Various Platies

[AquaDummy]

I had 2 Red Wag Platies. Unfortunatly one isn't around anymore. His fins just deteriated and he started just swimming on his side at the bottom. So far fishkeeping has not been enjoyable and I'm sure his death means something worse for the rest of my tank anytime soon.

Anyway, the other Red Wag is just kinda hanging around by himself now and hiding out. He still looks healthy but what do I know. I have 4 Mickey mouse platies and was wondering if he is okay hanging around with them or if I need to get another Red wag for this guy?

 

[Cearbhaill]

Platties are all the same, so you don't need a specific color to make him happy.

Do you have a regular water change schedule? Fins just wasting away can be a sign of poor water quality. Do you have test kits to measure nitrates?

 

[Milky]

Fin Rot

It sounds like your fish had fin rot how long did you have him in your tank
Sometimes when you buy a fish from the store they arent 100 percent healthy and if the slime coat was damaged during netting it can be hard on the fish... Dont get down on yourself Aqua ive seen pics of your tank and have to say there a good example of aquascaping.

 

[AquaDummy]

My Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates are all 0 but I have noticed my PH and KH are high. Out of the tap my PH is around 7.4 but in the tank it's more like 80. Not sure why? During the cycle I had a hard time keeping the PH up.

I've only done one water change so far as I just added fish a week ago. I have another planned for today. I've held back because yesterday I basically ripped my tank apart trying to net out those pesky Serpae - which I finally did. Everyone was a bit stressed so I'm waiting a bit.

 

[Blinky]

I keep livebearers too, and I've found that sometimes the stock at the store isn't very good - there are times I've seen fish so poorly bred that I don't even know why they're for sale (extra/missing fins, deformities in body shape, badly coloured, etc.)
Sometimes one of my liveberers will just die (usually at about a year old) without symptoms of disease. I've started wondering if a lot of the livebearers for sale aren't just weak due to the massive amounts of inbreeding done to achieve certain colours/shapes.
[edit] that pH won't bother platys one bit, don't worry about it at all. Keep an eye on your water parameters, everything at 0 is very odd considering you've had fish in the tank for more than a week. [/edit]

 

[AquaDummy]

Keep an eye on your water parameters, everything at 0 is very odd considering you've had fish in the tank for more than a week. [/edit]

Well Ammonia is 0, Nitrite is like .1 and Nitrate is around 5 this morning. I've seen traces but they clear up pretty quick.