Platy With Stringy Poop

[Shodo]

I went away for two days and left my two red platys, I figured a two day fast would be good for them. Well I got back and one had a 3" trailing poop and the other had an inch. I was really surprised that much poop could come out of such a small fish. Obviously they are overfed. I feed blanched frozen peas sometimes but have a hard time getting them small enough for them to eat(I squish them with my thumb.) Anybody have any advice what and how to feed these fish? I usually just feed them livebearer flakes and small tropical micro granules. I just looked over and the one with the 3 inch trail(it had broken off) now has another inch trailing, I just had fed them.

 

[OldMan47]

I would add in some frozen or freeze dried foods as a treat to your basic fish diet. It will give the fish some nice fiber to help keep them from becoming bound up and will give the platies a bit of extra protein in their diets.

 

[Shodo]

Thanks for your reply

I have some frozen blood worms, they seem kind of big for them. Frozen brine shrimp might work, I have some gel brine shrimp. I can get tubifex worms. I was looking for daphnia but my fish store doesnt sell that. I am doing an online order soon, any products you recommend?

They had long trailing poop again today. I didnt feed them all that much it is weird. Maybe they are eating the plants or something. The poop is kind of black green like.

 

[karlhague]

Thanks for your reply

I have some frozen blood worms, they seem kind of big for them. Frozen brine shrimp might work, I have some gel brine shrimp. I can get tubifex worms. I was looking for daphnia but my fish store doesnt sell that. I am doing an online order soon, any products you recommend?

They had long trailing poop again today. I didnt feed them all that much it is weird. Maybe they are eating the plants or something. The poop is kind of black green like.

The fish food company SUPA, Make a Freeze Dried Daphnia thats Pretty good, Almost all my local petshops here in the U.K Stock it, and its not expensive either

 

[Shodo]

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll check it out.

This is getting weird. One of them have a 4" green trailing poop(thin). They must be eating the plants.

 

[OldMan47]

Frozen blood worms are not too big for adult platies Shodo. With frozen the problem is often one of just defrosting the amount you can feed in one feeding. For only 2 platies, you will want very little of that food. I buy frozen foods in the little cubes and defrost a whole cube at a time but I walk around to maybe 10 or 12 tanks before the cube is used up. Daphnia are not a good size for adult platies. It would be like trying to feed an adult human on things smaller than M&Ms. It is a great size for newborn platies though.

 

[Shodo]

I use about a half of a cube of frozen blood worms for my goldfish, so i can use a little for the platies, I can't see them needing more than 2 worms each. I was going to order some Hikari Daphnia but if it is too small than maybe I won't. They are an inch and a half long, I am not sure how big a full grown platy should be?

I have enclosed a photo to give you an idea of how much poop is coming out of these guys. This has all started recently, I am not sure why.

I bought some freeze dried brine shrimp and freeze dried blood worms for them. I havent fed the brine shrimp yet.

 

[OldMan47]

Adult platies can easily be a full 2 inches long (SL), plus tails. If you are already defrosting foods for your goldfish, try setting some food aside for the livebearers and just feed the excess to the goldfish. That way you can limit the amount of food introduced to the livebearer tank and still have some gluttons to eat all of the excess.