HELP! Something is wrong with my fish...

[DreaminginBlue]

So today I got two red wag platies and four candy cane tetras from the LFS. I don't have a quarantine tank because my mom won't let me get one, and now I'm scared I'll lose my fish...
Candy canes look fine and happy, but something is wrong with my platies. They are hovering in the same place and not moving much. One of them has a large poo hanging off of it, thick white with stringy white at the end; the other has a completely stringy white poo hanging off. Earlier I tried to feed all the fish and the platies appeared to not see/not want the bloodworms. Tetras gobbled them up.
Why are they so lethargic? Are they sick? Do they have parasites? What should I do? Please let me know, I've only had my tank set up for two days and I don't want to lose it.

 

[Lev]

Do you have a water testing kit? ... Ok so I've just seen your other thread and I can see that you have...

I'm fairly new to this too, but I'd have thought if your water is within good parameters and right temp, they might be stressed from being in new tank... Could try turning lights off and leaving them for a time?

 

[DreaminginBlue]

Thank you, it seemed to work a bit. Turned the lights off overnight and now they're swimming around a bit more, one of them found a bloodworm and is munching away. Is the poop anything to be concerned about?

 

[Lev]

Like I said I'm new to this but my understanding from my research was that white or clear poops is from rapid intestinal transit which can be due to illness or stress (I just think how my tummy feels when I'm nervous haha). I'm happy to be corrected on this by the many more experienced folk on this forum!!! I know my mollies pretty much all did a few dodgy looking poos on their first day in the tank but these then returned to normal.

Other thing is you could have been sold poorly fish... But I think just a bit of new tank stress is more likely

 

[DreaminginBlue]

I really hope that is the case. They were in the car for an hour on the way home and then in the bag for maybe an hour or two while I planted the tank. They seem fine now so I'll just watch them, I really hope they aren't sick.
Thank you so much.

 

[Lev]

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you, if it gets better I imagine not parasites or anything but if it persists they might be infected

 

[extremebunny]

Keep an eye on them and if they do need to be quarantined, you can make one out of something like a large glass bowl or a plastic container (if it's a type of plastic that won't leech chemicals). They should be fine, though. Fish get scared.

 

[goldstar8]

I added a sun fire platy to my tank a few weeks ago and he did the same thing. Didn't eat and kept to himself at the bottom of my tank, away from the tetras and danios I keep. I figured he was lonely so I went back to the store to get him a friend. I decided on a Dalmatian Molly since they told me mollies and platies go well together. Funny thing is they don't seem to like each other but my sunfire has become more social. I went yesterday and got a Mickey Mouse platy and he did the same thing. Acted very shy and didn't want to be around the other fish. This morning I checked and he was socializing with everyone in the tank. I'm guessing that's just the way platies are.