Platty Has Died - Help

[Vicky99]

One of my plattys died in the night.

I bought 2 pairs of plattys on Sunday (unfortunatly the guy in the shop managed to give me 1 pair of red ones and 2 male orange and black ones and I didn't notice until I got home and by then the shop was shut hurumph).

One of the orange and black ones (the one I didn't want when I was in the shop) started behaving strangely within a couple of hours of letting them loose in the tank (after aclimatising them of course).

He was very fat, his fins and tail were a bit raggedy and he was swimming like he was really heavy - trying to get up to the top and then just sinking to the bottom - eventually just staying at the bottom. I put in some sinking food so that he could at least feed and a couple of drops of stress coat in case that was what he needed.

I didn't want him - he was supposed to be a girl, but I didn't want him to be ill either - I'd have got him his own lady friend!

This morning he was dead.

Can anyone shed any light on the reason for his demise? I want to make sure my tank isn't going to be infected and if so what I need to do to protect the fish in there, also that if it was something I have done wrong, that I make sure I sort it out before I get a female to replace him! The other 3 plattys seem happy as larry - they are feeding, playing in the filter bubbles, swimming about fine.

The water stats were all good except nitrates which were up a bit (but not too much) as I had done a partial water change that morning and my tap water is high in nitrates. This has never caused me a problem before and usually sorts itself out pretty quickly. I always put in decholrinator to make the tap water safe.

Could it have been the nitrates if he was a particularly sensitive fish - there were no signs of any fungus or slime on him. I also thought maybe he came to me with fin rot (as his fins were a bit raggedy) but would that have killed him that quickly?

Thanks for your help!

Vicky

 

[shaunza2010]

most lfs should replace the fish if you still have the evidence (dead fish) within a 7 day period
the lfs i go have this policy (however,yours might be different) you could take back the other fish that you didn't want and have them replaced with the one's you wanted.
Remember it's your money that you spent and if you didn't get what you wanted your intitle to have your money back or refunded or the sheepkeeper can let you have what you wanted. Oh and another thing is let them know what your talking about and dont let them bully you around by saying "it must be your tank", take samples of your water to prove that your tank is ok (I take it your water is fine)
We all the best I hope this helps

 

[Vicky99]

Thanks for this.

This ifs is usually pretty good. I'm not too worried about the money either - he was only £1.99 - it'll cost me more in petrol to take him back!! I just want to make sure that the other fish won't be affected and that it's not something I've done wrong.

Water stats were all as they should be excpt Nitrates were a little higher than they normally are but still not dangerously high.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i'd say he was poorly before you got him, doubt he was in the tank long enough to transfer any diseases to your other fish BUT if he was in the tank with the other platy's you got for a while they could be carrying whatever he had and be about to get ill. I'm not v good at identifying diseases not sure what he had so can't help with that. My usual solution is to treat disease by raising the temp and adding salt, you do need to be a bit careful though, some fish, like catfish can't hack salt, it'd kill them. Sure someone else can give you a bit more help but I'd try and do something just to be on the safe side

 

[rich]

You could add a preventative dose of EHSA 2000. It treats a wide variety of diseases and is relatively weak (according to my lfs). I always have a bottle and add a few drops with all my new fish just to kill off anything that could be in there.

 

[chrisdoesntmiss]

It sounds as though he might have just been rather old or just very stressed. You can never tell how long lfs' have had the fish, especially platies. If the others are ok then I am pretty sure that it was just a one off and wouldnt worry about it.

Did he look as though he was gasping for air?