Help - Lost Two Platies!

So yesterday I had decided to buy two platies from the fish store. Although my 10 gallon tank was not cycled I decided to use the fish in cycling method. Before going to the fish store I had put in API proper ph 7.0 to bring my 8.5 down to a 7.0 and seemingly it worked. I also used seachem prime as a way to make sure if the ammonia levels accidently got above .25 my fish would still be ok. I acclimated my fish to the tank water for about an hour then put them in. They seemed healthy and were very active. The morning I woke up both of them were lying on the bottom of my tank with red spots around the their gills. I checked to see if Ammonia was high and it wasn’t past .25. I also checked ph with test strips and it looked like it jumped back to 8.5!

 

High pH is fine for Platies, what are your nitrite and nitrate readings?

 

If the ph jumped from 7 to 8.5 in 12 hours, that is probably what did them in

 

High pH is fine for Platies, what are your nitrite and nitrate readings?

There were no Nitrites or Nitrates.

If the ph jumped from 7 to 8.5 in 12 hours, that is probably what did them in

Guess I won't be using that product anymore.

 

With a fish in cycle, did you add any bacteria in a bottle per chance?

 

With a fish in cycle, did you add any bacteria in a bottle per chance?

I had seachem stability but didn't use it

 

Maybe that could be an issue, fish in cycling can be done without bacteria in a bottle, but I myself will always do a fish in cycle but I always use stability or tetra safe start, along with live plants, or Marimo moss balls, and a piece of used cycled media from another cycled filter and I haven’t had a failure yet. I followed advice from Cory from Aquarium coop regarding fish in cycle, as he does not like fish less cycling.

 

Platties and most live bearers thrive in a higher ph then 7.0 ph, 7".8 or so" is more ideal, and they likely could have adapted to yours. If the petstores Ph was very low a longer acclimation period could have been a good idea. You should never use those ph adjusting chemicals, it causies unstabble levels of ph, and no fish can addapt to bouncing levels of ph. It is likely that the plattie died from ph shock. If you plan to get more, remember to keep at least 3 platties. The can get stressed, and may not last long outside of a group of 3 or more.

 

Platties and most live bearers thrive in a higher ph then 7.0 ph, 7".8 or so" is more ideal, and they likely could have adapted to yours. If the petstores Ph was very low a longer acclimation period could have been a good idea. You should never use those ph adjusting chemicals, it causies unstabble levels of ph, and no fish can addapt to bouncing levels of ph. It is likely that the plattie died from ph shock. If you plan to get more, remember to keep at least 3 platties. The can get stressed, and may not last long outside of a group of 3 or more.

Thanks for the advice, Unfortunately I learned the hard way to not use those kind of products anymore ;( . I never knew of the damage that a PH swing could cause amongst fish to even hardy livebearers.