Platys - Gill flukes??

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Chrispy65

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Nov 19, 2013
Messages
3
Location
Greater Metropolitan PoDunk Illinois
Hi all -

Excuse me for not introducing myself first. I've been reading here for some time, but this is the first time I've been compelled to post.

Twelve days ago, I added five sunburst platys to my cycled 55 gal. They joined 12 common feeder guppies, eight neon tetras, 5 peppered corys. I'm down to three platys now. Lost the first one on Christmas eve (tues) and the second overnight thurs/fri. I knew something was wrong with the first one but didn't have a clue what. The second one seemed fine when we went to bed thurs and was gone when we got up friday.

I'm about to lose a third one - I've been watching it deteriorate all day (Sunday). From what I'm reading/seeing, I'm wondering if this is gill flukes. The gills are very red and flared. The body seems to indent inward severely under the gill plate. The fish is spending a great deal of time at the surface trying to get air and then she will just go sit on the bottom for a while.

Tank parameters -
Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - more than 40, less than 80ppm - yes, that's high, but my tap water is 40ppm right out of the tap.
Temp - 79F
pH - 7.4 on the high range test, 7.6 on the low range test.
Planted tank, but not very densely.

The tank has been cycled for about 4 weeks. It was solidly processing straight ammonia at 4ppm to 0 ppm within 18 hrs before I moved fish (from a severely over-crowded 5 gal). With the addition of the 5 platys, I was stocked at 88% and was comfortable with that. I'm running two HOBs, an AquaClear 70 and a Top Fin 70.
This really doesn't seem to be a tank issue to me.

So, if this is gill flukes, what do I need to do to treat the rest of the tank? And if you don't think this is gill flukes, what the heck could it be?

Thanks much! I really want these fish to make it. They're SO pretty and add some color to a pretty drab batch of fish.
Chris =)

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Hi, Any flashing at all near the gill area?

Only other thing I can think of is if a chemical or medicine has been added?
 
It does seem to be a pretty bad case of gill flukes. I would suggest trying Prazi Pro. It's a very safe medicaton to treat that sort of parasite.
 
It does seem to be a pretty bad case of gill flukes. I would suggest trying Prazi Pro. It's a very safe medicaton to treat that sort of parasite.
Thanks! I have lost a third and last night I added Tetra Parasite Guard, as that's all that was available at the chain pet retailer. My LFS is closed on Monday, so I will stop there today to look for the Prazi Pro. Seachem Paraguard was also recommended. Do you have experience with that product?

The last two were doing swimmingly (pun intended) last night after I treated the tank, so I am hopeful that I've nipped this in the bud. But I still intend to treat the entire tank at least once with a better quality product than what I used last night.

Thanks again!
Chris
 
Hi, Any flashing at all near the gill area?

Only other thing I can think of is if a chemical or medicine has been added?
There has been flashing - soon after I had added them to the tank - but I haven't noted any in the past few days. I was unfamiliar with flashing when I saw it happening, but my 20/20 hindsight now tells me that was obviously flashing.

Thanks, Chris
 
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