Platy with a curved and bent spine

[smittygirl77]

I have had my tank up and running for about 7 months now with absolutely no problems. I had 3 platies, one Cory cat, and one snail. All were fine until about 2 weeks ago. I had 2 platies die from dropsy and one survived. I think my Cory died and caused an ammonia spike in the tank which weakened the immune systems of the 2 platies and caused them to come down with dropsy. It has been about a week since the last platy died and my remaining platy has been just fine. In the last few days, his spine has started to curve and bend. His spine curves down towards the tail like a fish with dropsy but it also curves like an “s” when looking from above. He has no other dropsy symptoms. He is eating perfectly fine, he is not lethargic or sitting on the bottom of the tank, no clamped fins, no swollen belly, and no bulging eyes. Is the curved spine just a result of stress being that he is the only fish in the tank now? Should I get him some more tank mates or wait a while longer to see if he is healthy? I can add pictures if that would help. Thank you in advance for the helpful advice!

 

[SaraB]

Sounds like he has Tuberculosis (tb). You will have to keep him in a separate tank if he's with other fish as it is contagious. Also wash your hands very well after having them in the water as it can affect people too.
I don't know how to fix it. Hopefully someone else can chime in.

 

[Magma4life]

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but tb in fish isn't curable. If you have multiple tanks try not to share things like nets between them so you don't give it to other fish. Hopefully it isn't tb though.