weird platy behavior

[circuits]

Hey guys, I have a female platy that up until a few days ago, she was acting fine. right now she is hiding in my log, with all hers fins close to her body, and she never comes out.
I saw her once out, but she was hiding in a plant. My water has been fine, I'm not sure whats wrong with her.
she isn't showing any signs of ich or fin rot, no nipped fins, nothing out of the ordinary, except for hiding.
she used to be very active and play with the male platy thats in the tank with her.

any help would be much appreciated.

-Pat

[BreezeRuehls]

Mine do that right before they die, don't know why, but it always happens like that, sorry

[coach_z]

white mouth?

[cellodaisy]

How long have you had this fish? Could you be more specific about the water quality---post actual parameters (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, temp)?

[circuits]

no white lips, nothin..

nitrite - 0ppm
nitrate - 5.0ppm
ammonia - 0 ppm
ph - 7.4
temp - 24*C / 76*F


EDIT: she had a kid a couple weeks ago, but she was swimming around fine after that..

[grannylvsfish]

is she being hounded by the males? she could be trying to hide from them

[circuits]

nah.. he goes and checks her out every now and again... but not hounding..

[shwank005]

I have a female swordtail that has been doing about the same thing for around 3 weeks now. She hardly eats, hides all the time, but not in one spot, and always keeps her fins clamped. The other two swords are doing fine. I keep waiting for her to either get worse and die, or get better, but she just seems like a lame fish. The other female sword that I put in the tank at the same time was smaller than her, but now she's grown bigger and looks to be gravid.

I'd be interested to know if anybody has an explanation for this as well.

[jm1212]

what are you feeding them?

[circuits]

a pinch of this
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i237/chronicspork/Fish/Femail%20Platy/food1.jpg

and one of these for my killiefish
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i237/chronicspork/Fish/Femail%20Platy/food.jpg

[grannylvsfish]

thats it? you need to feed better foods, greens etc. I feed mine snail jello, it has 7 different fish foods in them and 3 different pellets, they go mad for it. I also do brine shrimp and blood worms each week. cucumber once a week, and I drop dried sea weed on a clip. my fish love eating and I also do water changes 2 times a week at 50% or more each time.

[grannylvsfish]

I also feed my bottom dwellers these....
http://www.lnt.com/photos/product/standard/114420S515144/tropical-fish-food/veggie-algae-wafer-8.82-oz.jpg

Along with these.....http://www.drsfostersmith.com/images/Categoryimages/normal/p_157476_FS21257D.jpg

And these.....http://www.arcatapet.com/fullsize/10151.jpg

And my fish these ......http://www.aquamerik.com/photo/tetra2.gif

Fish need a good balanced diet and lots of variety. maybe your fish are bored and there nutrition is not up to par. ?

[circuits]

idk.. maybe, but the rest of em are doing fine..

[cellodaisy]

If you have had the fish for a while and the symptoms came on suddenly, something must have changed. Did you alter the diet recently? Add, remove, or rearrange decor? Change lighting? New tankmates? Anything that might have upset her?

[circuits]

i hung a breeder net in there cause she had a kid. and i changed from two 15w plant bulbs to 15w normal bulbs..

[grannylvsfish]

idk.. maybe, but the rest of em are doing fine..
Well you know a good diet goes a long way. Better to feed them a great diet now then one flake food, and 1 pellet food. in the long run you will not regret feeding them a variety and better foods then just a flake.

[cellodaisy]

Did you put her in the breeder net? I have heard they're quite stressful. It's odd that she just dropped one fry, though I think they can have premature drops when stressed. I wouldn't think that lighting change would make a difference, but it might be worth a try to put everything back the way it was and paying close attention to your parameters for a while and see if she perks up.

[Pudge]

Also, did you notice if she still has a gravid spot or not, I believe that the females hold on the the male sperm longer then just one birthing period, one of my platies acts the same way and she is on the verge of having fry, I think that she may within a week or so. I suspect that she may be pregnant.

[circuits]

she doesn't look pregnant, but I can't get too good of a look at her inside of the log. so platys usually drop more than just one fry?

[inkyjenn]

o god yes. they drop a lot of fry. 15 is about the smallest number ive ever seen from a batch

[Pudge]

she doesn't look pregnant, but I can't get too good of a look at her inside of the log. so platys usually drop more than just one fry?

Yeah, I'm going to have to agree with inkyjenn, I haven't heard really of any platies just having 1 fry.

[summer_of_41]

All I am going to say is that if you've conducted multiple water changes in hopes to correct her problem and she's not responded, then perhaps it's a genetics thing. It is possible that she had problems from the pregnancy and she is slowly dying because of it.? Signs all point towards delayed complications from pregnancy. This is only speculation on my part. The 1-fry is a red flag for something gone wrong. I just don't know what may have gone wrong. She's not eaten her fry? No black poop? Please keep us updated with further developments.

Just because water parameters show up normal, that doesn't necessarily mean that something bad isn't in the water. Many people experience problems in their tanks after a water change. But because the other fish seem "normal," then I'd take this as a personal 'internal' problem for your platy.

[circuits]

i havent changed the water yet becaue i didnt want to stress her out even more... but im going to have to tonight or tomorrow.should i leave her in my main tank, or should i set up a quarentine tank?

[summer_of_41]

I can't tell you what to do. The reason why people quarantine single fish is if they are treating them with medication or misbehaving. It's your call whether or not to separate her, but I personally would do a water change and then see what happens from there. Then report back any observations. I do not see a correlation between water changes and stress.

[NUMB3RS]

I can tell you now that all livebearers give birth to more than one, i know this from experience, my Balloon Molly recently as in yesterday gave birth to 30-40 fry. what other fish do you have in the tank?

[circuits]

couple of tetras, a rasbora, a male platy and a killifish. (and the fry in a breeder net)

Im gonna try to get a picture of her tomorrow sometime, if I can get her out of the log..

[jlink17]

I have a white MM platy that is doing this exact same thing and has been for about 2 months or more now. No signs of illness, water is fine, no injuries and looks like a healthy fish. He just lays in one of my decorations or on top of them all day and only comes up to eat. Not even interested in the females. I bought him about 2 1/2 years ago so not exactly sure of his age. I have talked to other breeders who have said that this happening to a lot platy lately and they have no idea what is causing it. They survive and just live like this for months to a year. Not sure if mine is age related since he is 2.5 or older but just wanted you to know this seems to be going around in platy.

[circuits]

So i finally got a good look at her today. It looks like she has some black stuff on top of her head moving back to her tail, but only on the top of her body. any thoughts?

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i237/chronicspork/Fish/Femail%20Platy/IMAGE_091.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i237/chronicspork/Fish/Femail%20Platy/IMAGE_089.jpg

edit: her fins are always sagging, like shes depressed..

[circuits]

anyone have some ideas?

[summer_of_41]

She looks like she had a stroke.

[Felix T Cat]

Ok, seriously is it a phase of the moon ? I have one with the exact same markings doing the same thing, always hiding, fins clamped. I noticed a few fry in the tank last night pretty small (see "I have babies" post). Mine has found that she loves to swim in the down draft of the filter return almost constantly and then goes and hides under the rock, resting on the bottom, barely moving. I honestly thought she was going to die today, did a 50% water change tonight (everything was normal and I do 50% each week) so I'm going to keep an eye on her.

[circuits]

oh, thats weird! i noticed her 'swimming upstream' in the filter current as well...
what size tank do you have her in?

[Felix T Cat]

46G bowfront, had this fish since christmas week.

[7itanium]

is she pregnant? maybe she is trying to drop fry and having problems... I had a guppy that experienced this... and eventually popped out 15 fry and went on with her happy life

[circuits]

shw might be, but i dont see the shadowed area behind her anal fin like i heard was a sign of them being pregnant

[Felix T Cat]

Thats what I'm wondering (and praying) because I only recently noticed fry in the tank (2 so far) I'm wondering if she still has a few more to go and will get better once she is done.

[circuits]

so is it normal for a platy to drop one or two fry and then act funny? cause im pretty sure mine only dropped one, then acted fine for a week or two, then i noticed that the male was acting weird and pointing his bottom fin at the female, and now she acts sick.. i realy hope she is only pregnant..