Shivering Platy

[slinky]

So this is pretty strange - the red platy who dominates getting at food has stopped eating. She's not bulging at the belly but I caught him hiding for two days at the bottom or top of the tank. I also noticed her breathing far too rapidly and is "shivering" or so it looks like. Not sure if it could be dropsy but her stomach isn't really hanging that much and she doesn't have solid scales that would make it visible or in a rounded shape. I separated her from the tank mates.

In the small tank I noticed that it looks like there is a large white spot under her anal fins that seems much more noticeable now. Also there are some patches of white discoloration on her underside, but it might not be so unusual and just the brighter lighting. She won't eat anything and I can't see any other visible signs such as fungus or red gills. I'm not sure what those are supposed to look like and don't seem to be the case. Can you actually see if there are parasites?

I put some maracyn2 into the tiny pint sized bowl I put her in and placed approximately how much would go into that amount of water. At worst, I'll put her back into the 1 gallon pharmacy tank that I've used before but that one had air bubbles on the side that drove her crazy. Has anyone seen this kind of thing before? Not sure how to diagnose.

[slinky]

Now I've found the problem. Looks almost like an ulcer - skin rubbed off on her stomach and I can see a thin red line running head to fin on her stomach. Looks almost like what a vein would look like or like a little red bloodworm. The bottom really looks raw. I've put in some melafix instead and added some stress coat for now.

[slinky]

Getting worse... it looks like my gold molly now can't eat properly and I'm wondering if it's possible that brine shrimp can carry diseases. Weird that only the platy and molly seem affected. The molly is now hanging at the bottom of the tank, only finding shady places and, while trying to eat, seems like he can't. He takes a shrimp only to have it seem to spit out of his mouth. He tries again and it's almost like the same thing is happening. This isn't good and it's only the livebearers. I'm going to separate him as well...

Now that I think of it, the only thing new to the tank was the introduction of a moss ball but that shouldn't be killing them... and it looks like it's healthy too.

[KcEE]

Hmm...i wonder what that is. What's your water parameters?

[slinky]

Gold molly seems to be behaving more normally now but unfortunately platy is dead and quick. PH is 7, Ammonia is virtually zero, nitrates and nitrites are zero.

[2manyfish]

Septicaemia will produce those odd vein type threads in the fishes body. It's a bacteria that can be treated with a good anti-bacterial medicine. Even though the fish didn't die in your main tank, you may still want to do a good water change and give the gravel and around/under any decor a good vacuuming.

Shimmying in livebearers is another issue and the cause is a too low temp. Aim for 80º and they should be fine.

Sorry to hear about your fish!

[slinky]

Many thanks. If anything, my tank runs too hot at 83F although the fish seem not to mind. It's the problem of winters in apartment buildings. Before the fish caught her sickness, I did a full 50% water change and a great sweep of the tank. In fact, I did two sweeps since I had to do a filter change and yank out tons of beard algae that fell out of the filter so I did 2 water changes. Water and tank is clean but she just got sick...

The gold molly is staying on the bottom again and hiding. I have no idea why. Not showing the same symptoms as he is eating. He just refuses to come out and play and hides all the time at the bottom.

I am wondering if I should get rid of the moss ball and put in banana plants for the otos and wonder if the otos were secretly attacking the platy and now the molly in looking for food. Perhaps I should get rid of live plants altogether... tracking down what might be attacking this tank on occasions is such a challenge.

[slinky]

Looks like the left corner of the molly's mouth is gone and he's having a very hard time eating even the brine shrimp. I don't see any fuzz. He's been hiding in the caves and under rocks and refuses to come out. Has anyone seen anything like this? It looks like his color is fading a bit as well. He's barely moving again.