Lifeless Platty

I walked by my tank this morning and saw my platty at the bottom. Not on her side but normal. However none of her fins were moving and I could barely see her breathing. I put my hand on the glass to hopefully get a response out of her and nothing.

I grabbed my breeder net box and when I put it in the water she came back to life. However it looked like she was having a harder time swimming than usual. She soon went back to the bottom of the tank. I netted her into the breeder box and added a silk plant and air stone on low. She goes from being fine to resting to back to being fine. I felt this was all I could do since I had to go to work. I also turn the lights on cloudy so it wasn't so intense. My bf works from home so when he wakes up I'll have him update me.

Now this platty is a PIG. I only feed the platties in my tank every 2-3 days. Deshelled peas never helped. My platties do have white solid poop but no other fish in my tank do. They've also always had white poo due to constipation because I did use a dewormer once when I saw a detrius (spelling) worm at the time not knowing what it was.

I've been searching for frozen daphnia but can never find any. I feed: high quality flakes, pellets, fluval bug bites, frozen baby brine shrimp, frozen blood worms, and cucumber.

Any suggestions or steps on what I can do? Should I try prazipro again just incase it's not constipation? I already fast all of the platties on a regular basis.

She has semI clamped fins. Besides a recent tear in her back fin, no new signs of anything. She is not pregnant.

Tank:
29g high
3x black phantom tetras
3x juvenile platties female
1x adult platty female
1x BN pleco
1million x MTS
Parameters usually 0 0 10-20. I didn't get a chance to check this morning. I do weekly 50% changes. Tank is heavily planted and has driftwood and sand substrate.

 

Are you sure all the platties are female? She looks pregnant, when did you get her? Also why 50% weekly water changes? You could definitely get away with changing less water every week.

 

HI there. From what you describe it is in the right place.

Without having a better idea of what is wrong I would avoid random medication. Meds can cause a lot of stress so the wrong medicine can be the thing that actually kills a fish struggling to fight off a disease.

From what you have described it does not look good but you have done everything you can. It is a difficult decision whether to move to a QT tank. If it is not infectious then it is not necessary - do any fish have any light patches or cotton wool like growth? If so remove to QT immediately.

The usual water in the main tank gives it the best chance of survival. It is easy to get out without stress and if the worst happens it will not get lost and cause ammonia. If I were you I would now leave it where it is and observe carefully. Observe all fish for any indication or different behaviour.

A difficult time.

 

HI there. From what you describe it is in the right place.

Without having a better idea of what is wrong I would avoid random medication. Meds can cause a lot of stress so the wrong medicine can be the thing that actually kills a fish struggling to fight off a disease.

From what you have described it does not look good but you have done everything you can. It is a difficult decision whether to move to a QT tank. If it is not infectious then it is not necessary - do any fish have any light patches or cotton wool like growth? If so remove to QT immediately.

The usual water in the main tank gives it the best chance of survival. It is easy to get out without stress and if the worst happens it will not get lost and cause ammonia. If I were you I would now leave it where it is and observe carefully. Observe all fish for any indication or different behaviour.

A difficult time.

No patches or growths. QT is full atm anyway with new stock for another tank.
I'll keep an eye on her.

Are you sure all the platties are female? She looks pregnant, when did you get her? Also why 50% weekly water changes? You could definitely get away with changing less water every week.

10000000% sure she's not pregnant. She and all the other fry were from past platty. Only females survived. Never had a male platty fry. She's been in that tank roughly for a year? Maybe longer.

I always do 50% pwc because of all the MTS poop. Its unsightly. Plus it keeps the water prestine.

 

Update: she's been acting the same. Lifeless then once and a while swimming.

I looked at her today and noticed that she looks larger than normal. Should I wait another day to fast or feed a pea immediately?? I did not feed her yesterday or today. I also don't see any poop in the breeder net.

 

Update: she didnt eat the pea the first time I offered it. I offered some a day or two ago and she ate just a little. I haven't seen any poop. Hopefully she's not eating it if there is any. She's still the same.