New member - Couple of questions (health/behaviour)

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longsh07

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Aug 4, 2015
Messages
4
Hi all,

I've just got back into the hobby after some encouragement from the missus with a small 55L tank after owning a 120L tank several years ago.
The new tank is coming along nicely. We added four male platies to help cycle the tank, they have been in the tank for roughly 5 days now and all levels have been stable so far. Been managing the ammonia with 30-50% water changes as required.
We decided to get all males platies to avoid ending up with more fish than planned and overcrowding the tank as its only little.


So, couple of questions.
I have posted these elsewhere but it's always good to get more thoughts.


1) Health
We've not been feeding the platies much to avoid spiking the ammonia but when they are pooing, its white and stringy. Its like small white blobs connected by a fine hair.

Reading up on this suggests it could be a bacterial infection. Having looked at this http://www.apifishcare.com/pdf/Tropical_Fish_First_Aid_Chart.pdf we are not seeing any other symptoms except the white poo, no loss of appetite and they are all still active most of the time.

Any suggestions? Should we leave this for a few days and see if it clears up or would it be worth getting some API Melafix to try and treat it before it gets worse?

I was recommended peas and fresh garlic which I'm going to try but any other advice is welcome.


2) Behaviour
First off the missus named the fish which will actually make explaining this easier lol
Of our 4 platies we ended up with 3 mostly red with red fins (Bruce, George, Steve) and one orange with black fins (Charlie).

Most of the time they are all well behaved but the biggest, Bruce, bullies Charlie whenever he goes near him.

We cant really work out why but Bruce and George spend 95% of their day together and when Charlie comes near them, Bruce charges at him. He doesn't chase him round the tank, just scares him away.
George will occasionally charge at Bruce but Bruce keeps coming back. George also never bothers Charlie or Steve.
Steve (who is the smallest) keeps himself to himself and Bruce leaves him alone.

It doesn't seem to bother Charlie much, he darts of or hides for a few seconds then comes back.

Could it be that Bruce thinks George is a female and is trying to keep Charlie away from George?

Could it be Charlie's markings? We could look at getting another black finned orange platy to keep Charlie company.

They have been especially bad for chasing him around today so I hand fed each one a small flake which seems to have helped clam them down. Could it be under feeding resulting in competition?


Thanks in advance.
 
That's what I had read elsewhere but the fish are showing no other symptoms. So is it worth picking up something like this?
 
Stringy white poo is the major symptom. There are medicated foods or liquids, just make sure to understand and read all the directions first before treating and treat for the entire time you are supposed to don't stop the meds early.
 
No on both of those General Cure isn't for internal paarasites, and the second is from what I know to be for external parasites.

Jetajockey here runs Peabody's Paradise maybe you can see if it can be sent to you.

Medications

There might be some help to know which flake medicated food would be recommended as well.

I hope someone in your area chimes in. You might check with Sk3lly, he's in the UK, maybe can help you PM him a link for your thread and let him help.
Aquarium Advice - Aquarium Forum Community - View Profile: Sk3lly
 
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