eagerinsight

My female platy is swimming near the surface. I have a 10 gallon UNCYCLED tank. I do frequent water changes and I monitor the water conditions at least twice a day. All of my nitro reading are 0. She is the only platy acting like this. I have 3 other platies that act normal, this started today, I have had her for 15 days.

joshthefisherman

is she gasping for air is their rapid breathing

COBettaCouple

Are her gills reddish or purplish? Do you have aeration in the tank? What tap water conditioner do you use? Do you have a picture of her to post? What type of platy is she? If she's a light color do you see black dots in her stomach?

eagerinsight

No gasping or red gills. She has always been shy, she is half the size of the others. She always seems stressed, in transit from my dads house, her color changes from blue silver to black and blue. Her color is coming back but still has a large spot on top of her head.

eagerinsight

Would the red gills be very visible, because looking at her from the back they look reddish. I use API stress coat, and have a bubble wall.

If it was an ammonia problem, wouldn't all of my fish exhibit red gills?

COBettaCouple

She's the smallest so she'd be the first to show signs of a problem. Do you have a pic that you can post? Especially of the spot on her head? Are you using test strips or liquid tests? The strips can sometimes give all 0 when you actually have toxins.

eagerinsight

I'm using API master test kit.

eagerinsight

COBettaCouple

Is the black area the spot you meant? It wasn't always black?

eagerinsight

Before transporting her she had no dark coloration. While transporting her she turned almost completely black. Her color has come back in most parts, but the spot has never changed.

COBettaCouple

Hmm.. I think this is the first time I've heard of this. It's common for fish to lose color when stressed but this is definitely different.

Does she eat normally? Does she clamp her fins much?

eagerinsight

She acts, eats like the others. No clamped fins, only problem lately has been swimming near the surface. She spent the late few days at the surface, she still ate, today she's back to normal?

COBettaCouple

That's definitely unusual.. maybe it was some sort of stress reaction?