All, I have a sick or injured platy, and I need help determining what is wrong and what I need to do to help the platy and the rest of the community if it is illness. Symptoms. Platy is chickenwinging his left fin and is not using it at all. There is off white discoloration near base of fin and on his underside I believe. He is eating well and is swimming around taken normally. My first fear was the discoloration was a fuzz but I can’t tell. I went picture happy so I’m looking for any advice. Any help is appreciated.
I’m glad you went pic happy. Hubby says definitely looks injured to him but says there is white stuff at the base of the fin. Can you tell if it’s just damaged tissue or if an infection is setting in? What do you have on hand? Aquarium salt, mblue, hydrogen peroxide 3%, betadine (I’m always hesitant to use betadine because I can’t see what I’m doing).
I enlarged your 1st pic and noticed that it's poop was white as it was coming out at 1st. That is usually a sign of intestinal worms. If you continue to see white stringy poop, treat the whole tank. Get the small 1 oz bottle if the white poop continues. You would only have to treat one time with PraziPro. It's one treatment of 1 tsp per 20 gallons of water. It stays in the water for 5 days and then the treatment is done and you can then continue partial water changes.
Update: When I came home from work I found him lodged into a plant, and one of my murderous ghost shrimp picking on his fins. By the time I was able to dislodge him he wasn’t doing well with my tank current so I moved him to my qt tank which so happens to have platy fry in it for the moment. He still had appetite but was definitely worse for wear. Left for dinner with the family, and when I arrived home 5 hours later he had deceased. Poor guy. I’m the type to sit there and stare at my tank for 20 minutes at a time and the day before I was taking pictures of the fish and I don’t see in the pictures nor remember seeing anything noticeably wrong with him. Seemed like an extreme change for just one day but who knows. I will be watching the take extra close this weekend looking for any other signs Incase it was illness and not injury. As far as the white thing in the first pic...I don’t recall him having stringy white poop when I snapped the photo, I’m wondering if it is just a fish flake in the background that is discolored by the light on it. I had just fed the tank when I saw the issue and took the photos. However, internal parasites are not something to let stick around so I will monitor the other fish for sure, and treat immediately if signs do show. Thanks for all of the responses!
