Unwell male platy

[jadeh218]

Hoping you might be able to help! I'm about to lose my male platy. He's refusing to eat, and he looks so so skinny. He swims around food, but won't even try to eat it. He's lethargic, and resting on things like the plants or the bottom of the tank. He's only really looked this bad this afternoon. I only bought him yesterday, but he looked fine then. He was replacing another male platy which we lost last week - which died because it refused to eat, but it didn't look as skinny as this one...

pH is 7.1
Ammonia is 0

I did a water change on Friday.
I have other fish in the tank (2 bristlenose, 3 other female platys, 2 dwarf gouramis, a catfish, 4 tetras). All get along, no fighting etc.

 

[Autumnsky]

Do you know what the NitrIte is and the NitrAte is?

How long have you had this tank set up?

Do you have a filter and do you use Dechlorinator?

Do you rinse the filter pads in tap water or replace them frequently? How often?

Did you get this fish from the same place/bunch of fish you got the last one?

Also hello and welcome to Aquarium Advice!

 

[ppo8820]

He looks bad. Did you buy him like that? I suspect he was ill before you got him, especially if you bought him from a large pet store chain. They can have all their tanks on one giant sump filter so most fish are stressed and sick.


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[jadeh218]

He died this morning. He didn't look that bad when we bought them. The kids chose him, I just thought he looked a little small, but he didn't look deformed.

Talked to the aquarium and he said to add more salt to my water, that they like it rather salty. Said it sounded like it could be stress/shock.

Not sure what my nitrate/nitrite is. I cycled the tank before I put fish in. Had my water tested down at the aquarium. Then have been adding fish slowly over the last month or so. I do about 18L water change once or twice a week.

All the other fish seem rather healthy, so I'm praying that it stays that way!

 

[Autumnsky]

Sorry to hear about the fish. It didn't look well.

It would be a wise investment to obtain a master test kit, online prices are usually the best.

I would do a 25% pwc and then 12 hours or so do another.

But if you can get the water tested to find those things out, it would be helpful.

Also about the filter pad, and how often you do or when you last did a pwc?

 

[Autumnsky]

You posted the fish stocking in the first post, but what size tank is this?

 

[jadeh218]

Oops, filter is an Aqua One Canister Filter... 1200L. I have all the stuff in there that comes with it, bioballs, ceramics, blue/white filter 'wool', and the carbon.

It's 130L tank.

 

[Autumnsky]

1200L is ~ 340 gph filter turnover
130L is ~ 34.34G

Ok, now I can wrap my head around the numbers, lol

So checking on the filter media cleaning, do you use tap water or tank or treated water. The reason is due to the beneficial bacteria / BB being killed off by rinsing in untreated tap water, or replacing filter pad/media, causing a mini or new cycle. If this happens you can have spikes in NitrIte or Nitrate, (or ammonia, but you said that was 0.)

Just trying to cover all the possibilities.

Are you using water conditioner with your pwc's?

When were the last pwc and how long ago was the tank set up/been running?

 

[jadeh218]

So tank has been in use for a month, it took a few weeks to cycle before that. So it is a fairly new tank. But did a fishless cycle before adding fish.

I did a 18L water change on Friday, and did another 18L change today. Using water conditioner, and adding an aquarium salt solution (but only for the added water, not overdosing the tank). I use tank water for the filter. Rinse it off in the siphoned tank water before replacing. Then fill with tank water. If that makes sense.

 

[Autumnsky]

I would wonder what the NitrIte and Nitrate level is.

That is a lot of fish to add in a month. I guess too it depends on the amount of ammonia you were dosing before you started putting in fish. It always seems to me adding the fish a bit slowly as I think it makes a difference having live fish in the tank for the BB to grow to the amount of fish and food.

Could you be over feeding a little? The pwc you mention is a bit small if it is normally done weekly my calculations are 25% which for you would be ~32.5L or 8.6G.

Since your tank seems fully stocked, a little over feeding can also cause it to tip. Without having other info, I wonder if it wasn't a spike of something in addition to a weak fish from the store. In the absence of a water test, I would do several 25% pwc over the next few days, just to make sure the water parameters are as good as can be.