New Member, New Tank, Platy Problem

[Th_walking_dude]

Hi, Everyone, My names Sam and this is my first post, I hope no one thinks its cheeky of me to join and ask for advice right away.
I'm new to keeping fish, well exept goldfish as a kid, and i pretty much only know what the guys in the shop have told me and a few bits i've read over the last couple of days on this site.

Basically, I brought a nice little 60 litre tank on a bit of an impulse just over a week ago, I've been wanting fish for a while and always go to the aquariums, I didn't expect to buy anything but saw a deal too good to pass up, the guy in the shop was really helpful and seemed to know his stuff, he spent about half hour talking me through basically what i need to do up until the point where i can add fish to the tank, I followed his instructions to the letter, added water cleaner and ran the tank at the correct temprature with the filter going for four days, now the guy said i should run the tank for four to seven days before i put anything in it, me being me, i got excited and turned up bright and early at the shop on the fourth day.

I was told, deep bodied tetra, mollies and platys would be a good start for the tank as there pretty hardy. so i brought 1 male and 5 female neon sunset platys, beautiful they are too!

i added the fish on friday (now tuesday) all are doing well except one, a female who ignored all food this morning and is hanging around in a corner on its own, when i fed the fish this morning they all went mad, got excited and had a good meal but this one wasn't interested. of all the females shes one of the smallest, so i doubt shes giving birth and i cant see any fry or anything, now about 10 hours later, the fish isnt moving much and i'm worried that the others will start doing the same and die because i think maybe i should have left the tank a couple more days.


so basically just wondering what you guys think and what if anything i need to do?

thanks for reading and for any advice you may offer.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

• Fish only need food quantities roughly the size of their eyes daily, but having added fish to a tank that was not ready ("cycled"), this should be once every two days for about the first 14 days.
• Having added fish to a tank that in "un-cycled" you should be doing a 50% water change daily at the very least, in order to dilute toxins (ammonia; nitrite; to a lesser extent nitrate) to safe levels, during the first 14 days or so.
• New water should have de-chlorinator eg. Nutrafin Aquaplus; added to it before it is poured into the tank (with a good stir-in). Untreated tap water kills the bacteria needed to keep the tank water safe for your fish.
• If you haven't already got one, you need a liquid (not test strip) water test kit to test your tank water at least once a day during its early stages. If you found 0.5mg/l ammonia, you would need to do a minimum (ideally more) of 48l, to dilute the toxins to a fifth of their dangerous levels.
• Consider buying some Tetra SafeStart, but some members think this product is as much use as a "chocloate teapot."

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum walking dude.
I do not consider it cheeky at all. As is the case with many first time posters here, you have accepted the advice of your LFS whose only real motive is to sell you fish. You will find us a bit different here. I don't care a bit whether or not your LFS ever makes a penny on your trade. Instead I care about the health of your fish. OK so where does that leave you?
As I see it, you have been led by your local fish shop into a fish-in cycle without them bothering to tell you that. I have a link in my signature area to explain the fish-in cycle because we encounter it so often here. If you read through that and have any questions, please return here and let us know what your questions are.
As a short term emergency measure, try doing a water change of at least 80% of the total tank's water. Don't forget to use a dechlorinator and unplug the heater and filter during the water change. The new water should be about the same temperature as the old water. You can get it close enough using your hand to compare temperatures, no need for high tech thermometers.

 

[Twinklecaz]

Hi


I've nothing to add as you're in good hands here already but do you have a pic of your Platys? I love Platys and they sound really unusual!

 

[Verdifer]

I think the problem with the LFS's is they fail to understand that newcomers to fish keeping don't have the know how yet, they don't understand that a simple problem to them is a big problem to us newbies(I took up fish-keeping a few weeks back there so Im still a bit unsure), whereas they see a problem and fix it we need to do a lot of looking about and asking.

Im trained in IT work and when folks ask me a question I find myself saying thing like the Cache, DRAM or CPU which is easy to me but for a non compuer person I may be speaking a different language, over the last few weeks I have been to a few fish shops, when my tank was cycling I got told by 1 that there shouldn't be an Amonia or Nitrite spike, looking over the net it disagrees with him and spikes will come but water changes are a better way to go, after about 10 minutes of talking he sold me stuff to get the 2 of them down, it made no difference, when my brother-in-law seen it he explained to me how I need the Amonia(for all you don't want it) for the good bacteria to appear and explained the whole cycle thing to me again.

There is 1 LFS I go to and the guy is OK, I have seen me wanting to buy fish or equipment and he has pointed elsewhere to things that cost less money or telling me that particular fish won't go well in my tank rather than saying to me yes they will be fine just throw them in, when going to a shop if the shop-keeper tells me not to buy something I find this better as they seem to be thinking of the customer rather than the money in the till.

 

[Th_walking_dude]

Welcome to the forum walking dude.
I do not consider it cheeky at all. As is the case with many first time posters here, you have accepted the advice of your LFS whose only real motive is to sell you fish. You will find us a bit different here. I don't care a bit whether or not your LFS ever makes a penny on your trade. Instead I care about the health of your fish. OK so where does that leave you?
As I see it, you have been led by your local fish shop into a fish-in cycle without them bothering to tell you that. I have a link in my signature area to explain the fish-in cycle because we encounter it so often here. If you read through that and have any questions, please return here and let us know what your questions are.
As a short term emergency measure, try doing a water change of at least 80% of the total tank's water. Don't forget to use a dechlorinator and unplug the heater and filter during the water change. The new water should be about the sane temperature as the old water. You can get it close enough using your hand to compare temperatures, no need for high tech thermometers.

thanks very much for that! i did pop into the shop with a water sample and it tested very high ammonia levels, my girlfriend had been feeding them far too much. the fish that was ill died but the others are ok, I did a 50% change then two days later i did it again and i'm going to do it again tomorrow.
I took your advice with the heater, temperature and decholorinator. i didnt get to come back online till this morning or might have went for the larger water change instead. im going out tomorrow for a water testing kit, it seems there pretty important.
thanks very much for your help, fingers crossed!

Hi


I've nothing to add as you're in good hands here already but do you have a pic of your Platys? I love Platys and they sound really unusual!

it seems this fish is called by a few names, heres a picture i got off google, my fish look just like it!

http/www.youpet.com/graphics/animals/sunset-fire-platy-fish.jpg

I think the problem with the LFS's is they fail to understand that newcomers to fish keeping don't have the know how yet, they don't understand that a simple problem to them is a big problem to us newbies(I took up fish-keeping a few weeks back there so Im still a bit unsure), whereas they see a problem and fix it we need to do a lot of looking about and asking.

Im trained in IT work and when folks ask me a question I find myself saying thing like the Cache, DRAM or CPU which is easy to me but for a non compuer person I may be speaking a different language, over the last few weeks I have been to a few fish shops, when my tank was cycling I got told by 1 that there shouldn't be an Amonia or Nitrite spike, looking over the net it disagrees with him and spikes will come but water changes are a better way to go, after about 10 minutes of talking he sold me stuff to get the 2 of them down, it made no difference, when my brother-in-law seen it he explained to me how I need the Amonia(for all you don't want it) for the good bacteria to appear and explained the whole cycle thing to me again.

There is 1 LFS I go to and the guy is OK, I have seen me wanting to buy fish or equipment and he has pointed elsewhere to things that cost less money or telling me that particular fish won't go well in my tank rather than saying to me yes they will be fine just throw them in, when going to a shop if the shop-keeper tells me not to buy something I find this better as they seem to be thinking of the customer rather than the money in the till.

HI, I think in general your definatly right, the shop i've been going to seems really good, well kinda. the guy who sold the tank is the same guy who helped me sort the ammonia levels out, always gives good, clear explanations and understands i know literally nothing about keeping fish but that guy was off when i brought the tank and the bloke who sold me the fish was not any where near as good, this web sites helping already though, hopefully before long, i'll know what i'm doing. good luck with your tank/fish

 

[Twinklecaz]

Walking Dude, how funny is this. Yesterday I went to LFS and got a new Platy. I didn't even look at the names but I chose him and the lady went "Oh you want a gold neon one do you". So after saying I'd never seen one I chose one without knowing. He looks just like that pic so I think there must be slightly varying names.

 

[OldMan47]

There are lots of names for each of the more common platies and swordtails since the fancy ones started to become popular to breed instead of being "beginner fish" not worthy of a serious breeder. At the time I got into the hobby there were red swordtails, green swords and red and green wags. That was all there were and indeed keeping one of those strains going was no challenge at all.
These days there are a myriad of color combinations including one that I really like called a koi swordtail. We also see lots of wild type swordtails and platies in the hobby these days, although they are not common in a fish shop even now. Finding swordtails like montys and nezzies is almost a trivial exercise if you attend many club fish auctions.
With all the breeders trying to distinguish their fish from others that look identical to most of us, I am not surprised when I see the same fish have a different name at each shop I visit.

 

[Twinklecaz]

Yeah, the bully I took back yesterday ( )is a black and white mickey but they call them "Calico Milk". Same with my yellow mickey, they call them yellow comet platys or something like that.

What do natural wild platys look like oldman? Are they orange?

 

[OldMan47]

A wild type platy has very little in the way of distinguishing colors. They are mostly a silvery color with hints of this or that added color. The serious breeders then take that hint of added color and develop it further. There are many different wild species that go by the name of platy. Have a look here for some examples of wild strains. Much of what we see in the hobby today are derived from the variatus species although we also see some of the maculatus species mixed in to achieve our present color strains.
The xiphophorus genetic center is a great source when you are interested in wild type stock. They are not breeders of fancy fish but do a great job of maintaining some of the less common wild type swords and platies.

 

[Twinklecaz]

Thanks. Did I read somewhere that that's why some have developed an agressive streak? That true Platys by nature are completely docile but because they've been cross-bred with Swordtails over the years to get the colours that you get some that almost don't realise they're Platys?

 

[Th_walking_dude]

Walking Dude, how funny is this. Yesterday I went to LFS and got a new Platy. I didn't even look at the names but I chose him and the lady went "Oh you want a gold neon one do you". So after saying I'd never seen one I chose one without knowing. He looks just like that pic so I think there must be slightly varying names.

haha how funny, i've seen them under loads of diffent names, one site called it a lava platty or something crazy, i think most common name is sunset patty but i'm really not sure, I just can't wait for my ones to have babies!
quick question, this'll sound silly but what does LFS mean?

 

[OldMan47]

Platies are more aggressive today than a wild platy would be because they often carry some genetic background from Xiphophorus helleri which are a semi-aggressive swordtail species. The Xiphophorus genus contains both the many platy species and the equally wide variety of swordtail species. The domestic version of both platies and swordtails includes many crosses within that family.

 

[Twinklecaz]

Lol thanks Oldman. I knew it was something like that.


Walking Dude...in means Local Fish Shop. I never used it/knew what it meant till I came here either.