Platt has half a pectoral and damaged dorsal fin

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Stesuv

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Strange one. Maybe. Last night I noticed my platy had half a pectoral fin and a slightly damaged dorsal fin. Last night he was hiding in a cave and today the pectoral fin has white around it but nothing on the dorsal fin. He is swimming ok and eating ok and is out of the cave. The only thing I have noticed was the molly had a little nibble a couple o times.
 

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Ouch! A molly might be picking on him now because he's weakened (fish pick on sickly fish... sounds mean, but sick fish attract predators in the wild, so it's natural behaviour for them to try to chase away a sick or injured fish) but the molly couldn't have inflicted the initial injuries.

What else is in the tank with him? Any what's the filter/filter intake like?
 
Actually looking closer at the photos, looks like the fins are eroded away rather than torn. Do you have a water testing kit? For a clearer picture so people can give practical advice, if you could copy/paste the template below and fill in as many of the answers as you can, that would help narrow things down a lot, and reduce the amount you get bombarded with different questions :D

Tank size:
tank age:
pH:
ammonia:
nitrite:
nitrate:
kH:
gH:
tank temp:


Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior):

Volume and Frequency of water changes:

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank:

Tank inhabitants:

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration):

Exposure to chemicals:

Digital photo (include if possible):
 
The fish has intestinal worms (clear stringy poop in first picture) and has fin rot on the pectoral fin.

If the molly is male then it is bullying the male platy.

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Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using salt or medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Add some salt, (see directions below).

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SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium 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, Bettas & 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 (4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will affect some plants and some snails. The lower dose rate (1-2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will not affect fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

When you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.
 
To treat intestinal worms

Intestinal Worms like tapeworm and threadworms cause the fish to lose weight, continue eating and swimming normally, and do a stringy white poop. Fish can do this for months and not be too badly affected. In some cases, fish with a bad worm infestation will actually gain weight and get fat and look like a pregnant guppy. This is due to the huge number of worms inside the fish.

Livebearers like guppies, mollies, swordtails & platies are regularly infected with gill flukes and intestinal worms. If the fish are still eating well, then worms is the most likely cause.

You can use Praziquantel to treat tapeworm and gill flukes. And Levamisole to treat thread/ round worms. If you can't find these medications, look for Flubendazole, which treats both lots of worms.

In the UK look for:
eSHa gdex contains praziquantel that treats tapeworm and gill flukes.
eSHa-ndx contains levamisole and treats thread/ round worms.
NT Labs Anti-fluke and Wormer contains flubendazole.

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 4 weeks. The first treatment will kill any worms in the fish. The second, third and forth treatments kill any baby worms that hatch from eggs inside the fish's digestive tract.
Treat every fish tank in the house at the same time to prevent cross contamination.

You do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean 24-48 hours after treatment. Clean the filter 24 hours after treatment too.
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.

The water changes will remove most of the medication so you don't overdose the fish the next time you treat them. The gravel cleaning will suck out any worms and eggs that have been expelled by the fish. Repeating the treatment for 3-4 doses at weekly intervals will kill any worms that hatch from eggs. At the end of the treatment you will have healthier fish.
 
Ouch! A molly might be picking on him now because he's weakened (fish pick on sickly fish... sounds mean, but sick fish attract predators in the wild, so it's natural behaviour for them to try to chase away a sick or injured fish) but the molly couldn't have inflicted the initial injuries.

What else is in the tank with him? Any what's the filter/filter intake like?
Hi thanks for you reply.

Tank size: 120 litres
tank age: 3 months
pH: 6.4
ammonia: 0 - 0.5
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 10-25
kH: 0-50
gH: 50-125
tank temp: 27 degrees C


Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior):
Was fine when I went to work when I returned 8 hours later he had half of a pectoral and a flash in his dorsal. When I woke up in the morning the damaged fin was covered in white fluff (like a scab)
Volume and Frequency of water changes: last week Saturday I did a 25% water change and again a 50% water change on Wednesday.

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank:

Tank inhabitants: 1 black and white mollie
6 neons. 3 Corys 3 male guppies. 2 white and orange shark tails and 2 Nerite snails.

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): the mollie and 2 of the guppies. And the 2 snails.

Exposure to chemicals: I use seachem prime when doing water changes.
I also have a Aqua one moray 700 filter with stock media. I have slightly modified the intake holes by cutting out extra as in pump my pumps video on YouTube.
 
Hi thanks for you reply.

Tank size: 120 litres
tank age: 3 months
pH: 6.4
ammonia: 0 - 0.5
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 10-25
kH: 0-50
gH: 50-125
tank temp: 27 degrees C


Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior):
Was fine when I went to work when I returned 8 hours later he had half of a pectoral and a flash in his dorsal. When I woke up in the morning the damaged fin was covered in white fluff (like a scab)
Volume and Frequency of water changes: last week Saturday I did a 25% water change and again a 50% water change on Wednesday.

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank:

Tank inhabitants: 1 black and white mollie
6 neons. 3 Corys 3 male guppies. 2 white and orange shark tails and 2 Nerite snails.

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): the mollie and 2 of the guppies. And the 2 snails.

Exposure to chemicals: I use seachem prime when doing water changes.
I also have a Aqua one moray 700 filter with stock media. I have slightly modified the intake holes by cutting out extra as in pump my pumps video on YouTube.
Today he has deteriorated with a near total loss of his pectoral and a slightly more damaged dorsal so I have removed him and set up a quarantine tank.
 
Your pH and GH is a bit low for livebearers. Guppies do best in water with a pH above 7.0 and a GH around 200ppm. Mollies do best with a pH above 7.0 and a GH above 250ppm.
 

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