White Patches And Is It Fry-day Soon?

Hi, my husband got an aquarium for Christmas, but after discovering 2 surprise fry while cleaning it, it started to become my new hobby. I learned how to sex the fish, and realized we’d been given 3 male and 1 female. The female was unfortunately sucked up into the filter intake (as we later realized, the box had been opened, and it was missing instructions and the cover for the filter intake). I wanted to get more female, but Petsmart didn’t have any at the time. So—I ordered some blue MM Platy and a guppy pair from a website. 3 of the Platy that arrived were female, and 3 male. After a day, I began to notice that the male Platy didn’t seem to look very healthy, and were having trouble swimming. The tiny “peaceful” male guppy was chasing them relentlessly, and it seems some bottom fins were even torn off, so I separated the aggressor. I noticed one fish had two white patches on his tail fin, and when I looked at him from an angle, he appears to have a large white patch on one side of his body that appears raised. He’s been isolated for a week, and hasn’t changed or died. Now I’m noticing the same patch on two of the same kind of fish, and a raised area around one’s eye. The orange Platy, guppies, and mollies seem fine. It looks nothing like Ich, and looks kind of cotton-y or like a dull area. What is this, and what should I do? My babies are in a separate tank so they don’t become a snack. It’s hard to get pictures of these white patches. I was wondering if they might be injuries from the aggressive guppy, or something infecting my tank. And does this guppy look like she’s close to dropping fry? I put her in a breeder for the night just in case, and am upgrading her to a separate tank tomorrow.

 

It's a bit hard to tell if that's part of her natural color, or a gravid spot. Can you get a picture with some better lighting?

 

What size tank is it? Try to get 3 females per male so they don't pester the females too much. The photo you posted is hard to tell if its her coloring or gravid spot.

 

She must have dropped fry last night; she’s very skinny this morning and what appeared to be a gravid spot is smaller and not as dark. Darn it, I had her in the community tank because I have a Platy in my “labor and delivery tank,” because she’s huge and I can see fry and eyes inside her. I’m not seeing any fry in the community tank. I have some fake grass and plants, but don’t see anyone. Each of the two times a fish gave birth in the CT, I only ended up finding 2 fry while vacuuming the substrate, and they’d been hiding for nearly a week. They got sucked up into the bucket, but I was able to use a cup to get them out and put them in the “nursery.” Where do fry generally go after delivery if not into somone’s mouth? My fish seem constantly hungry even though I feed them 2-3 times a day.

 

Sometimes they will hide in the substrate if it's gravel

 

They'll hide anywhere they can, but no matter how much u feed them, they'll still eat the fry, it's just instinct. Make sure that ur not dealing with disease in ur nursery tank since the one in there has fuzzy patches on him, if I'm correct. If it is then ull need to treat/sterilize the whole thing before making it a nursery again. aren't fry fun tho? I love that part!

 

If the patches are cottony that sounds like a fungus. Methaline blue? I think is the stuff. Use this to kill the fungus.