sick platty

One of my orange/black platty's is not right. it's a male, and has always been chased around a bit by the other male platty in the tank - whether that is relevant or not I dont know.

Anyway, today I noticed it was swimming a bit funny, as though it was stiff. It also looks a bit skinny towards its rear end. I have isolated it to give it a bit of peace, and was thinking of dosing the tankl with some internal bacteria meds - do you think that's a good idea or not.

it is still eating and fairly active, it just doesn't look as good as usual.

I Had A Male Do This Sometime Back, It Carried On As Normal For A Lomg Time But Did Eventually Flip A Fin, Even Though The Tank Had Been Dosed With Things For Other Fish.

TBH, Id Be Inlined To Leave It As It Is Where It Is, And Let Nature Take Its Course. It Sounds To Me It Is A Generally Weaker Specimen AnyWay, As Hard As It Is, You Really Do Only Want The Strongest To Be Left (And Breed)

Hope This Helps

Ah, sorry to hear you have a sick fish Diana, hope it's going to be ok. I hate it when the fish get sick, I feel so responsible for them (sad isn't it )

How's it doing Diana? Hope it's ok

Any news Diana.. :|

Well, it seems to be doing ok! It's still swimming funny, but it's eating ok, swimmin round the tank, and now has a couple of baby plattys in with it from the main tank who were also gettig chased. I am hoping to take them all to the lfs if I can get the 'sick' one looking a bit better!

If he stays looking dodgy, I will keep him in the spare tank as he seems quite happy there.

Do you think it was him being chased around by the other male that caused the problem? Are plattys a bit narky with each other - I am thinking of them for my new tank when I get it.

Ive just read on another thread that the males can be narky with each other, so females only might be what u need.

I think it probably was getting bullied/chased so much that perhaps it wasn't getting enough food, was getting stressed etc and just getting worn out by it all.

it's certailnly a lot more energetic now that it was initially, is quite bold, coming up to the top of the tank as soon as I take the lid off the tank to feed them, and seems happy with his tank mates.

I jut have to decide what to do with them all now. I feel a bit bad about taking the bullied one back to the lfs - it could happen to it all over again! It's in with some quite big fry now, some of whom are females and I dont really want them to breed so I guess the babies will have to go as I dont want any more plattys.

That will leave the bullied one on his own though which is a shame

Decisions, decisions!

That's why you need a second community tank, Diana so you can separate any bullied fish. That's what I did with my Dwarf Gouramis.

That's how you ended up with a houseful of them Mary I can see how it could happen though. I would love a second tank AND a bigger main tank :lol:

I know Mary! I have been sort of thinking of keeping this tank running with the bullied one in it and perhaps getting him a companion of some sort.

Only thing is the tank is in the kitchen, and plugged into a socket that I need for other stuff, so I have to have extension cables etc trailing over the worktops. I dont mind that when I know its only for a short term q/fry tank, but longterm - I'm not sure it's do'able.

Also the tank doesn't have lights. I know they are not vital for the fish, but I have noticed now the nights are dark if I turn the kitchen lights off the fish settle on to the gravel to 'sleep', then go crazy when I turn the lights on every time I go into the kitchen!

I have been thinking of moving it up into the back bedroom. Would a platty and betta be suitable tankmates?

Well I dont know if plattys and bettas get on, but I do know that bettas are great fish! I'll have to get a photo of mine and post it up for you to see, he's really great!

driver wrote:

Ive just read on another thread that the males can be narky with each other, so females only might be what u need.

It prob depends on the individual fish. I have a pair of platy males and they're the best of buddies - they're always together and have never bickered.

Ive got a couple of female plattys now, one red and one organge and they seem great mates, always swimming round the tank together.

I know that some so-called "fish experts" pooh-pooh the likes of platies and guppies but I, for one, think that platies are a lovely little fish and add a nice splash of colour to a community tank. Not so sure about guppies though... :lol: