poefox

ne of my platties seems traumatized or something...now and then he swims frantically all over the tank, and now and then bumps into the walls and stuff. He skims around the surface on occasion as well. The others and the gourami with them seem fine. What's up?

chickadee

Do you have an ammonia problem maybe? Or Nitrites? Sometimes if they aren't liking their water parameters they go "ditzy" or else there may be a parasite on him that is making his body feel funny and he is trying to rid himself of it. Try testing the water and if the parameters are okay.

Don't panic. The good old standby treatment of "Try a water change" just might take care of whatever the problem is. A water change never hurts and since the tank is fairly new it could be having a little trouble keeping up just yet.

Please post your readings when you have them and maybe it will tell us more.

Rose

poefox

My ammonia reading is 0 so I don't think it is that. I was very careful introducing the fish, I used the bucket method, adding a bit of the tank water to the water they came in.

What's puzzling is the other fish being fine as well. Anyway I'm observing them carefully. I don't like bugging them but I have been examining them every so often.

chickadee

I'm puzzled. I don't suppose you have a place to seperate him from the others?? It really sounds like some kind of external parasite maybe that he is trying to shake off. Mine were rubbing and bumping into everything when they had ICH quite a while ago. Does he have any spots or shiny gold dusty looking stuff on him (the gold dusting will only show up in a dark tank with a flashlight)??

Maybe the others will come up with another answer, but as I said I am puzzled.

Rose

poefox

I hesitate to say 'he's fine now'. I said that about Darth. But I have some Marden as well as the other stuff, so...can I maybe isolate him and medicate him with that? will it hurt him if he's not sick?

chickadee

You can isolate him, but unless you think he is really sick I do not know about just going ahead and medicating without some definite symptoms. You may make him resistant to that medication and there may be a time in the future when you really NEED it.

I would try to isolate him if you could for at least a week to 10 days (if you can) just to make sure, but watch and unless he develops a definite set of symptoms to work from I don't think I would try the medication. Unless you want to try something fairly safe like Pimafix. It is herbal and would not be something he would build up a resistance to. (Pimafix is for parasites, Melafix is for disease. They are both herbal type remedies and pretty much easy on the fish. You can use them for a week (one dose daily) before you do a water change. They are also one of the only types of medications that it is okay to use in conjunction with other things.

I hope that this has helped a little.

Rose