Platy floats tail first to top?

soluki

soluki

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May 7, 2007
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Hello,

I have a 30 gallon tank with some platys, 3 danios and a pleco. The water is 0 ammonia, 20 nitrate, 0.5 nitrite, 0 chlorine, 6.2 ph. One of my female platies seems to drift to the top of the tank with her tail coming up first when she stops swimming. She otherwise appears healthy, eats and swims around but I am concerned about the floating/drifting as it seems unnatural. Is she sick? What can I do for her, she is one of my favorites.
 
maybe swim blatter? i have no idea about those fish..ur PH is a lil low IMO and you need to get that nitrite down, do a water change and back up on feeding..

like i said i dont know anything about them so dont trust my opinion
 
Thanks - I will do some research on swim bladder, I've never heard of that. I just did a 20 percent water change on Friday - but will do another if that will help. I live on a farm with well-water and unfortunately have a water softener added - I am thinking maybe I will do a water change tomorrow but with jugs of water from the store instead of tap water - maybe that will help my ph? I have not had good luck with the PH + that I bought - doesn't seem to make a dent :(
 
Platys are quite hardy and are fine in the pH you have. Many fish are actually of non ideal pH's as long as they remain stable, so using something to bring up the pH could do more harm than good. If she's been living in your aquarium for more than a week or so at this pH and is just now showing signs of a problem - it's not the pH. I highly recommend NOT using bottled water because it may not have the dissolved salts that help to buffer pH (keep it stable), and changing pH can be a source of shock for fish.

Nitrite should be 0 - nitrite is about as dangerous to fish as ammonia (and actually at your pH probably more so) so I'd do a large water change with your well water ASAP.

How long have you had your platy?
 
I've had this platy for over a year and a half. She survived an hour long move from my old home to this new one about 9 months ago, and was successfully transistioned from a 10 gallon tank to this newer, bigger one around 6 months ago. It took awhile for this tank to cycle but it has been stable for about 6 months now. She has had a bunch of babies since then too. I just added some Amquel Plus and Novaqua to the water - usually the nitrites are zero but my filter backed up a few days ago so that may have caused the spike - I fixed my filter and changed the water and also the carbon (I use a Whisper 30 filtration system.)
 
pH is definitely not an issue then. She could be getting a little old, or maybe she's just a bit tired and enjoying letting the current take her away :)

What does Novaqua do?
 
First of all... your nitrite is way to high

it should be as close to 0 as possible....
 
i think what 7itanium is trying to say is that additional water changes, on top of the one you have done already, are necessary to keep those nitrite readings at zero until your tank stabilizes again. then just weekly water changes after that. your filter backing up most likely caused the spike, as you mentioned. my question is, did the filter back up due to overdue maintenance/cleaning? what is your water change and filter cleaning schedule and procedure?

i would research swim bladder, as Don Won mentioned. it is also possible she is just a lazy old platy, lol, but i would rule out any other causes first.
 
BettaFishMommy said:
i think what 7itanium is trying to say is that additional water changes, on top of the one you have done already, are necessary to keep those nitrite readings at zero until your tank stabilizes again. then just weekly water changes after that. your filter backing up most likely caused the spike, as you mentioned
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that is exactly what I was trying to say.. lol sorry

my kid was screaming when I wrote that post so I had to cut it short
 
lmao! if my kidlett is hollering at me (as long as it isn't a life threatening holler), i holler back "Mommy's on the fishy website! give me a minute!"
 
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