Weird illness/behaviour my platy

Hi all,
I’ve returned to the forum for an unfortunate reason… all has gone well up until about a week ago
it started with one of my younger platys. this behaviour/sickness occurred so fast where it seemed he was fine the day before and then suddenly he’s laying at the bottom of the tank and any attempt to swim ended in spiraling around and very unbalanced swimming. The suffering was very obvious and it appeared he was near the end so i decided to euthanize.
Now i’ve caught my other young platy starting to show some unbalanced swimming behaviour, is more skittish yet will still eat.
Last night he was fine and was eating with the others and now he’s kinda sinking or swimming around a little tilty

What is this? It seems like something contagious.

I want to quarantine this platy but if it’s contagious i know i must treat the whole tank anyway so i figured i should find out what’s going on. i’ve got two older and full grown platys that are just fine as of now and they are about a year old.
Would love to save the little guy cuz he’s got beautiful koi colouring and patterning
Tank is a 10 gallon and i do water changes every week
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: ~20 ppm ( happens to be water change day today)

Will keep updated, hopefully this thread gains some momentum

the only other filter i have has too strong a current for the 5 gal quarantine. decided i’m gonna put him in quarantine for the day and see if he behaves normally again or if there really is a problem.
the filter is off for now and will get a more gentle one if it turns out he is sick

 

I'm not an expert but it seems like a swim bladder issue. I don't really know much about them so you might want to do some research. I hope your remaining fish make it!

 

I'm not an expert but it seems like a swim bladder issue. I don't really know much about them so you might want to do some research. I hope your remaining fish make it!

I’ve looked into it and i’m not too sure. Swim bladder isn’t contagious, and i’m not sure how coincidental it is that one platy had issues and now my other one does.
I looked up “whirling disease” since that’s the closest thing that describes what’s going on. It’s a parasite but it turns out it can only survive in cold water and mostly affects salmon species. and all my fish are currently living in 78F, so that rules out that illness.
In the quarantine tank he’s very lethargic (but not twirling when swimming… yet) and sitting at the bottom of the tank but nothing else looks visibly wrong with him. no bloating, discolouration or change in weight… same goes for the one i had to euthanize. Both affected are/were young, estimating about 6 months old currently and are still small for platys. when he swims he still seems pretty unbalanced though. It’s quite a mystery
I’m afraid if i don’t figure out what’s going on soon, i might lose him too. That’s what it’s looking like anyways.
Update:
I switched the filters because my 10 gallon had a more gentle one, so now the quarantine tank has filtration, yay!
Also good news, platy seems to be doing much better
i tried feeding him peas and flake food mixed together but it didn’t seem like he was eating. except now he’s swimming around all dandy and is no longer resting at the bottom
been observing for about 15 minutes and there’s been no resting
Perhaps he was just stressed from the tankmates. i’ve got a few danios in that 10 gal and they’re fast and like to chase the fish around, but thank goodness they aren’t fin nippers
Will keep him in the quarantine for the next couple days to make sure things stay upwards before putting him back in the 10 gal
This behaviour was very strange, i’ve never had a platy seem so unwell and then bounce back so quickly. I’m not witnessing much tilty swimming anymore either

 

I’ve looked into it and i’m not too sure. Swim bladder isn’t contagious, and i’m not sure how coincidental it is that one platy had issues and now my other one does.

Yes, swim bladder issues themselves aren't contagious as they are usually a symptom of another illness/health issue. I think they are commonly caused by infections and parasites, but there are a lot of other possible causes such as water quality.

Also good news, platy seems to be doing much better

That's great, I really hope he makes a full recovery. I'd also try and work out the possible cause for the death of the other fish though, just to make sure you don't reintroduce him to the issue when he's put back into the original tank, if that makes sense.

 

Yes, swim bladder issues themselves aren't contagious as they are usually a symptom of another illness/health issue. I think they are commonly caused by infections and parasites, but there are a lot of other possible causes such as water quality.



That's great, I really hope he makes a full recovery. I'd also try and work out the possible cause for the death of the other fish though, just to make sure you don't reintroduce him to the issue when he's put back into the original tank, if that makes sense.

yeah for sure… i can’t think of anything else other than stress
The adult platys are considerably bigger than the danios and aren’t chased around nearly as much as the younger fish
But one difference between the one i euthanized and the one in quarantine is that the late one literally would twirl and whirl around when trying to swim, no direction or balance whatsoever
This one i have now only showed a little unbalance but it could very much have been fatigue or stress (or my imagination? the tiltiness was not super obvious and was only observed when looking very closely…) He was sitting at the bottom quite a lot before.
I guess though, swim bladder is the only reason i can think of for the weird swimming in the late platy. i wish i knew what caused it.
Water quality has been completely fine based on the weekly tests i do before every water change. Unless this was caused by stress i don’t know what it could be

 

Whirling desease also occurs in livebearers. It could be caused by a parasite or a brain damage. Swim bladder problem can cause the same reaction but isn't contagious. A brain damage can affect more than one fish if there's something really wrong with water parameters. A brain damage caused by an injury isn't contagious. A parasite however can be present with other parasites and can affect more than one fish. But even then we can not speak about it being contagious. For a parasite that affects the brain, will only use one host and not more.

But of it's whirling desease, it can't be cured.

 

Whirling desease also occurs in livebearers. It could be caused by a parasite or a brain damage. Swim bladder problem can cause the same reaction but isn't contagious. A brain damage can affect more than one fish if there's something really wrong with water parameters. A brain damage caused by an injury isn't contagious. A parasite however can be present with other parasites and can affect more than one fish. But even then we can not speak about it being contagious. For a parasite that affects the brain, will only use one host and not more.

But of it's whirling desease, it can't be cured.

Thanks so much for that information. The one i euthanized definitely looked like it had a neurological issue
My little guy is still in quarantine and doing well.
I find it normal behaviour in my platys to sometimes chill around the surface of the water, they aren’t constantly swimming and darting around but are never sitting at the bottom
if they’re sitting at the bottom, i know there’s some kind of issue
I’m happy to say he’s now acknowledging me (swimming toward the front of the glass when i’m there, responding to finger) when he wasn’t before, so that energy has definitely returned. Still showing signs of shyness though, at times he’ll swim away and stay back behind the heater.
He’s also the only male platy i have so the original stressor didn’t stem from other males
Here’s a picture i took of him yesterday in the middle of transporting him to quarantine. He’s quite small still.

 

Hi, another update
He still isn’t eating. tried both flake food and frozen brine shrimp, and the peas yesterday.
He goes and tries to eat it but spits it out again…
i’ve used tweezers and such but he’s scared and skittish of me so i have to let the food free float before he can try eat it
My other fish will feed straight from the tweezers and “turkey baster”
also caught him resting at the bottom earlier but he starts swimming when he sees me, its like he doesn’t want me to know something is wrong
Still have him in QT
it’s looking like i might need to treat him for something.. just not sure what.
Not knowing what’s wrong with pets is so frustrating.

 

Wanted to jump back on here and let everyone know that i came home from school today to find that he had passed away.
The cause was unknown still, there were no physical changes but he still had trouble eating last night (managed to get one brine shrimp down) and of course, was still shy and skittish.
I thought he was starting to get better, but i guess it was his time.
If anyone else has any ideas on what could’ve caused this please reply. I know the information that i have is rather vague because i myself have no lead on anything based on what i observed. I also know that some fish will just die out of the blue without anyone knowing why. Some closure would be nice though.

 

Wanted to jump back on here and let everyone know that i came home from school today to find that he had passed away.
The cause was unknown still, there were no physical changes but he still had trouble eating last night (managed to get one brine shrimp down) and of course, was still shy and skittish.
I thought he was starting to get better, but i guess it was his time.
If anyone else has any ideas on what could’ve caused this please reply. I know the information that i have is rather vague because i myself have no lead on anything based on what i observed. I also know that some fish will just die out of the blue without anyone knowing why. Some closure would be nice though.

I'm so so sorry for your passings, I'm not quite sure whats wrong i just wanted to give my sorrys. If i were you id pay close attention to the other fish just in case. If its spreading still, it might be a parasite, thats the only reason i can think of. I am definitely no expert and nor do i have experience with platies. I hope all of your others dont get what they had if its contagious. Good luck!