What Happened To My Platy?!

[DanS]

Hi all, I put my first fish in my tank yesterday (3 x Platies 2 female, 1 male). Its a 60l tank with live plants. I planned on doing a fishless cycle, but for some reason didn't which i know isn't the best thing to do... .... but whats done is done now.

So once the fish were properly introduced and had hidden for a while, two of them came looking about the place etc. But one of them was just sat on the bottom being very inactive. It was a female and she also looked slightly fat... uh oh I thought! Pregnent! not what i want with a new tank a few hours after introducing fish! So later on in the evening she'd been a bit more active and then a pink string type thing (about 1.5") was hanging from underneath - I thought this must be it! But i left her to it and came back to check in the morning. Couldn't see any baby fish anywhere.

Anyway, the platy was still hanging around the bottom of the tank and mid-day today came to the front and..... died. I've took her out and done a 25% water change (correct temp and dechlorinated).

Any ideas of what happened? Was that "pink string" part of the birthing process? Or am I totally mistaken? I get the impression that this just wasn't a well fish.?!

The other two seem fine and are swimming about fine.

Ok, so i'm kinda regretting putting fish in without doing a fishless cycle and want to do the best I can now. Obviously no more fish, but should I be partial water changing daily?

Any advice appreciated!

Cheers

Dan

I'm using eco-complete and its kinda hard to gravel vac cos its relatively fine - how do i get around this?

 

[loveyourfish]

Honestly speaking, throughout my fish keeping experience, I had never done any cycle or such thing before. It is through this forum that I came across many people are talking about cycling the tank. All I know, before this if I want to start a marine tank, I need to cycle it 1st but never in freshwater tank.

The way I see your problem is perhaps the method of how you put your fish into the tank. Did you immediately put the fish into the tank when you first brought back the fishes from the fish store?

or...

Did you stabilize the water in the fish bag with your tank water 1st before putting your fish into the tank.

When the fish died, did the pink string thing still attach to its belly? Well I'm not so sure what it is, but anyway platy are livebearers, they give birth. you can actually tell whether that platy is pregnant or not by the black spot in it's abdomen.

 

[dwarfgourami]

If the fish took poorly that quickly, it won't be anything to do with the cycle. More likely either a problem in acclimatising/shock from the journey or (quite likely I'd say) some health problem that she brought with her from the shop. Not all platies are hardy, and like other common livebearers they can be prone to parasites and bacterial infections. Could the pink thing have been worms? Or simply poo? Or she could have been aborting from stress/ill health.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

If the fish took poorly that quickly, it won't be anything to do with the cycle. More likely either a problem in acclimatising/shock from the journey or (quite likely I'd say) some health problem that she brought with her from the shop. Not all platies are hardy, and like other common livebearers they can be prone to parasites and bacterial infections. Could the pink thing have been worms? Or simply poo? Or she could have been aborting from stress/ill health.

my thoughts exactly.

i'd put it down to the fish just not being well when you got her.

if the tanks not cycled though you need to make sure you keep on top of the levels so no one else gets poorly. have a read of this topic

 

[DanS]

Thanks for all the replies.

Very useful post Miss Wiggle, I'll be keeping on top of the levels every day and changing water where necessary.

PS I was very careful with the journey and stabilised the bag water temp with tank water temp, also gradually added tank water to the bag and then released them (without the bag water) into the tank. The "pink thing" was gone in the morning, so i guess it will remain a mystery.

Well I'll do my best to look after the two remaining platys. Should I stick with just the two? Miss Wiggle> in your post you mention needed enough fish to cycle with? I really don't want to put any more in if I don't have to.

Thanks all

Edit - Right checked the levels and Ammonia = 0, Nitrite = 0.2, Nitrate = 20ish. Just done a 10-20% water change and will continue with that until my ammonia and nitrite are 0. Cheers

 

[Miss Wiggle]

two platys should be fine to cycle a little tank like yours.

remember your probably going to have to do this again when you want to add some more fish cos the filter won't be able to cope then.