Strange Growth on Platy

[ddrewns]

Hey everyone,
I noticed that one of my platys has a strange growth near her anal fin/coming out of anus/urogenital area... Could they be embryos??

She's been fine and is currently swimming all around like normal.
I have had her for almost 6 months in a very established tank. She has been completely fine before I noticed this...

Can anyone help me identify it and help me fix it if necessary? I have attached pictures. I will try to post better ones if needed...

Thank you SO much!

 

[BBradbury]

Hello d...

Unless you're familiar with fish biology, it's difficult to know if there's a problem that's life threatening. Livebearing fish, like your Platy, prefer a bit of standard aquarium salt added to their water. Salt stimulates the mucus covering the fish's body and helps them resist parasites that believe it or not live dormant in most tanks. It just takes a couple of missed water changes or a sudden change in the water chemistry or temperature to stress the fish. Stress will cause a weakness in the covering and the fish can be infected.

So, get some aquarium salt and add a teaspoon or so to every 5 gallons of your water change water. Change half the water weekly if you have a tank that's 30 gallons or less. Larger tanks can usually go a couple of weeks between those 50 percent changes. The new water should be a couple degrees warmer than what's already in the tank.

Feed your fish a little minced garlic and some frozen shrimp, bloodworms and beef heart too, very nutritious. Garlic has many healing properties and vitamins. My fish love it.

B

 

[ddrewns]

Thank you.
I do add a bit of salt in my water changes and I do feed them bloodworms.
I'm basically just asking if anyone has seen this on their fish before.

Thank you again