Is It Ich? Is It Swim Bladder? Is It Columnaris? Or None Of These

I have a sick Platy.

It's been a little while since I noticed she was laying/leaning on things in the tank. Whenever she would swim to eat or just move, it looked like a huge effort to get herself from A-B, then she would just flop on her tummy, or slightly on her side (not fully) and remain there for hours.

She has always been a very active member of the tank, in fact she kind of rules it. She's the biggest platy I have and is around 1 year old.

Initially I thought it was swim bladder, so I put her in a hatching tank on the side to fast her for 2-3 days, then feed her peas. But there has been no improvement.

I've since noticed she has white spots on her side fins, which I thought was ich, so I started treating he tank by adding some aquarium salt and increasing the temperature. But I'm not so sure it is ich as it looks more "furry" like a mold spore than white spots. Could it be Columnaris? The white spots would match that, but I don't see the "saddle back" symptom on her.

No-one else in the tank looks affected by the same symptoms, but they're not enjoying the heat at all. So I really want to turn the temp down again, for the wider community.

But I'm stumped as to what is up with the sick platy, and am seriously considering quality of life at this point.

Any thoughts?

Things to note:
Tank is 125L with around 14 platy in it. No signs of stress or bullying, it is (remarkably) a happy tank

The sick platy does look like she's trying to eat still, although she's unable to really move off the bottom of the hatching tank.

I did a 20% water change at the weekend, and will do another water change (not sure how big yet) this weekend.

• 
  Ammonia: 0

• 
  Nitrite: 0 ppm

• 
  Nitrate: 20-25 ppm

• 
  Temperature: usually around 22 C / 72F - but right now it's at 30 C / 86 F

• 
  pH: 7.5

I have Melafix and Methylene Blue on hand if needed.

I've tried to take photos as best I could, but she won't stop moving her fins at a crazy pace, and also she knows I'm there with the camera I'm sure...

To be clear, when she swims, she kind of lifts up, then plops back down. Or, she drags her belly along the bottom...

 

Any idea folks?

I could really do with some advice here, does anyone have any idea on what this might be? 45 people have seen the thread but no-one has commented yet

 

LondonFishKeeper I am only answering because I know how scary and frustrating it is to want to help your pet and nobody responds. I am a very very very new fish owner, but have been reading forums for months and months and months and looking at pictures, reading symptoms, and this is my very very uneducated guess. I think it is swim-bladder. Hopefully somebody will come along and yell at me and tell me I have no idea what I am talking about and will tell you it is something much easier to treat and it is just this and do that and fishy will be fine. I do not see white fluffy spots, but I do see something that appears to be floating on the water's surface, so I am not sure about that. Sorry, that is all I have. As far as treating it, I've read epsom salt and different things all over the place, but prospects are generally not great.

 

Do you have a smaller tank for quarantine purposes?

 

LondonFishKeeper I am only answering because I know how scary and frustrating it is to want to help your pet and nobody responds. I am a very very very new fish owner, but have been reading forums for months and months and months and looking at pictures, reading symptoms, and this is my very very uneducated guess. I think it is swim-bladder. Hopefully somebody will come along and yell at me and tell me I have no idea what I am talking about and will tell you it is something much easier to treat and it is just this and do that and fishy will be fine. I do not see white fluffy spots, but I do see something that appears to be floating on the water's surface, so I am not sure about that. Sorry, that is all I have. As far as treating it, I've read epsom salt and different things all over the place, but prospects are generally not great.

Thanks Zoomo, I appreciate it. I've had fish for a while and fortunately never ran into disease issues.

I think it's swim bladder too after watching for the last few days, however salt/fasting hasn't helped at all. The temp had to come back down as the rest of the community was suffering. I'm on the fence about what to do at this stage, because she hasn't improved in over 10 days and I'm sure she's feeling stressed. If I put her back in the main tank, she might get more stressed from the other fish. Although there are plenty of places for her to hide. She's still eating, but struggles to swim to the food herself, she just grabs it as it falls passed her face. I'm going to keep an eye on her still, but I think I need to think about euthanasia soon, as I feel like she's just suffering now...

She took a turn for the worse, wouldn't even lift herself off her side, just laid there on the bottom breathing slowly. So I took the decision to euthanize, it was sad but seemed the kindest thing to do for her.

 

Sometime it is best. Sorry for your loss.

 

She took a turn for the worse, wouldn't even lift herself off her side, just laid there on the bottom breathing slowly. So I took the decision to euthanize, it was sad but seemed the kindest thing to do for her.

So sorry.

 

Greetings from Patagonia, London Fish Keeper. I read all the thread because one of our fry seems to have the same issue. They are now at a breeding enclosure in a 16 Liters tank with their mom (who is pregnant again). The symptoms started when we moved the fry and pregnant mom from our 25 Liters tank (with a couple of adult platy) to the 16 Liters one. At first I thought it was "new aquarium syndrome" so I applied more bacteria and corrected pH as I usually do. Since it did not help I read more and concluded it is swim bladder disease because he also struggles to swim and stays on a plant (eats well though and interacts with siblings). The rest of the fry seem strong and healthy as well as the mom, this fry is the only one with issues but its an older fry only survivor of a previous pregnancy (the rest were eaten by the adult male). Maybe the worms am feeding them with throughout their lives constipated him and because he is the oldest he is having this issues now but his younger siblings no? I started feeding them peas 2 days ago but the improvement is still very little. Any idea on how to help? Thanks much!