Platy scars?

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madi.ayala10

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Dec 30, 2024
Messages
29
Location
melbourne
My platy had been attacked by an electric blue acara. During her recovery I put her in a tank with my sweetheart of a betta while she recovered cause I didn’t have another cycled tank to put her in. The wounds have healed but now I’m noticing grey areas where the wounds were (top of her head and back) as well as slightly discolored fin tips. Her top of the back and head were bright yellow before the incident. Is it scarring? Infection? She’s acting normal and way less stressed than in the other tank and everything is going great in the betta/platy tank (Established for 7 months)
 

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My platy had been attacked by an electric blue acara. During her recovery I put her in a tank with my sweetheart of a betta while she recovered cause I didn’t have another cycled tank to put her in. The wounds have healed but now I’m noticing grey areas where the wounds were (top of her head and back) as well as slightly discolored fin tips. Her top of the back and head were bright yellow before the incident. Is it scarring? Infection? She’s acting normal and way less stressed than in the other tank and everything is going great in the betta/platy tank (Established for 7 months)
I don't see infection so that's a good thing. (y) Infections would either be white cottony fuzz at the wound site or a bloody edge around the wound. Fins take a bit of time to grow back but you can speed that up with adding vitamins to the fish's foods and making sure the tank has good clean water. Skin also takes time to heal but your fish appears to be past that part but coloration and re-growing scales can take a long time. You need to get used to the new appearance for a while. ;)
 
I don't see infection so that's a good thing. (y) Infections would either be white cottony fuzz at the wound site or a bloody edge around the wound. Fins take a bit of time to grow back but you can speed that up with adding vitamins to the fish's foods and making sure the tank has good clean water. Skin also takes time to heal but your fish appears to be past that part but coloration and re-growing scales can take a long time. You need to get used to the new appearance for a while. ;)
Thanks for the help! I’ve been dosing stresscoat for skin health will that help at all? Also, what vitamins can I use? Should I be feeding her mostly frozen foods and other high nutrient meals?
 
Thanks for the help! I’ve been dosing stresscoat for skin health will that help at all? Also, what vitamins can I use? Should I be feeding her mostly frozen foods and other high nutrient meals?
A fish's slime coat is how they protect damaged skin so the stresscoat is just making sure a slimey coating is protecting the wound(s). What I would do is just use it when doing water changes from this point on as the wounds look like they are more healed than raw.
As for which Vitamins, you are going to have to look and see what you have available where you are. I always recommended Vitachem but for transparency, it was not only because it was good but I knew it's creator ( Dick Boyd ) for years because we used to work together. Sadly, Dick has gone to that big aquarium in the sky and his company has been sold so I don't have any insight as to whether it's still the great product that it was. Check your local fish shops for what they have in stock and just compare labels for the most variety and quantity of ingredients.
All fish should be fed a high quality varied diet. Depending on the fish specie, it may need to have more vegetation than meat protein, or may need more meat protein then vegetable matter or all vegetable matter. In your case with the Platy and Betta, the Betta should get a more meat diet with some vegetable matter mixed in for digestive roughage. The Platy should have equal parts of meat protein and vegetable matter. This means I would try feeding the fish their different foods on opposite sides of the tank so that your feeding the platy on one side and the Betta on the other. As for frozen vs freezedried , flakes and pellets, I'm a big flake and frozen and live food feeder. My fish always got one of each for a feeding every day. ( I feed 3 times per day.) I know there are some good pellets out there ingredient wise ( i.e. Dr Bassleer & Northfin), I've just had too much bad luck with using pellets with fish getting bloat or constipation when I tried them. I'm sure others have had similar experience while others have had no issues. I'm just telling you what I used to create millions of fish for the fish trade. (y)

Hope this helps (y)
 
I am so sorry about your friend, Dick. He definitely has a huge, beautifully aquascaped tank up in heaven 🥹. I will look into his vitamins. As for my fish’s diet, my betta eats mostly bug bites tropical fish flakes as well as the bug bites spirulina formula and frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp. Does spirulina count as vegetables to aid in digestion? My platy LOVES veggies and she grazes on algae and my plants (it’s a bit annoying but at least she’s eating lol) all day so I’m not worried about her getting her veggies in although I do give her the spirulina bug bites formula as well as their tropical fish flakes. I have kuhli loaches and otos in that tank too. The kuhlis kinda just eat whatever falls to the bottom of the tank and the with occasional carnivore pellet. the otos have TONS of algae and other organic stuff in the tank to snack on, they are so fat 🤣. I have had similar experiences as you with the pellets, I noticed smaller fish have more trouble with them though. My big fish in the other tank go crazy for pellets. I use the chiclid pellets from bug bites for them.
 
I am so sorry about your friend, Dick. He definitely has a huge, beautifully aquascaped tank up in heaven 🥹.
He had a 3,000 gallon saltwater tank in is house. He's used to big tanks. ;)
I will look into his vitamins. As for my fish’s diet, my betta eats mostly bug bites tropical fish flakes as well as the bug bites spirulina formula and frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp. Does spirulina count as vegetables to aid in digestion?
Yes, algae is vegetation.
My platy LOVES veggies and she grazes on algae and my plants (it’s a bit annoying but at least she’s eating lol) all day so I’m not worried about her getting her veggies in although I do give her the spirulina bug bites formula as well as their tropical fish flakes. I have kuhli loaches and otos in that tank too. The kuhlis kinda just eat whatever falls to the bottom of the tank and the with occasional carnivore pellet. the otos have TONS of algae and other organic stuff in the tank to snack on, they are so fat 🤣. I have had similar experiences as you with the pellets, I noticed smaller fish have more trouble with them though. My big fish in the other tank go crazy for pellets. I use the chiclid pellets from bug bites for them.
I don't know if it's available where you are but there is a gut loaded frozen brine shrimp ( gut loaded with spirulina algae) that could help eliminate ( by combining them) one or two of your foods. (y)
 
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