New Platy Flashing

Hi everyone, I'll just fill out the template and explain more below.

Tank
What is the water volume of the tank?
10g
How long has the tank been running?
1 year 2 months
Does it have a filter?
yes
Does it have a heater?
yes
What is the water temperature?
76 F
What is the entire stocking of this tank?
5 endlers (male only)
5 platys (orange wagtails, 0.5-1")
2 amano shrimp
7 adult cherry shrimp and a handful of babies
~5 adult ramshorn snails, and a few juveniles

Maintenance
How often do you change the water?
Monthly, but just had a 3 month break things at home got busy
How much of the water do you change?
30-50%
What do you use to treat your water?
Seachem Prime
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water?
Its partially dirted, so not vacuuming except yesterday when I vacuumed the small sand section for the first time.

*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish?
Yes
What do you use to test the water?
Depends, but for the core nitrogen parameters i use API test strips (allergic to most liquid tests)
What are your parameters?

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
pH: 7.7

Feeding
How often do you feed your fish?
Daily or every other day
How much do you feed your fish?
A pinch
What brand of food do you feed your fish?
Tetra Tropical Color Flakes
Do you feed frozen or freeze-dried foods?
No

Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish?
Since last night (Nov 10)
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms?
This morning
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms?
One of the new platys is flashing. I've seen it twice so far.
Have you started any treatment for the illness?
No
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase?
That would be the only source of a parasite (the tank was healthy otherwise)
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all?
Just the flashing

In depth description: ok, so I think the info above pretty much covers it, so I'll just summarize here: I bought five young (0.5-1") orange wag platys last night from someone who bred them locally. Today I saw one of them flash two times throughout the day. I have aquarium salt I could try to treat ich with, since that seems like the most likely problem, though I can't see any ich present. I also know if its ich ill have to quarantine everything else too... which is a bummer. Since I'm in Canada my medicine options are either Planaria Zero (Cory from Aquarium speculated it is probably just an unlabeled medication for external parasites) and Salt.

So, would you guys recommend I wait and observe or just start treating right away? I'm not totally convinced yet that there's an issue, since it could just be stress and the breeder didn't have any disease that I know of.

 

I would probably wait if it was just the 2 times. Sometimes fish flash. Something may irritate them and thats the only way they can react. It could be ich but it could be something simple as it brushed up against something, got irritated, flashed to scratch the itch kinda thing.
Some of us may have a tendency to just spill off our parameters because that's what they always are when we check in the past. I might recheck ammonia. If added 5 new fish and bacteria level was for old stocking it could be possible there is a little ammonia due to the new fish bioload. If its not ammonia id probably just closely monitor them and treat for ich if it shows up.

 

I would probably wait if it was just the 2 times. Sometimes fish flash. Something may irritate them and thats the only way they can react. It could be ich but it could be something simple as it brushed up against something, got irritated, flashed to scratch the itch kinda thing.
Some of us may have a tendency to just spill off our parameters because that's what they always are when we check in the past. I might recheck ammonia. If added 5 new fish and bacteria level was for old stocking it could be possible there is a little ammonia due to the new fish bioload. If its not ammonia id probably just closely monitor them and treat for ich if it shows up.

Ok, cool. Ya, I've seen minor flashing in perfectly healthy fish before, but never got someone else's view on it, so thanks!

I'll re-test for sure. I find that in really heavily planted tanks with duckweed (mine is giant duckweed) ammonia spikes are really rare, even with new fish additions, but better safe than sorry.

One more question if you have a sec: are platys known to rest during the day? Mine have all been really active and rested near the bottom on and off throughout the day so far. Just curious! Thanks in advance.

 

I've never owned platys but sometimes fish do find a spot to rest for awhile. If they stay in same spot for hours id be worried and start checking things. I have guppies that I see the most since they are in bedroom and I notice some find a spot out of the flow and just relax for 5 mins or so , but then they go right back to swimming around. Has been at the bottom in a corner and 1 loves to hide behind the filter but finally comes out. All fish have different behaviors and you eventually learn how your particular fish act, their normal behavior so to speak. After awhile you will see something and be like ooooh that doesn't seem right. I was doing a waterchange at 1030pm last night because my new fish in a small qt tank started flashing. Its been cycled for 2 months, its 3 months old (was gonna put shrimp in it). It couldn't handle the bioload from the new fish/small tank since its just been sitting and it developed some ammonia. Thats why I mention the ammonia test.
The beneficial bacteria that grows depends on the bioload, so if stop feeding ammonia or whatever waste some of the bb die off down to the level required to maintain parameters. Fish levels or waste goes up, so does the bacteria.

 

Ya, that makes sense. Ammonia was zero so I'll just grip an eye on things. Thanks for the advice!