Flashing platys

[lalalameg]

I have had two female platys in a 5 gallon tank with filtration, heat, and salted water for a few months now with a golden mystery snail as well. I do weekly water changes of about 25%, condition the water, and feed once a day. Lately, the bigger of the two has been acting incredibly strange at feeding time. Swimming up and down, backwards, fowards, in circles, just all over the place really frantically and not normal at all. She flashes off of EVERYTHING. I'm talking the cave, the plants, the glass, the filter, the heater, even the surface of the water. The other one doesn't appear to be acting as strange but also occasionally flashes around feeding. During the day I don't notice it as much but both of them just kinda hide under plants or in dark areas of the tank, whereas a few weeks ago they were happily swimming around at all hours! It looks like when they do flash it's their gills, so I'm suspecting gill flukes. I've been treating them with TopFin Parasite Guard for about 5 days now but the behavior has continued. Any help or opinions would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[Cnidaria]

Have you tested your water lately? Flashing can be an indicator of poor water quality. In my personal experience with platys, I have had them use this behavior when the water was perfect- research I did leads me to believe it was stress due to territorial issues. I changed the tank layout and it got better

 

[lalalameg]

That was it! After you posted that I realized it had been a while since I had changed the filter and did a water change so I did both of those and they're all back to normal! Thanks so much