Torn Up Platy

[kdklovesfish]

**Sorry for the horrible photos. I just can't seem to understand how to do fish photos!**

The fish in question is the white/silver mickey platy. She is in my birthing tank which is 15g and has only platy fry of various ages, some ghost shrimp, and one surviving oto. (see my new oto death post if you require more info on the otos)

Yesterday, everything in the tank was fine. She was very pregnant; ready to pop at any time. Then I wake up and find her like this. Normally she has no color other than the black mickey and her base color. No red at all.

She doesn't seem too upset. She's eating, swimming around and such. She either had the fry last night and they are hiding very well, or she aborted them because she's no where as big as she was yesterday.

I can only come up with either she tore her tail on a one of the pieces of driftwood, or maybe a ghost shrimp did this.... Really I have no idea and have never had a damaged fish before.

I have a 1.5g tank that I use to use for the fry until they grew large enough to swim with the adults, but I upgraded my tanks and don't have that one set up any more. I can set it up and put her in it if need be. I could use media from other tanks to get the bb cycle going.

What can I do for her? Should she go into the tiny tank alone? Should I put her out of her misery? Does she need some kind of medication? Is it safe for the other fish to be in the same tank as her? HELP!!!

 

[aquandrew]

oh jeez it looks like she got her tail stuck in the filter :[ ive had this happen with guppies before you can do extra water changes and keep the water quality pristine and her tail should grow back just fine

 

[kdklovesfish]

In the filter? Crazy! I never had anything like this happen before. Do you think I should move her to the tiny tank for her safety or the other fishes safety?

 

[aquandrew]

you could move her to the small tank and do 50% daily water changes it should heal up in a couple weeks. melafix will also help its the only kind of meds i use because its made from tea tree oil extract and not a bunch of harmful chemicals. most times you wont even need meds but melafix will also help prevent her from getting a bacterial infection. its about 5 bucks its called API melafix

 

[kdklovesfish]

Thanks so much. I'll move her and get her the meds. Do you think I should treat the 15g tank that she is in too right now, just in case?

 

[kdklovesfish]

PS Your photo is scary

 

[Mcor]

I know when birthing my platy mamas really wedge themselves in places so the boys don't bother them too much. Sounds like she tried to hide/wedge herself by the filter and got caught (as previous poster said). Just good clean water is all you need. A little melafix is good too (but not necessary - your call). I had a platy lose an eye to a rogue yoyo loach a couple weeks ago, moved him to the qt, dosed with melafix and kept the water super clean, he healed up so nicely he went back in the big tank after less than a week.

Edit: you only need to treat her and not the tank. Treat whichever tank she's going to be in (qt if you move her or main tank if you leave her where she is).

 

[aquandrew]

+1 to that you dont need to treat the whole tank. lol thanks i work at a place called scream town in september-october its my costume haha i made it all myself with liquid latex. it takes like 3 hours to put it on every time but its worth it!

 

[kdklovesfish]

Well thanks everyone for the info. I went out to get the melafix and when I got home with it she was dead. At least I have the meds and the knowledge in case something else happens to another fish.

Aquandrew: it looks like a really awesome costume!

 

[aquandrew]

im sorry for your loss i hate losing fish thank you i actually won a tombstone trophy for having one of the best costumes and being a great actor. they have professional makeup artists but i do mine myself its so much fun and creative.

 

[kdklovesfish]

Really cool! You should do some others and market yourself.

And thanks for your condolence. I hate losing fish, but it's all a part of life... boo

 

[Mcor]

Oh dear!! The injury must have been worse than it looked. Sorry for your loss!

 

[kdklovesfish]

Yeah, she had an internal wound at the start of her tail from her body. I couldn't tell it was there until after she died, because then you could see the internal bleeding due to her nearly translucent coloring. I'm just glad she didn't suffer too long.