Platy lying on side at the bottom of the tank

[Lesmall]

Hi everyone, I'm hoping someone can help ?

I have a sick Platy. He is lying on his side at the bottom of the tank and barely moving. He will swim a little to food, but mostly is waiting for food to sink to him. When he does swim it looks very feeble and painful, and it's on his side.

We've had our fish now for over 6 months, and this particular Platy has been in the tank for over 3 months. In the tank are also 5 neon tetras, 1 balloon Molly, 1 suckermouth catfish, 1 other platy (female), and then our platy had some fry so we've got a new little one that is about a month old, and 3 more tiny little ones.

The tank is approx 20 gallons, and is filtered and heated. I don't have the tank parameters but will post after I take the water to be tested at the pet shop tomorrow.

I did a water change just two days ago and vaccuumed the gravel. I removed approx 40% of the water. I tend to remove approx 20% every week or fortnight at the most. Nothing new has been added to the tank so I can't think of what's wrong!

We feed our fish tropical flakes once a day, and will put in a quarter of a vege water pellet every second day for Gerald (the sucker fish).

Any help would be greatly appreciated! He just looks so sad

 

[libertybelle]

Might not be a bad idea to do a water change today just in case; if you can’t get a water test until tomorrow. Even if water quality isn’t a factor, it won’t hurt as long as it’s temp / ph matched etc.

How long has he been like this? Any other symptoms in him or other fish? Any recent additions or loses? (Including plants / decor /etc ).

If you have another breeder net you may want to put him in it. Fish are not real nice to their weak tankmates. If you do have one and can put a plant or moss in there so he doesn’t feel so exposed it might give him a little protection.