Strange Platy Issue

[killudead]

I have a red wag platy that has some strange symptoms.
He has completely pineconed. Some of his back scales are missing. It sort of looks like he woke after a rough night of drinking or something.
He swims around with no issue, eats just fine. I saw him lean on to a rough surface and flick away. He must have an itch.
This has been slowly happening over the last few months. I noticed it a little in has back and slowly over the whole body. Never really thought about it as he shows no other signs of problems.

anyway, about the tank
75 gallon freshwater planted
all community fish and there is no fighting at all
Current water stats are
no ammonia
less than .5 nitrite. hard to tell the color of the water in the test tube they give you. I have crappy lights i guess
7 ph
slightly hard water
As of this week, i now have 40 fish. Normally it is around 35. but i had to break down another tank and add them to that one.
feed once daily and some pellets at night after the lights go off for the bottom feeders.

I have neon tetras, loaches, cory cats, platys, rasboras, more tetras, and an assortment of others.
Any thoughts or ideas, I have some crappy photos i will try to upload.

 

[omega59]

Hello there. How often do you clean this tank? I had fish that did the same it's a combination of fluke and dropsy. Sadly nothing will cure once they become enlarged. Best to euthinise clean tank well and use medication as others may get sick. The cause is dirty water bad quality water or something that was sick added to thd tank. Good luck.

 

[killudead]

Thanks for the reply. the tank is cleaned once a week, 30% water change and the entire tank is gravel vac'ed.
I can see water quality as a potential issue always. He is not swollen like dropsy, just has the pinecone issue.

I looked flukes and here is what i found. I am not sure about the worms but I will have to keep checking. It is so weird!!


Flukes are not the name of a single disease but rather the name of a number of parasites. The term flukes are used for a number of different about 1 mm long flat worms that all can be treated and diagnosed in the same way. Unlike many other health problems in fish, flukes can infect healthy fish if introduced to your aquarium and it is therefore important to try and prevent them from ever reaching your aquarium in the fist place.

Preventing flukes from entering your aquarium can be done by quarantining all new fish for a couple of weeks before letting them into your main aquarium and by avoid using live food from insecure sources such as water with fish in them. Ideally you should avoid feeding live food that you haven't cultivated yourself to make sure that you avoid the introduction of flukes with the live fish food.

The symptoms of flukes are similar to those of ich/ick. It is however possible to see the difference using a handheld magnifying glass. If you are dealing with flukes you should be able to see eyes and movement which you won't see if you are dealing with ich/ick. Common symptoms include fish scratching itself against everything all the time, mucus on gills or body, sunken in bellies, rapid breathing, and reddened skin. In severe cases the fins on infected fish can be eaten clean of the fish. Flukes will if left untreated kill the fish by destroying its gills.

Fluke treatment is carried out using potassium permanganate. You can either bathe the sick fish in a potassium permanganate solution (10mg per litre water) for about 20-30 minutes or treat the entire holding tank. Treating the entire tank will help make sure that you kill all flukes and help you avoid a new fluke problem, but it will be a little messy as potassium permanganate will color the water in the aquarium. Despite this I recommend the later option as it is safer and doesn't involving catching the sick fish and subjecting it to extra stress, and because it helps make sure that all flukes are eradicated.

 

[killudead]

i removed him from the tank today. Put him a fresh tank of water, added the conditioner of course with a cycled filter.
Threw in some stuff to hide around and make it feel more homey.
I am going to use maracyn plus for 10 days and see what happens.

 

[omega59]

It's a good idea to treat the other tank as well who knows if it spread to the other fish. Also remove the carbon from the filter leaving only the sponge. Increase airation with an air stone could help, increase the water temp could help as well. I recommend a double-round of medication after the first treatement is done even if the fish seem cured double dose will assure it is really gone because sometimes it may return. The other thing about medication is that your fish may become immune to the meds or rather the illness will. Dose with care and wait a bit after a second round of meds. Good luck! You can also google about fish dropsy oh and replace the carbon with fresh one after treatment of course

 

[killudead]

24 hours in the hospital tank. He seems ok, but he did not eat tonight, I threw a antibiotic pebbles and he did not touch them, just in case he did not see them i threw in 2 small pieces if flake food. Pretty sure he is ignoring the food altogether.
I will add the 2nd 5ml of maracyn plus tomorrow. That will day 3 with him in the tank.
A double does was mentioned, do you feel like 10ml in 5 gallon is what you mean?
the normal dose would be 10ml per 10g. I will assume yes, but hate to push the issue i have an airstone in the tank, it comes on and off every hour for an hour. i will keep posting here with daily updates.
thanks for viewing.
Tank is set at 80*F.
10 gallon cap filter

 

[killudead]

Checked him this morning. all seemed well.
came home from eating dinner and he could not swim. did a 20% water change, and added the conditioner, just checked his tank. He has since passed on. Thanks for all the help with replies.
poor little guy has moved on to the lake in the sky.

 

[biokid101]

aweeeee im so sry

 

[omega59]

Sorry to hear, in my experiance when they become bloated like a ball it's too late, as this is a sign of their kidney failure. Keep an eye on your tank and do weekly water changes. It's also a good idea to let the tap water sit in a bucket overnight to get to room temp and allow the chlorine to vaporate a bit. That's what I do and I then add dechlorinator, my tanks have yet to fail. One other thong make sure you remove that carbon sack from thd filter they are not meant to stay in there get biomax instead. Personally my filter only has a sponge and it's a few years now. Only time I ever used a carbon sack is if something needed to be removed like meds or odour.