Platy acting odd

My fe Mickey Mouse platy has been acting strange for about a week, she hangs out in the plants where before she was all over the tank. To my surprise tonight there was a fry in the tank. What!! She has been alone for 2 months or more. The only other fish are 2 oto cats. But now she wants to lie on the bottom. Just did a 25% water change at the beginning of her "weirdness". Temp is 70. Also she hasn't eaten that I can see. Is this just her delivery? or will I lose her?

 

Hello SandyKlee and Welcome to Fish Lore!

I sounds like it could be birthing behavior but I can't say for certain. Birth can be rough on little fish at times.

Something you may want to consider is increasing the tanks temperature to around 76 degrees. If you do, raise it slowly throughout the day.

Best wishes for you fish and I hope you enjoy the site!

Ken

 

where are the babies coming from? seriously!

OK so, I had one fry and I separated the female and it seems like every day I get a new baby, now I'm up to maybe 5. Does the female drop them in the rock and they come to life later? I thought they were swimmers right away..

 

I have a sunburst platy..I believe that shes pregnant... she stays to the top of the tank, stays away from the other fish....and in one of the plants....I haven't been able to see a gravid spot.....not sure if shes really eating.... does this mean shes gonna have the fry?....

 

I bet she's ready. I'd separate her if you can., and then remove the babies as she has them. I had to start up a new aquarium and leave the babies in one and the mom in the other. I had a makeshift sieve thing hung in the main tank for her and the babies swam free. Now she's moved. I had her for 2 mos before she delivered. Was I surprised. I have 5 babies. Mine acted exactly like yours is.

 

So one of my gold Mickey mouse platys are acting really funny. It sits in one of the holes in a log and dosent move. It is alive and breathing fine. It just never moves or leaves this spot.I thought it was dead or dying so I washed my hands and reached in and pulled it out by hand. Once I got ahold of it, it was calm but as soon as it got a few inches away from the log it went nuts and shot back into the log. I am thinking it is a female that is pregnant but I have never bred fish before so I have no idea. My wife said she seen a fry swimming this morning then it disappeared. My question is if she did drop some fry, can she still be holding some?

My water is as followed
ammonia-0
nitrate-0
nitrite-0
hardness-75
kh-120
ph- 6.8

Any ideas? I went to get a picture of it sitting in the log but it has moved and I can't tell which one it is because I have 5 other MM platys in the tank.

 

Hi
I had something similar happen with one of my platy a while a go. It looked like it was dead on the bottom of the tank but it turned out that it was just trying to hide away to give birth.

How long has you platy been acting like this?
It is possible that she is part way through giving birth

 

She started doing this yesterday. She will shoot up when the lid opens bc they think their either getting flake or blood worms. She is getting better. She is swimming around a little and playing then going back down to her log. I was just hoping she wasn't dying bc I have lost 3 black skirt tetras in the last 2 days but I just assumed they were bad fish because they were in nasty nasty tanks in a LFS

I got a good picture of her. Its hard to tell but she is extremely bloated in this picture. She is just laying in the corner beside a cory. Other fish keep buzzing her and she dosent even bother to pay attention

 

I have 11 assorted colored female platy in a 20 gallon long aquarium that has been cycled for about two months. All but one of the 11 are acting fine. The mickey mouse platy is acting weird. The only times I see her is when she is swimming in the bubble wall or when she is swimming along the front of the tank (which is not very often) otherwise she hides in decorations. The other fish are already exploring the tank and swimming about and eating, the mickey mouse however is not and this concerns me. I have only been into fish keeping for a year and a half but it just seems a bit odd to me that she's acting like that.

 

Welcome to Fishlore!

Sounds like this fish could be pregnant and ready to get birth to a bunch of fry. Female livebearers (Guppy, Molly, Platy and Swordtail) can hold sperm from a male for up to a year. So they could have gotten pregnant in the fish stores tank a couple months ago and now will give birth to a lot of fry at any time. I'm concerned for you have 11 females in there, you could end up with literally, a ton of fry.

 

I've had livebearers before. Two are currently pregnant from what I can tell. Two blue platy. However the mickey mouse doesn't even have a large belly like those two. I mean it is possible for her to be pregnant with only a few fry, but it doesn't seem like it. Her color also seems faded and she is slightly tilted to her right when swimming which I forgot to mention earlier. In regards to the fry I currently have two 10 gallon tanks on stand by for the fry.


If that came across as rude I didn't mean it to by the way. I had made the mistake of getting 2 female molly with one male molly before. Which was why I got all female platys this time because after a while they can't have any more babies because there will be no sperm left.

 

Okay I'm glad you understand what you are doing with them and any fry.

Going by what you said about it being tilted and color is faded, I would think that it is swim bladder related. When you see it, does it swim normal, or does it swim erratic/head up or down, or just tilted one way on its side? This usually comes from overfeeding to my knowledge and can be solved by feeding the fish deshelled peas and then fasting for 3 days. Peas work as a laxative and will clean them out, allowing the swim bladder to function properly and in turn letting them swim normal.

 

No she doesn't seem to swim sporadically, or at least she wasn't before. Now she is staying close to the top, head pointed up, and almost completely on her side but she is still fluttering her tail fin to stay in that spot (not struggling really with the swimming but still worrying.) She's been separating herself for the past two days as well. Some of the other fish even swim within inches of her to look at her as if to check on her then swim away. She also can swim down and stay down perfectly fine unlike other fish I had previously who had swim bladder infections or something similar.

 

Wow, interesting. Sounds like how my Powder Blue Dwarf Gourami acted before he passed. He spent a lot of time at the top of the water and completely on his side. He could still swim, though his ability got worse til he finally passed on. I was unable to determine a cause so finding a cure was impossible at that point. I hope your Molly has a better outcome than my DG. Maybe someone will come around with better advice as to what it is and what you can do.

 

The reason why I think it is weird though is the mickey mouse platy will go up to the top and do that a bit then swim down among the other platy, though she won't interact with them and stay in that area resting among the plants and watching them but once one gets slightly close to her she swims away. I mean it may be possible that she is stressed because she is the only yellow mickey mouse in there but even if that was the case this should've shown before hand. The platys are 2 blue platy, 2 red wag, 2 sunburst, 2 red mickeys, 2 sunburst wag, and the yellow mickey mouse.

It seems to still be doing ok but while swimming up she started to do a spiral, like a football when thrown, but as soon as she gets as high as she wants it stops ans she only does it when swimming up. She is still tilted to one side when she swims but otherwise doesn't seem tooooooo bad. Maybe some neurological damage? I was looking it up and people have suggested it was either a bacterial infection or swim bladder trouble. However she isn't bloated or having any trouble staying at the top like swim bladder typically does, nor are any of her fins clamped which would typically suggest the infection. So I'm not sure here.

 

It's really weird. The color is starting to come back and she isn't doing that spiral anymore but she's still listing to the side a bit. She isn't doing her weird swim at the top anymore either. She's just hiding. I had thought she died and got stuck in one of the plants or something so I got my net to go get her out and she swam away.

 

We have had this 75 gallon tank set up for a while, and my father taking care of it. He has grown away from it, but now I have come to find a great interest. I recently stocked it with an assortment of fish, including three Sunbeam Platies. One died due to a very high level of nitrates (that has been corrected) and the other two are still around. One is doing fine, but the other sits in the bottom corner of the tank, and won't fan it's dorsal fin. It moves a bit, but stays in the bottom. Is there a reason? Is there something I can do to help this fish?

 

Welcome to Fishlore!

Can you provide us with a bit more info? What are the water parameters (pH, temp, ammonia, nitrites, nitrates)? What other fish and how many of each do you have in there?

 

I'm not exactly sure. I know the temp is 78 thanks to the thermometer that I just added, but I'm not quite sure how to check that quite yet. I'm still learning, and my dad never got that into it. He would have the water tested and do what they told him to do.

 

I'd invest in a testing kit so you can test the parameters yourself. We like the API Freshwater Master kit - liquid tests are more accurate than strips.

You should also read up on the nitrogen cycle (click the words, they're a link!). Ammonia or nitrite poisoning may be an issue.

Can you tell us what other fish are in the tank?

 

Three clown loaches, two ballet sharks, two Australian rainbows, one marble mollie, three albino Cory cats, three iridescent blue sharks, a gourami and a playco. And the two platies.

 

Ok your nitrates are probably REALLLLLYYY high rn. I has the same prob and I learned the nitrogen cycle and I did a water change and the fish was swimming around happily. Just to a 25% water change. If that doesn't work then put it in like a breeder net or something and make sure its eating it could just be hungry I had a few like that and I actually hand fed them for a week and bam they were nice and fat again

 

Three clown loaches, two ballet sharks, two Australian rainbows, one marble mollie, three albino Cory cats, three iridescent blue sharks, a gourami and a playco. And the two platies.

You have some stocking issues, and it's possible that the platy is intimidated.

I'd rehome the loaches - they'll get huge. Same with the bala and iridescent sharks.

What kind of pleco? What species of gourami?

Rainbows need to be in larger groups (6+), as do the cories.

 

Okay, I'll definitely try this. Thank you!!

 

Np. Yes rehouse the sharks and the rainbows or just get a good 100 gallon XD

 

Iridescent sharks get nearly as big as a 100 gallon is long...

 

Np. Yes rehouse the sharks and the rainbows or just get a good 100 gallon XD

Rainbowfish should be fine, but the sharks need an even larger tank than that.

 

Tru tru ive had rainbows (australian) and they were just annoying like they were all aggressive towards each other etc etc I will never get any rainbows again after my experience.

 

To be honest, and I'm definitely not an expert, but I've never seen a fish of any breed or age get bigger than 6 inches in this tank, and it's been set up for about 25 years now with regular cleanings for the most part. I haven't been maintaining it, but one of the loaches has been around for about 5 years and he's about 4 inches. The longest fish I've seen was a bala shark about 6 inches, and he was about 10 when he died. I'm not super worried about them getting too big for this tank.

 

This is called stunting. This can be painful to fish and significantly shorten their lifespans.
The iridescent shark will get over 3' if it doesn't stunt, which it will.
Imo, I wouldn't get fish because they'll grow to the size of a certain tank. It's unfair to the fish and there still might be a chance of them growing normally if they get a properly sized tank.

 

I agree with the post above. Rehome the sharks. They deserve to have their needs met. I am sure you can find someone in the hobby to take them off your hand

 

my platies are acting crazy. My betta is also very dormant now.
Water stats seem ok, however I never did an initial cycle. Its been two weeks since 3 platties, 1 betafish and 3 tetra neon have all been living together. Any thoughts anyone ??

thanks

 

Welcome to the forum

Looks like they could be just playing since I see the current from the filter output above them? However, if you didn't cycle the tank, that could lead to other issues. What's the tank size? Do you own a test kit? You do have some issues with stocking if you're open to suggestions.

 

Hi, thanks for the reply.

I switched off the filter, they seem to be acting the same.
Water stats - are all normal the KH was previously a little high but I put bacteria media in.
Now everything looks fine. I never did a fishless cycle. The fish have all been in the tank for two weeks and the stats have always seemed fine.
I'm open to suggestions

Thanks

 

Do you know your exact water parameters like pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate? If you didn't cycle the tank, the fish may be suffering from toxic ammonia/nitrite poisoning. KH regulates your pH so the higher it is, the better so that your pH stays stable. KH really isn't an indicator of determining if you're cycled though. What kind of bacteria media did you put in? Did you mean a bacteria supplement? I suggest also researching the nitrogen cycle to get a good understanding of it. It's a very important part of learning how to care for fish in an aquarium.

What's the tank size? Neon tetras are schooling fish and do better in a group of at least 6+, however, they are not temp compatible with the betta as neons like the temp below 75 and bettas like it near 80. Bettas aren't an ideal fish to keep in a community either especially if the tank isn't at least 20gallons.

 

Thank you for the advice. It seems the water testing kit I have doesn't test for ammonia ! only nitrate and nitrite. I have used ammonia reducer today and will continue to do so. Also I can see white spots on the betta so I also used white spot treatment.
Any other thoughts ?

 

I'm guessing you are using test strips if you don't have an ammonia test which is also important to measure. If possible, I would pick up the API Master Test Kit which is far more accurate than strips. What do your strips say for nitrite and nitrate? Instead of an ammonia reducer, I would do a water change to effectively lower any toxic levels of ammonia and nitrite. Seachem Prime is also a great water conditioner to use as it also detoxifies ammonia and nitrite.

If your betta has ich, the heat treatment raised to 86F for 2 weeks is effective. Don't separate the betta though since it's likely the whole tank is infected and should be treated.

What's the temp of the tank and again, can you tell us the tank size?

 

Hi,

So this morning my platy was floating at the top upside down , he still swam around but obviously with a swim bladder issue, I couldn't bring myself to use clove oil, so I left him. Just now I looked in the tank expecting to find him dead, however he was swimming around like nothing had happened. does anybody have any idea what it could be?

Thanks, Ethan

 

HI there,
If you're fish has swim bladder disorder, it does not mean that he will die.
Now, you're main priority is to treat his SBD, so that h as can return to his normal self.

I would advise fasting him for 3 days and to feed him a cooked, skimmed pea.
Continue this process until he gets better, it should work.
If anyone has any better suggestions, feel free to reply!

 

HI there,
If you're fish has swim bladder disorder, it does not mean that he will die.
Now, you're main priority is to treat his SBD, so that h as can return to his normal self.

I would advise fasting him for 3 days and to feed him a cooked, skimmed pea.
Continue this process until he gets better, it should work.
If anyone has any better suggestions, feel free to reply!

Ok,

He looks really fat, at first I thought it was a pregnant femail but after a few months I think it's just how he is built. Could that be the cause?

Ethan