quality, a dirty tank, or an external protozoan or bacterial infection. But there are no signs of bacteria on the tail, which show up as red areas.

There are no signs of external protozoan infections on the body, which appear as cream, white or grey patches on the body.

There is a high nitrate reading and this is most likely the cause of the excess mucous. Big daily water changes and gravel cleaning the substrate for a week should fix this.