What's Wrong With My Platy?

[Akasha72]

My oldest female platy is acting odd. For the last few days she's been hiding out a lot and standing on her head quite a bit. My first thought was a swim bladder problem so I fed some peas - no change.

Today my Dad called in and I asked him what he thought (Dad's a long term fish keeper) He also said her swim bladder is going. Then we both witnessed something really odd ... one of my male platies swam up to her and she started to quiver and then turned onto her side shuffling up to him - he swam off and she returned to normal state - although she did pass some fine particles from her anus if that's any help. The male swam up again and she did the exact same thing. I said to Dad that it looked like she was begging to mate but he said he'd never seen anything like it from any fish he's kept over the years.

I've seen her do this over the last few days when ever a male goes near her and I just wondered if anyone else had had the same thing and if anyone know's why she's doing this? She's had lots of fry in the last 6-8 months but she'll be over a year old now, possibly even 18 months

Can anyone help?

 

[Malawi MaD]

I know my malawi's do that when the dominant male approaches a sub dom male his fins will clamp up he'll tilt to the side slightly and flick like electricity is running through him. Could be her kind of 'cowering' down kinda thing or could be breeding behaviour? I know they usually chase each other a lot when their coming up to breeding. The Bloated/head down sounds a little concerning though. Is she eating? Do you have a pic? Are her scales slightly raised?

 

[Akasha72]

she's eating fine, she's not bloated and there's no sign of raised scales so no dropsy (I lost her mate to dropsy at xmas and it was horrible)

At present she's sat in the top corner in normal horizontal swim mode but she actually looks depressed! I know that sounds wierd but she looks really unhappy.

I have her 3 daughters in with her and 2 new males (non-related, they are the fry of her mate that died of dropsy) and the new males have turned their attentions onto them - they are 5 months old now.

Is it possible she's feeling lonely or something?

Or is it just possible that she's old and dying

 

[Akasha72]

well, she was eating. I've just given them dried tubiflex blocks stuck on the glass - they all normally go crazy. She's just gone back the the rear corner and hidden in the plants.

Hmm ... it's a bit out of the ordinary

 

[Malawi MaD]

Strange. Sounds like she is unhappy or just keeping out of the males way for a while. Monitor her for the next few days and see how she goes. Maybe she is old, i mean the average life span of platy's is 2.5years ( I think).

 

[Akasha72]

I thought it was less than 2.5 years ... I'm guessing she's about 18 months old, bearing in mind that we don't fully know their exact age when we buy them.

I'm just watching her now and she's bimbling about as normal. There is 2 males in my tank. One is yellow/green and black and he's a persistant little sod. The other is a red wag pintail and quite layed back normally. He paired up with this female right from the first week of having him. He's now gone to her and she's gone back to normal but for the last few days he's been following her daughters around. It seems odd to try and suggest jealousy in a fish but that is exactly how it's looking

 

[FishBlast]

I thought it was less than 2.5 years ... I'm guessing she's about 18 months old, bearing in mind that we don't fully know their exact age when we buy them.

I'm just watching her now and she's bimbling about as normal. There is 2 males in my tank. One is yellow/green and black and he's a persistant little sod. The other is a red wag pintail and quite layed back normally. He paired up with this female right from the first week of having him. He's now gone to her and she's gone back to normal but for the last few days he's been following her daughters around. It seems odd to try and suggest jealousy in a fish but that is exactly how it's looking

My swordie female does that whenever the male goes near her. She puts her dorsal fin so high as if it is a crest and shakes like a belly dancer in front of the male. Then he starts doing pretty much the same but more like a snake. They usually fight when they start this (cause being a new ornament in the tank) and then they settle down, but lately they just do this odd display and don't fight. Haven't seen them mating anymore, but back at the beginning of April they were at it like rabbits.

Also, had a new drop today from Bee. I didn't want to save them, but mom saved 1 calico fry. My tank had 3 calicos hiding in the top plant this morning and a red one hiding between the catfish and a rock.

 

[Akasha72]

what ever is happening it's not her normal behaviour. Something is wrong - I just can't work out what.

I honestly got up this morning and looked for her straight away, I was expecting a body in all honesty but she's seems okay. I havn't fed them yet so I'll be checking she eats something when I do as I don't think she ate anything last night.

I'll keep posting for anyone interested

 

[FishBlast]

what ever is happening it's not her normal behaviour. Something is wrong - I just can't work out what.

I honestly got up this morning and looked for her straight away, I was expecting a body in all honesty but she's seems okay. I havn't fed them yet so I'll be checking she eats something when I do as I don't think she ate anything last night.

I'll keep posting for anyone interested

Mine has all kinds of behaviors, from being submissive (lowered dorsal, head pointing down while she is in front of the male) to being a show-off and beating the male to prove her dominance. Bipolar I'd say.

I hope yours isn't sick, could be just scared of some other fish or sad because of some reason.

 

[Malawi MaD]

That's good hopefully shes going to be ok.

 

[Akasha72]

she did eat this morning and she's been coming out of her corner a bit more today. I'll check she eats tonight. I'm going to feed bloodworm tonight which is their favourite ... hopefully she'll eat some

 

[Akasha72]

I worked out what her problem is last night.

The green/yellow and black male is being an absolute PIG with her. She ventured out to eat and he waded in. She turned her belly to him in a submissive manner and he bit her belly - twice.

She then went back to her corner and didn't come out again for the rest of the night.

 

[FishBlast]

I worked out what her problem is last night.

The green/yellow and black male is being an absolute PIG with her. She ventured out to eat and he waded in. She turned her belly to him in a submissive manner and he bit her belly - twice.

She then went back to her corner and didn't come out again for the rest of the night.

That's submissive? I thought mine was "insulting" the male when she did that, as he seems to get very angry when she tilts to the side and shivers like that.
Managed to catch the male in his "ticked off" state. They were arguing over some rock I re-positioned...

 

[Akasha72]

it looked submissive - it looked like she was saying back off, don't hurt me. Your orange female in the picture looked exactly the same as the one I'm having trouble with.

She's hiding in her corner again this morning

 

[Akasha72]

Decided I'm going to move her. She's an old lady and shouldn't have to hide in corners. She can go in my fry tank which contains 4 baby platies too big for her to eat.