Sunburst platy with torn dorsal fin

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Saur

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Mar 2, 2014
Messages
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I just brought some new fish home yesterday and this morning one of the new sunburst platys has a pretty bad torn dorsal fin. All other activity is normal, he is feeding fine and does not seem stressed. I have four of the platys total and they do seem to fight a little bit so I don't know how he tore it, but I'm not sure how to help him fix it. I've put a photo of the fin and my tank below..

IMG_6862.jpgIMG_6857.jpg
That is his fin

And now my tank.. it's between 36-42 gallons, I don't remember. A bowfront with 4 sunburst platys, 1 opaline gourami, and 1 gold gourami..

IMG_6859.jpg

Thank you!
 
Keep an eye on the water conditions. It should heal on its own if the water is good and no one else messes with it. Do you have female platies in there? The males might be taking aggression out on each other. (If you don't and don't want to get any, take the most aggressive one out for an hour or so, and put it back in and see if that "resets" him. Fish are weird.)
 
Keep an eye on the water conditions. It should heal on its own if the water is good and no one else messes with it. Do you have female platies in there? The males might be taking aggression out on each other. (If you don't and don't want to get any, take the most aggressive one out for an hour or so, and put it back in and see if that "resets" him. Fish are weird.)



Okay thank you! I'll keep an eye on it. I don't think I have any females, I asked for all males, but I can't tell the difference so I can't say 100%. I'll definitely see if that will help if they continue to be bad.
 
Okay thank you! I'll keep an eye on it. I don't think I have any females, I asked for all males, but I can't tell the difference so I can't say 100%. I'll definitely see if that will help if they continue to be bad.

These are mollies, but the difference in all livebearers is pretty easy to tell.

Female:
gW8RVGn.jpg


Triangle shaped anal fin.

Male:
Ud4IMbA.jpg


Pointy/hooked gonopodium instead of an anal fin. (I tried to get a picture of my platies, but they're not behaving, and swordtails, which are closer relations to platies have a giant sword on the males, so you don't even need to bother looking at the anal fin.)
 
Some female swords change to male and will not get the sword to after the change can take awhile. Sword breeder.
 
Some female swords change to male and will not get the sword to after the change can take awhile. Sword breeder.

Good to know. I have one male and three females right now that are in my 40 gallon, but I'm not really planning anything with them.
 
Looks like a classic split fin type injury. I see it often with my cichlids. With them it is non stop fin nipping. I agree that it will probably heal on its own.
If the fin begins to deteriorate, might research Melafix. I've never used it but the manufacturer
Claims it is an all natural remedy for fin & body injuries.
Good luck.
 
All this technical crap aint needed just let it heal up by itself its a basic injury
 
These are mollies, but the difference in all livebearers is pretty easy to tell.



Female:

gW8RVGn.jpg




Triangle shaped anal fin.



Male:

Ud4IMbA.jpg




Pointy/hooked gonopodium instead of an anal fin. (I tried to get a picture of my platies, but they're not behaving, and swordtails, which are closer relations to platies have a giant sword on the males, so you don't even need to bother looking at the anal fin.)



So it looks like I have one female [emoji30] .. I really did not want one because I cant deal with having a bunch of little fry, I am going back to college soon and the fish will be under the care of my dad. I probably should but I don't know anything about fish pregnancy and dealing with fry. What are the big things I should know? How often do they become pregnant?
 
So it looks like I have one female [emoji30] .. I really did not want one because I cant deal with having a bunch of little fry, I am going back to college soon and the fish will be under the care of my dad. I probably should but I don't know anything about fish pregnancy and dealing with fry. What are the big things I should know? How often do they become pregnant?

With the gouramis in there you probably don't have to worry much about fry, tbh. Another option is to not put any sort of sponge or blocking on the intake of the filter and hope they get sucked in. You may get a few survivors, but they'll be fine in a tank that large.
 
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