Weird Platy Behaviour Followed By Death

[ceottaki]

Hello all.

I have a Fluval Edge tank, 23 litres (I know, it's small...), with two platies in it, a "sunset" male and a red female. The male has been in the tank for 3 months, the female has been in for 2 months. Both of them were perfectly fine, growing and all, but last week the male started to act slow and swim less, although still eating. I've tested the water several times, nitrite was zero, nitrate below 20, PH the same as always (6.8), everything else the same as it has always been.

Regardless of that I made a 25% water change, to reduce the nitrate a bit more, then another 25% water change. No improvement with the male. The female was still quite happy, swimming as usual, normal behaviour.

I also checked the body of the male for any signs of any diseases, couldn't find anything, it was looking as good as always. Since I couldn't find anything on the net regarding this behaviour, I wasn't too worried, until I got home two days ago to a dead fish, no apparent reason.

The female is still there, still swimming and still looking happy, but I am very worried because if it starts behaving like the male I have no idea what happened and what to do.

Does anybody have any ideas?


Thanks,
Felipe.

 

[roadmaster]

Hello all.

I have a Fluval Edge tank, 23 litres (I know, it's small...), with two platies in it, a "sunset" male and a red female. The male has been in the tank for 3 months, the female has been in for 2 months. Both of them were perfectly fine, growing and all, but last week the male started to act slow and swim less, although still eating. I've tested the water several times, nitrite was zero, nitrate below 20, PH the same as always (6.8), everything else the same as it has always been.

Regardless of that I made a 25% water change, to reduce the nitrate a bit more, then another 25% water change. No improvement with the male. The female was still quite happy, swimming as usual, normal behaviour.

I also checked the body of the male for any signs of any diseases, couldn't find anything, it was looking as good as always. Since I couldn't find anything on the net regarding this behaviour, I wasn't too worried, until I got home two days ago to a dead fish, no apparent reason.

The female is still there, still swimming and still looking happy, but I am very worried because if it starts behaving like the male I have no idea what happened and what to do.

Does anybody have any ideas?


Thanks,
Felipe.

Livebearers such as mollies,platy's, swordtails,and guppies in my expierience do best in basic alkaline water with ph values between 7.4 and 8.0 and ammonia and nitrites at zero all day every day. I feed these fish largely vegetable based flake food or algae based foods for they are largely herbivores.
I have not had much luck with keeping them healthy in the long term in soft water conditions.
As you have noted, the approx 6 gallon tank is really too small and I would want to try and get at least a twenty gallon with a male and female platy due to resulting fry that could very well be too much fish for the filtration on your small tank.

 

[WILDER]

What test kit are you using.

It could be constipation to bacterial.
What do you feed the fish.
Does he look bloated or thin.
Is he still eating.
What does it look like when he goes to the toilet.
Does he look pale or darker in colour.
Is he resting on the subsrate or leaning to oneside.
Can he maintain balance in the water.

 

[ceottaki]

What test kit are you using.

It could be constipation to bacterial.
What do you feed the fish.
Does he look bloated or thin.
Is he still eating.
What does it look like when he goes to the toilet.
Does he look pale or darker in colour.
Is he resting on the subsrate or leaning to oneside.
Can he maintain balance in the water.

Hello there, roadmaster.

I'm using the Tetra 6 in 1 strip tests.

Now that you've mentioned constipation, I have noticed that his stools had changed colour, sometimes. It is normally quite dark, but sometimes he would pass some whiteish one, but I didn't think anything of it...

He was still eating, up to the morning I found him dead. He was otherwise normal, not bloated or thin, still as colourful as ever.

I feed them flake food for tropical fish, both from King British and from Tetra (TetraMin). A couple of weeks before he died I gave them holiday food from Tetra, since I went away for a bit.

Up until the last night I saw him alive he was still swimming a bit, not much, but most of the time resting, either close to the substrate (but not touching it) or a bit higher, but almost stopped. He could maintain balance, yes, and wasn't leaning to the sides.

The tank has been established for a while now, and although the pH is a bit lower than the absolutely perfect for platys, I had been told that if I wasn't worried about breeding them that shouldn't be a factor.

It has been more than a week now that he has died, and the female is still looking very happy and lively. The water parameters haven't changed, nitrites still zero, nitrates just above 10, Ph still 6.8. KH is 3o.d, GH is 8o.d. Cl2 is zero.

Like I said, the female is quite happy still, but it is still worrying not to know what happened to the male, so any insight would be great.


Thanks!

 

[WILDER]

Ok.
it sounds bacterial to me if he was acting listless and lethagic, and resting on the bottom of the tank.

Just preform a few water changes on your main tank.
Improve the fish diet with frozen foods like daphnia, and brime shrimp. Green veg.

 

[ceottaki]

Ok.
it sounds bacterial to me if he was acting listless and lethagic, and resting on the bottom of the tank.

Just preform a few water changes on your main tank.
Improve the fish diet with frozen foods like daphnia, and brime shrimp. Green veg.

Thanks, Wilder.
If it was bacterial, what should I have done? Should I have given any medicine?


Thanks!

 

[WILDER]

A bacterial med might of helped. But once bacterial infections advance there hard to cure.

 

[ceottaki]

Ok, thank you. I'll keep an eye if it ever happens again, thanks for all your help.

 

[WILDER]

Good Luck.