McFadyen

Ok, I'm a beginner fish-keeper. I have an orange platy that I've had for maybe two months. I noticed she'd had a batch of babies so I took her out and put her in her own tank (with some of her own water added to new - and which I'd done for her when she'd had other batche and seemed fine). However, she seemed to develope a white area around her gills, almost shiny which was really noticeable as she is so bright orange. At that stage I was just using an oxygen block, no filter or anything.
I've just moved her back with the babies (in their own breeding net in her tank) and have got a small filter going now and have included a guppie into the tank as well. Her 'white patch' seems to have lessened, but it is still there. And I've noticed that the 'whites' of her eyes are now red. Is my fish sick? With what? What do I do before I kill her unintentionally if she is? Help!!! Sorry, I'm not up on all the terminology as yet so my description mightn't be the best.

Mike

Hey there,

The best way to monitor what's going on is to use a freshwater testing kit. Ideally you want to test for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH. It's possible that your fish is sick but we really need more info on the water before going further. Test your water and then post the results back here and we can further diagnose the problem.

Info that we need to have:
Tank size
Water parameters (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, temperature)

Also, check out the following page for more info:
http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm

Thx,
Mike