Platies Looking Under The Weather

[vivh]

hi

i'm new to this forum, as advised I've had a read through other posts about sick fish but I'm struggling to diagnose whats up with my platies.

I've recently dosed against whitespot & velvet etc as some of my platies, rams and even corys had been flicking over several weeks. (it was only occasional, but enough to notice the behaviour).
Protozin i think i used and dosed according to instructions over several days.

Yesterday I lost a ram, he looked physically healthy but he'd been a bit "subdued" last couple of days.
i then lost a male platy rather suddenly yesterday and he also physically looked fine.

The shop keeper I buy from thought that maybe the dosing may have affected the Ram, but i'm non the wiser really.
since the treatment over a week ago I have done 25% water change & put carbon filter in, & added some Bio as I usually do.

My tank set up is roughly 5 months old, 70 litres, water tests regularly have all been spot on (i haven't tested but the shop does everytime i pop in) I now have 3 platies in, 3 Rams, 2 Bolivian Rams, 4 Guppies, 2 Corys & a Plec oh and 1 Cardinal , as all his mates died ! (sorry if i'm not too great on the proper names!)

I have one other platy that seems unwell. he's not feeding, the only physical thing i can see is that his one gill looks as if it is coming away from his head a bit and he seems to be breathing rapidly. He doesn't look as if he has fungus or fluffiness, maybe a bit opaque round the gills and mouth if anything. his swimming is ok, but has spent more time at bottom lately.
these aren't new fish.

any ideas? I don't want to dose the tank again so soon. I don't have a hospital tank either.

thanks

Viv (somewhat confused ! )

 

[karlp]

Sorry can't be much help but for what it's worth...

If you've used protazoin according to the instructions, it should have killed off the parasites, so I would suspect you either have something that isn't effected by protazoin or a problem with your water. Toxins do periodically get into the water supply and can effect the fish.

In any case I think my first course would be to do two 50% water changes over the next two days to make sure all the water has been changed. This would have the benefit of ruling out the water as the problem and also reducing the parasite load in the water (free swimming at least, although if you've got an infestation in the fish, the numbers will soon increase again).

Are there any other visible signs ? stringy faeces ? protrusions at the anus ? distented stomachs ? etc...

Do you have a specialist aquatic vet nearby ? I had a problem with a nasty nematode once that was killing off all the fish and required prescription medicine to cure.

 

[WILDER]

The gill does it look red and inflamed, or does it look like it is rotting away.

 

[WILDER]

It sounds like the parasites are destroying the gill, or you have bacterial gill desease.
http/www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/hdgilld.htm

 

[vivh]

It sounds like the parasites are destroying the gill, or you have bacterial gill desease.
http/www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/hdgilld.htm

there's definitely no abcesses or gill rotting.
I bought an Anti internal bacteria treatment, this says it would treat gillrot etc, I'm just a bit wary of dosing them all so soon.
Also, it mentions adding Tonic salt, I have never used Tonic Salts - what do you think, any ideas on this?
I've heard mixed things about salts, ie that they're not really needed.

thanks for your post its helpful.
I think i will do more water change also.

If you change more than the 25% does this not reduce the helpful bacteria load however


Viv

 

[WILDER]

Do you have any scaless fish, salt is good when needed, if you have no scaless fish you could add it to the tank, and also the fish with the bad gill salt baths, as if it is parasites they hate salt.

No salt then in the tank noticed you have corys and plecs, cory can tolerate small amounts of salt, but plecs don't like any.I would do salt baths. two teaspoon to a gal to start of with.

http/ukdiscus.com/ken_thomson_salt.htm

http/www.kenliz.plus.com/Salt_use.html