Platy's going down one by one

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Justin Shephard

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I have a 36 gallon tank with six Platy's and 3 Danios. Two weeks ago I did a 50% water change and cleaned the mechanical filter media (just rinsed the sponges in the water pulled from the tank) about a week later one of the Platy's started to quarantine himself in the plants in the corner. Since then, another platy has done the same then went into a fixed sideways bend and would not swim, just floated at the top. We decided to euthanize the poor condition floating platy. The original sick guy is starting to do better, but now we have another 2 Platys quarantining themselves in the plants.

Water parameters as of now are 0 ammonia, 0 Nitrite, and almost 0 Nitrate. ph usually sits around 7.4. water temp is at 80. They have all been in the tank for around 6 months with no problems until know. I have also been dosing stress coat for the additional help the last week.

Does anyone have any ideas or thoughts? Im thinking of maybe starting an antibiotic before the whole tank goes down. All the fish look normal with no fin rot, white spots, or red gills. Im at a loss and any help would be appreciated.
 
Temp is a little too warm for a platy or danio. I keep mine at 74F. Can we get a pic?
 
How long has the tank been set up for?
How often do you do water changes and how much water do you change?
Do you dechlorinate the new water before adding it to the tank?
Do you gravel clean the substrate when you do a water change?

What sort of filter do you have?
How often do you clean the filter and how do you clean it?

Did you add anything new to the tank within a couple of weeks of this starting?

What is the GH (general hardness) of your water supply. This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

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Any chance of a picture and short 20 second video of the fish?
If the pictures are too big for the website, set the camera's resolution to its lowest setting and take some more. The lower resolution will make the images smaller and they should fit on this website. Check the pictures on your pc and find a couple that are clear and show the problem, and post them here. Make sure you turn the camera's resolution back up after you have taken the pics otherwise all your pictures will be small.

If the video is too big for this website, post it on YouTube and copy & paste the link here. We can view it at YouTube. If you are using a mobile phone to take the video, have the phone horizontal so the video takes up the entire screen. If you have the phone vertical, you get video in the middle and black on either side.

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The following link information on what to do if your fish get sick. It's long and boring but worth knowing.
https://www.fishforums.net/threads/what-to-do-if-your-fish-gets-sick.450268/

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Do not use anti-biotics unless the fish have a known bacterial infection that has not responded to normal fish medications. Improper use or misuse of anti-biotics can lead to drug resistant bacteria that can kill people, animals, birds and fish.

Find out what the problem is first and threat use the appropriate medication.
 
The tank has been sent up for about a year.
I do water 25% changes about every 2 weeks.
I use stress coat to dechlorinate the water and gravel vac the substrate every water change.
I am running a fluval 206 canister with an inline heater. The tank has always been at 78 and the fish are extremely active.
The only new thing I did was clean the mechanical filter as mentioned above.
As far as MDRO's... I have a paramedicine degree and work on an ambulance so I'm not too worried about misuse. That sentence also sounds a little cocky.... Im sorry, I really am thankful for any and all advice!

In the video it is hard to see but it is a Mickey Mouse Platy hiding in the bottom plants that is gulping pretty heavily.
 

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  • Video.MOV.zip
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I can't view the video. Can you upload it to YouTube and copy & paste the link here?

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You should do a bigger water change. I recommend doing a 75% water change and gravel clean.
You do water changes for 2 main reasons.
1) to reduce nutrients like ammonia, nitrite & nitrate.
2) to dilute disease organisms in the water.

Fish live in a soup of microscopic organisms including bacteria, fungus, viruses, protozoans, worms, flukes and various other things that make your skin crawl. Doing a big water change and gravel cleaning the substrate on a regular basis will dilute these organisms and reduce their numbers in the water, thus making it a safer and healthier environment for the fish.

If you do a 25% water change each week you leave behind 75% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 50% water change each week you leave behind 50% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 75% water change each week you leave behind 25% of the bad stuff in the water.

Fish live in their own waste. Their tank and filter is full of fish poop. The water they breath is filtered through fish poop. Cleaning filters, gravel and doing big regular water changes, removes a lot of this poop and makes the environment cleaner and healthier for the fish.
 
That’s great info! Thanks! I’ll start doing weekly 75% changes. As far as the current sick fish, should I just ride it out? Or should any action be taken?
 
I would not be adding stress coat as it does not do anything useful.Personally I wouldn't use it as a dechlorinator either as aloe vera is not something fish gills are designed for. You obviously do need to remove chlorine from new water but no need for aloe vera.
 
I need to see pictures and video of the fish before suggesting a treatment. If you want to do anything, you can try doing a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. And you can add some salt, which can treat some minor issues. If you use salt, you will need to add it to the tank whenever you do water changes during the next couple of weeks.

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You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea 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, 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 will affect some plants. The lower dose rate will not affect plants.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that.
 
here is a quick video. It is pretty difficult to see because of his hiding, you might be able to see him gulping. Ill start the salt and water changes. I was able to see him poop, it was transparent and stringy. Im leaning toward a bacteria disease. thoughts? thanks for the info so far!
 

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  • Video.MOV.zip
    1.3 MB · Views: 215
I still can't view the video. If you upload it to YouTube, you can copy & paste the link here and we can view it there.

If the fish is doing stringy white poop and has stopped eating, it probably has an internal bacterial infection and will die soon. There is not normally any cure for the fish if they get to this stage.

If the fish is still eating but doing a stringy white poop, it could have an internal protozoan infection, which might respond to Metronidazole, sold by some fish companies to treat internal infections.

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The original fish that developed the bend and floated to the top, probably had organ failure. The swim bladder might have popped and the fish buckled over (developed the bend in its body), and was then unable to stay buoyant and floated to the surface.

If the other fish develop the same symptoms, they might have an infection that is specifically affecting that organ, or they might have a genetic trait that causes them to have a weak swim bladder that pops, or they might have TB that is damaging their swim bladder.

Are all the platies the same type and did you get them all at the same time?
 
I’ll post to YouTube when I get home. The platy’s were put in in threes. The sunburst were all put in. Then about a month later three mickeys were put in. It’s been about 6 months they have all been together. One Mickey platy has gone down, and one more is acting as described. The last Mickey platy is acting normal. What water temp do you recommend? I have it at 78 F currently.
 

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