sick platie

[Umberle]

le sigh...

this morning my male platie was fine and tonight he's laying on his side on the bottom of the tank. He is still alive but he seems to be mostly paralized. He can twitch his tail a little and he still responds to tank tapping and switching the light on.

Tested the water and it seems I had an ammonia spike.

Ammonia .5 pre water change .3 post water change
Nitrite 0
PH 6.8

The only thing that's changed is that I did a water change a little earlier. I can't really account for the ammonia spike since the tank has been cycled for a while...my last test came out normal.

Other than the paralasis the platie looks pretty normal. Any suggestions. I'd quarantine but I don't have the 20 set up yet. I'm kinda stuck.

 

[Umberle]

ok nevermind, he's dead. Strange. I'm pretty sure when I came home at 4 he was swimming about. At 6 he was on the bottom of the tank and at 7:45 he was dead. That was really quick. Could it have been old age?

 

[Sonia]

Aww...I can't really help, but I'm sorry your platy died. That was super quick! How old was he?

 

[Umberle]

I had him about 8 months but who knows how old he was when I got him from the LFS.

 

[FawnN]

I would say that ammonia burn, stress, and the lack of O2 is what killed your platy. It is too difficult to keep a 2 gallon stable, even after you cycle it. The slightest change will throw your water conditions off.

2 gallons is pretty small for 2 platies and a snail. Try getting at least a 10 gallon to keep your platy's in.

BTW, truly sorry for your loss.