Platy Fry Keeps Floating

[Shelilla]

I purchased a female gold twinbar platy from the pet store about a week ago, and put her in the QT where, within an hour of her being there, she gave birth to a dozen or more fry. Considering her size and how skinny she was, I totally wasn’t expecting this or would ever have possibly thought she was pregnant.
She seemed highly stressed in the Quarantine Tank, and wasn’t eating anything for me- not even her own fry, so I decided to put her in the main tank. After a few days, she died. I had been trying to get her to eat, but she just wasn’t interested and one day I woke up to find the shrimp eating her body.

I decided to raise the fry. Over the next few days I noticed genetic deformities in a few of them (pointed tails being the most common), but they were all doing fine regardless. Today I looked it up and found out these are likely a result of inbreeding, and I’m not surprised- it’s highly possible the mother was inbred too.
One little fry however stood out to me. The way it swam was distinct in that it had to flick its body sort of in order to make any leeway in the water, and it’s tail fin looked like it had been chopped diagonally. I think it also has a crooked spine, it’s hard to tell at this size.

Anyways, I was feeding the little fry today when I noticed one floating at the surface. I went to pull it out the tank but when I touched it, it twitched and tried to swim down. It couldn’t seem to fight the current at all, much less stop itself from floating up, so I grabbed a small plastic cup and scooped it in.
The little guy seems like a fighter to me and I want to do all I can to give him a chance. However, if this means his quality of life will be terrible, then I will make the decision to let him go.
If that’s the case, what would you recommend on being the most humane way to kill it?

There are some pictures attached. I put some food in in case his problems have caused him to be unable to eat, then maybe it will bolster his strength, and I put one of the snails that hitchhiked off my plants in too because I’ve seen them eating fish food, so hopefully it will keep the water from getting polluted by it if the fry can’t eat.

This floating problem is only with this particular fry- the others are happy and healthy as can be, and are swimming around just fine. Amazingly out of the more than a dozen or so she had, not one has died yet.
I think it might be an issue with this fry’s swim bladder? It’s belly appears awfully swollen, but they’re so clear and tiny its very hard to tell, and even harder to know how to treat the condition, if that’s even possible.

 

[Crazycoryfishlady]

Hmmmm
Looks a little swollen indeed, could be a swim bladder issue.
My molly fry had a few swimming issues for a bit during their growth.

It's sad to hear your fish are likely inbred, that's unfortunate.
But the ones with pointed tails make me curious.
I would like to see them now and as they get older if possible.

There's a possibility that this fish will always have swimming problems, but it's also possible it's just found things to eat and it's too full for right now so it's got a swollen bladder.

 

[Shelilla]

Hmmmm
Looks a little swollen indeed, could be a swim bladder issue.
My molly fry had a few swimming issues for a bit during their growth.

It's sad to hear your fish are likely inbred, that's unfortunate.
But the ones with pointed tails make me curious.
I would like to see them now and as they get older if possible.

There's a possibility that this fish will always have swimming problems, but it's also possible it's just found things to eat and it's too full for right now so it's got a swollen bladder.

Yeah, I’m no expert on fish anatomy but that seemed like the only thing that would make it keep swimming on its side like that...

Yes it is, though I guess in a pet store environment there’s not much that could be done to stop it, apart from separating males and females.
It’s hard to capture their fins because they’re so clear, unless against a black background, but I’ll dig through my photos and see if I can find a pic, or take some if not. I’m also very curious to see how they will look when they’re older.

It does have some swimming problems yes, but not enough to hinder it more than a little it seems, but I’ll have to wait and see.
I hope that’s all it is! A lot of the food lands on a rock in their tank where they eat off it like a plate, so maybe this guy was just pigging out. I really hope that’s the case and that it’ll recover soon. Will update in a few hours or if anything changes I suppose

 

[Crazycoryfishlady]

Yeah, I’m no expert on fish anatomy but that seemed like the only thing that would make it keep swimming on its side like that...

Yes it is, though I guess in a pet store environment there’s not much that could be done to stop it, apart from separating males and females.
It’s hard to capture their fins because they’re so clear, unless against a black background, but I’ll dig through my photos and see if I can find a pic, or take some if not. I’m also very curious to see how they will look when they’re older.

It does have some swimming problems yes, but not enough to hinder it more than a little it seems, but I’ll have to wait and see.
I hope that’s all it is! A lot of the food lands on a rock in their tank where they eat off it like a plate, so maybe this guy was just pigging out. I really hope that’s the case and that it’ll recover soon. Will update in a few hours or if anything changes I suppose

What I thought was funny, when my molly fry were having their swimming issues, I had to feed the other fry, so the swimbladder ones were hard to keep away, and eventually swam down enough to eat because they were hungry.
I thought eating would make it worse, but after they pigged out they were back to normal and didn't have issues for the next few days.
It was so weird.
Food usually makes it worse not fixes it.

Will they eat mushed peas if you drop them in?
A bit messier than food, but it will for sure help them digest what they can't right now.

 

[Shelilla]

What I thought was funny, when my molly fry were having their swimming issues, I had to feed the other fry, so the swimbladder ones were hard to keep away, and eventually swam down enough to eat because they were hungry.
I thought eating would make it worse, but after they pigged out they were back to normal and didn't have issues for the next few days.
It was so weird.
Food usually makes it worse not fixes it.

Will they eat mushed peas if you drop them in?
A bit messier than food, but it will for sure help them digest what they can't right now.

I’ve never tried it but yeah I’ll give it a go. Since it’s belly is so swollen I might give it some time and then try to feed it maybe during the evening, I’m not sure. Also not sure if we have peas haha but we should have some frozen ones...

 

[Crazycoryfishlady]

I’ve never tried it but yeah I’ll give it a go. Since it’s belly is so swollen I might give it some time and then try to feed it maybe during the evening, I’m not sure. Also not sure if we have peas haha but we should have some frozen ones...

If you have frozen ones you can just microwave them til cooked, peel the shell off, and for the bigger tank just squeeze it between your fingers and drop it in, for the individual fry you can give it a lot less and try to make it even smaller so it can eat the pieces.
I've also been hearing about people feeding their fry egg yolk.

I'm not sure if it's cooked or uncooked, but you just drop a small amount of yolk in and they eat it I guess.
Quite messy though.

 

[Shelilla]

If you have frozen ones you can just microwave them til cooked, peel the shell off, and for the bigger tank just squeeze it between your fingers and drop it in, for the individual fry you can give it a lot less and try to make it even smaller so it can eat the pieces.
I've also been hearing about people feeding their fry egg yolk.

I'm not sure if it's cooked or uncooked, but you just drop a small amount of yolk in and they eat it I guess.
Quite messy though.

Well I've got quite the cleanup crew of hitchhiker snails in there (I put them in for a day and they've already been laying eggs, good god...) and some blue velvet shrimp I got yesterday~

The little guy is still floating, but it seems a little less so than before, and I think his belly isn't as swollen. I'll give him a little more time now that he's been swimming around a bit more.

 

[Shelilla]

Yay I checked today and he’s all better now! I guess he just ate too much, lil dummy...