Platy Lying On The Bottom But With No Other Symptoms..

[neverenough]

Hi there,

I have a 90lt (20gallon) tank with:

1 Platy
1 swordtail
2 columbian red fin tetras
1 male guppy
1 hatchet
1 small chinese algae eater
1 6.5 inch ghost knife (i realise i now need a bigger tank for him, raised him from 3inch, big tank coming soon)
2 german blue rams

The water parameters are nitrIte 0 nitrAte 40 ammonia 0 Ph 6.4 and slightly hard water. Temp 78 or 79

The water is always good as it has to be for the ghosty, however about 2 weeks ago 2 female guppys died to what I think was swim bladder related as one was swimming badly and one was head-standing, I then lost a pearl gourami with no obvious symptoms except occasionally resting on the bog wood and fish cave in the tank.

my female platy has been lying on the bottom on and off for 4 days but is still eating and swimming around in between resting under plants and other stuff, i'm wondering what has caused these deaths and i want to stop the platy being the next victim! the water quality is always good and i don't think the tank is overstocked. The platy could be stressed from the swordtail chasing it so should I buy more females? or is this just adding fish to a possibly infected tank?

Any advice would be great, thanks

 

[mhancock]

Hi there,

I have a 90lt (20gallon) tank with:

1 Platy
1 swordtail
2 columbian red fin tetras
1 male guppy
1 hatchet
1 small chinese algae eater
1 6.5 inch ghost knife (i realise i now need a bigger tank for him, raised him from 3inch, big tank coming soon)
2 german blue rams

The water parameters are nitrIte 0 nitrAte 40 ammonia 0 Ph 6.4 and slightly hard water. Temp 78 or 79

The water is always good as it has to be for the ghosty, however about 2 weeks ago 2 female guppys died to what I think was swim bladder related as one was swimming badly and one was head-standing, I then lost a pearl gourami with no obvious symptoms except occasionally resting on the bog wood and fish cave in the tank.

my female platy has been lying on the bottom on and off for 4 days but is still eating and swimming around in between resting under plants and other stuff, i'm wondering what has caused these deaths and i want to stop the platy being the next victim! the water quality is always good and i don't think the tank is overstocked. The platy could be stressed from the swordtail chasing it so should I buy more females? or is this just adding fish to a possibly infected tank?

Any advice would be great, thanks

I agree that your stocking levels are OK.

The problem, however, may be the chinese algea eater. As they get bigger then tend to suck the sides of other fish, often leading to fatal consequences. Maybe your CAE is just old enough to have started doing this? Unless someone more experienced than I can give you better advice, that's not a bad place to start. Most LFS will take stock back.

When I kept swordtails with platties they did not harass each other.

 

[neverenough]

wow i hadn't even considered that! but now you mention it i have seen a few bits of aggression from the CAE. I thought nothing of it as he is still very small.

thankyou very much for the suggestion i guess i will have to consider re-homing it.

could this also have caused the swim bladder problems in the guppys?

again thanks!