dancerhas

Should my fish be so fat? as you can see in the photo's below, the Mickey Mouse Platy (middle photo) is REALLY fat, and the highfin (bottom photo) is starting to get a beer belly. But the Sunburst Platy (top) is of a fairly normal size. I haven't noticed any potruding scales (plus the mickey mouse has been in the tank for about 2 months and has been fat most of the time and hasn't died) which leads me to believe it's not dropsy. I'm just wondering if this is ok or if it's a sickness of some kind.

Fishies-for-me

They look like normal playies to me...Imho platies tend to have pot bellies anyhow...if they are females they can really get large...lol

pinkfloydpuffer

Is your mickey mouse a female? If so, she's probably pregnant.

What's that snakey thing in the mm platy photo?

dancerhas

That snakey thing is actually a zebra danio, they are never still for a minute.


Oh, how long do platies usually stay pregnant for? Because that platy has been huge for at least a month or so.

pinkfloydpuffer

Oh, haha! That's funny. I thought it was some weird fish I'd never seen!

Fishies-for-me

Platies have little pot bellies to start with...they get a very square look to their chest and belly area before they drop. ( if they are really full of fry which they usually are) depending on temp it takes anywhere from 3-5 weeks with 4 being around the norm.

dancerhas

Well...Spot just died last night. She was getting really square, and I thought she was getting ready to give birth. She seemed normal last night, but she was just laying upside down on the bottom of the tank this morning.

Possible internal parasites?

capekate

Sorry to hear you lost your platy. It does sound like parasites to me. I would treat your whole tank now, in case the others are affected. You can try Jungle Lab's Parasite Clear, as that will not affect your nitrogen cycle.
Good luck and I hope the other fish will be ok.

dancerhas

Any idea if Parasite Clear will hurt our snail? We want to remove the coppersafe (from our ICH adventure) and put him back in soon, but if that parasite treatment will harm him, we're gonna wait.

pinkfloydpuffer

On the package it says it's harmful to invertebrates, and it names shrimp and crabs, but I assume that this would apply to snails as well. I'd wait on it if I were you.

dancerhas

Ok thanks, I'm gonna pick some up tonight.