Chrispy65
Aquarium Advice Newbie
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 =)
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 =)