Sunburst platy sick

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3woodlandcreatures

AC Members
Jul 23, 2016
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Hi all,

I have a stable planted 20gal tank stocked with diamond tetras, danios, amano shrimps, and sunburst platies (3 of each). Water parameters are healthy - I do a 20% water change once a week. Everyone and the plants are all doing splendidly.

Since a few days ago, one of the platies has been looking particularly thin and weak, hovering in a corner at the bottom, especially compared to his lively and full-bellied buddies. I think one of the danios has been chasing the platies (not just him alone) around but that doesn't explain why he's not eating much. I've placed flakes very close to him but he would only nibble at it halfheartedly before giving up. i've been monitoring whether he has some sort of virus or disease but I don't notice anything other than that his top fin is shorter than before. in the last 2 days, it seems to be growing back a bit?

What might be wrong with him and how do I help him recover?
 
Are you determining your healthy water parameters by means of something like the API master test kit? Need to know your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings in PPM. It doesn't sound like a heavy bio load, but ~20% WWC may not be adequate. If the platys are new additions, it's not unusual to loose one or more due to how they were cared for before you got them.
 
Are you determining your healthy water parameters by means of something like the API master test kit? Need to know your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings in PPM. It doesn't sound like a heavy bio load, but ~20% WWC may not be adequate. If the platys are new additions, it's not unusual to loose one or more due to how they were cared for before you got them.
 
I've had the platies for about 3 months without any incident. They started out as the same size, but one of the males grew really fast while the female and the weak male are around the same size as they were when i bought them.

I use the test tube water test and the results are on par with the readings I get when he was healthy.

Ammonia 0
Nitrate 5
Nitrite 0
pH 7.2

PS. Is it curious that the female's never gotten pregnant? I was told platies breed like crazy.
 
Supposedly Livebearers breed like crazy. My mollies never did, and the female recently died. I guessed that she was just old, and that's why she never produced fry. Maybe your platy is just old too, and that's why he's sick/maybe dying?
 
I've never had a livebearer live more than 1.5-2yrs max, even in a low nitrate environment, but they've all been pretty much adult sized when I got them.
 
Platys, Variatus and Swords produce at an older age than Endlers, Mollys and others.

My best guess is the Platys came from a PET WHATEVER store and have livebearers disease. It is a wasting disease. They just keep getting thinner and slowly waste away. Select Aquatics has meds to cure, but it is pricey.
 
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