First one Platy, now a Molly too..

[cjldad]

I've noticed the past couple days one of my platy's has been just hiding out, tucked away and just sitting on the bottom of the tank.. I checked all tank parameters, 0 ammonia and nitrite, 20 nitrate ph 7.6 temp 84 due to ich...

I noticed a couple ich spots on another molly 3 weeks or so ago.. I slowly raised the temp fro 78 to 84 and added salt over a couple days.. Ich disappeared from molly and hasn't been seen since.. Now I have these guys upset..

Anyhow, tank was ready for a water change which I did tonight.. A couple hours later I walk past to see a molly sucked up to the strainer for my HOB filter.. I unplug the filter and he swims away and sits on the bottom on his side to then swim away hide.. Neither of them appear to be eating.. The platy seems to be gasping for lack of better words..

It's just been one thing after another today.. 75 gallon I'm setting up gets a leak in the filter.. I scratch the glass on the inside of the 75, now I have two sad fish.. Makes me not want to get this 75 up and running.. Makes me feel like I'm losing the battle...

Other info...
Tank sad fish are in..
29g..
7 pristilla
5 platy's
3 ballon molly's
3 ghost shrimp.. (which seem to die easily too)

Thanks for your insight!

 

[mfdrookie516]

dont give up hope... i went through a 24 hour period and lost 13 fish total in 3 separate tanks... to be honest with you, there have been alot of platys doing the same thing recently, ive even lost 2 or 3 from the same symptoms as you are explaining. mine would hang out on the bottom or up at the top and not do anything. my guess is just weak stock from the lfs, as my water tests all came out good and no other signs... it could possibly be swim bladder, though you should see it kind of acting drunk while trying to swim... are there any other noticible signs on it or any of the other fish? i know that when my platys have fry, they stay at the bottom, but never stick to the filter. if it is gasping, sounds exactly what i went through. just hang in there, keep monitoring for other signs, and most importantly, dont give up

 

[cjldad]

Hey there! All of the other fish seem to be happy.. I just gave them some frozen baby brine and all the others were going nuts as usual.. There are no other signs on the platy.. It has bright coloration and all fins look great.. Had been doing great up to a couple days ago.. Should I be upset about the ghost shrimp? I figure they breed the heck out of them for feeders, so they are weak anyhow.. I had one die last week and another molting the next day.. Weird...

 

[mfdrookie516]

yeah, ive never had any luck with ghost shrimp... if there is any copper in the water or if there has been copper in the tank, or if you treat for ich, might as well scratch them off the list... of course that goes for any inverts... i say watch the molly and platy, if it seems like its getting worse and suffering alot, it may be best to euthanize it (humanely of course)...

 

[cjldad]

Hmm, think my ghost shrimp are not doing well because I have a general hardness of 75ppm?? Is this a problem for the fish, how about for the MTS we were talking about?