Platy fry with swim bladder disease

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bloodlucky

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Jul 31, 2012
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Ok it's pretty hard to tell as of now but I think my red platy fry is showing signs of swim bladder disease. It's a little over 3 months old, so about an inch or a bit more, but its belly is quite round and shiny. It's swimming is perfectly normal but whenever I feed my fish flakes I notice that sometimes he floats on the surface of the water

Tips? I know about peas but I'm confused as to how to feed them. Right now for vegetation I'm feeding algae wafers which seemed to have gotten rid of the swim bladder disease from my neons.
 
Having fry can lead to over feeding and create more bio-load than your tank or filter can handle. I first would recommend checking your Ammonia, Nitrite an Nitrate levels and report the levels.

When have you done partial water changes and how much?

What kind of food are you feeding and how much?

Clean fresh conditioned/ dechlorinated same temp water to start. I use a white bucket and check thoroughly for babies before dumping.

Also recommend a 50% back to back water change after testing asap. If you also have high levels from your tests, do the first 50% pwc then the next morning or that night do another 50% then same thing the next day if levels are too high. Until levels come down to safe. If it is extremely high maybe 50%, then literally another 50%. Test again.

Feed a tiny amount of peas so that they hopefully eat it, if they eat it, a tiny bit more, and so on, too much peas can foul the water too.

As for the peas...I buy Organic frozen vegetables (just for the pets, lol). I grab 20-30 peas and cook them for a 3-5 minutes on the stove with treated tap water. Cool.

Drain all but enough water to keep them moist/plump take some out peel the hard green shell off and you will have two main parts/halves and the germ little particle sometimes falls off, save it put it back in. Put the rest in a plastic bag in the refrigerator if you need them for later.

Dice the little particles to fish mouth bite size bits and sprinkle a little into water after making sure they are hungry as in skip a day feeding or a morning feeding as you have babies. Try an additional feeding, maybe three and see how your fish are doing.
 
Having fry can lead to over feeding and create more bio-load than your tank or filter can handle. I first would recommend checking your Ammonia, Nitrite an Nitrate levels and report the levels.

When have you done partial water changes and how much?

What kind of food are you feeding and how much?

Clean fresh conditioned/ dechlorinated same temp water to start. I use a white bucket and check thoroughly for babies before dumping.

Also recommend a 50% back to back water change after testing asap. If you also have high levels from your tests, do the first 50% pwc then the next morning or that night do another 50% then same thing the next day if levels are too high. Until levels come down to safe. If it is extremely high maybe 50%, then literally another 50%. Test again.

Feed a tiny amount of peas so that they hopefully eat it, if they eat it, a tiny bit more, and so on, too much peas can foul the water too.

As for the peas...I buy Organic frozen vegetables (just for the pets, lol). I grab 20-30 peas and cook them for a 3-5 minutes on the stove with treated tap water. Cool.

Drain all but enough water to keep them moist/plump take some out peel the hard green shell off and you will have two main parts/halves and the germ little particle sometimes falls off, save it put it back in. Put the rest in a plastic bag in the refrigerator if you need them for later.

Dice the little particles to fish mouth bite size bits and sprinkle a little into water after making sure they are hungry as in skip a day feeding or a morning feeding as you have babies. Try an additional feeding, maybe three and see how your fish are doing.

I've been changing their diet around particularly this week from flakes, algae wafers, bloodworms and brine shrimp. I usually do a 50% change once a week but this week I did two changes
 
Having fry can lead to over feeding and create more bio-load than your tank or filter can handle. I first would recommend checking your Ammonia, Nitrite an Nitrate levels and report the levels.

When have you done partial water changes and how much?

What kind of food are you feeding and how much?

Clean fresh conditioned/ dechlorinated same temp water to start. I use a white bucket and check thoroughly for babies before dumping.

Also recommend a 50% back to back water change after testing asap. If you also have high levels from your tests, do the first 50% pwc then the next morning or that night do another 50% then same thing the next day if levels are too high. Until levels come down to safe. If it is extremely high maybe 50%, then literally another 50%. Test again.

Feed a tiny amount of peas so that they hopefully eat it, if they eat it, a tiny bit more, and so on, too much peas can foul the water too.

As for the peas...I buy Organic frozen vegetables (just for the pets, lol). I grab 20-30 peas and cook them for a 3-5 minutes on the stove with treated tap water. Cool.

Drain all but enough water to keep them moist/plump take some out peel the hard green shell off and you will have two main parts/halves and the germ little particle sometimes falls off, save it put it back in. Put the rest in a plastic bag in the refrigerator if you need them for later.

Dice the little particles to fish mouth bite size bits and sprinkle a little into water after making sure they are hungry as in skip a day feeding or a morning feeding as you have babies. Try an additional feeding, maybe three and see how your fish are doing.

I really need to get a testing kit
 
Yes a testing kit is good. Online they are significantly less expensive.

If you take your water in for free testing at Petco or Petsmart ask for them to test everything and write down the results and give you the actual numbers.

It isn't as scary to do as it seems. I most often test the ammonia. If you get your tank stabilized and get a good routine going you don't need to check as often like when everything is in chaos.

I feed Hikari brand foods mostly. The fish like it and It seems to be a good quality. The thing that is really good is that it won't cloud the water. They have a food Microbites which is great for the little mouth ones. You can even smash them with the back of a spoon in a bowl for the fry.

Start finding homes for the babies or get a BIGGER tank! People are giving away tanks when they move all the time, especially 55G size.

The extra fish and food can throw water quality off.

How many fish and what size is the tank, and the filter too???
 
Yes a testing kit is good. Online they are significantly less expensive.

If you take your water in for free testing at Petco or Petsmart ask for them to test everything and write down the results and give you the actual numbers.

It isn't as scary to do as it seems. I most often test the ammonia. If you get your tank stabilized and get a good routine going you don't need to check as often like when everything is in chaos.

I feed Hikari brand foods mostly. The fish like it and It seems to be a good quality. The thing that is really good is that it won't cloud the water. They have a food Microbites which is great for the little mouth ones. You can even smash them with the back of a spoon in a bowl for the fry.

Start finding homes for the babies or get a BIGGER tank! People are giving away tanks when they move all the time, especially 55G size.

The extra fish and food can throw water quality off.

How many fish and what size is the tank, and the filter too???

I don't trust petco employees. One MANAGER, I kid you not, couldn't even test my water properly. I misworded. There is only ONE fry! ONE fry everyone!

I am getting a 40 gallon tank in less than 10 days. What do you advise in doing until then?
 
Also I have a lot of Hikaris products, their flakes, algae wafers and fry food. I really think the wafers will help the platy out of its minor swim bladder
 
It's looking bad. I changed his diet around and today I fed him bloodworms. They all pig out but he's still pretty fat and he's definitely trying not to float upwards. I did another 50% wc 2 days ago, and I'm feeding him algae wafers a lot. Anything else I can do? :(
 
No, you only give them a little at a time. It helps their digestive system. You use frozen peas or fresh and cook them, shell them, including the outside of the round pea, it will have a couple little bits inside and you cut them into littler bits so they will be pretty much bite size for the fish.

Get their attention at feeding time and drop in a tiny bit, and see if they are gonna eat it, then if they are, drop in a few more bits, and so on, till they aren't hungry any more. Try that for a few feedings.
 
No, you only give them a little at a time. It helps their digestive system. You use frozen peas or fresh and cook them, shell them, including the outside of the round pea, it will have a couple little bits inside and you cut them into littler bits so they will be pretty much bite size for the fish.

Get their attention at feeding time and drop in a tiny bit, and see if they are gonna eat it, then if they are, drop in a few more bits, and so on, till they aren't hungry any more. Try that for a few feedings.

Thanks. There is a perfect video for this I just found on YouTube. I will try this when I go shopping next time
 
He's hiding behind the filter. I doubt this has anything to do with the water quality since I just did a water change and the tank is only 2 days old, so maybe he's insecure or nervous? He's still moving his fins and everything, he's just staying in one place behind the filter
 
He's hiding behind the filter. I doubt this has anything to do with the water quality since I just did a water change and the tank is only 2 days old, so maybe he's insecure or nervous? He's still moving his fins and everything, he's just staying in one place behind the filter

Sorry wrong topic lol
 
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