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Post by babygeige on Jan 26, 2009 11:29:59 GMT -5
I was feeding my 30 gallon inhabitants yesterday when I noticed that one of my female platies has a notch taken out of her tail!!! I can't imagine who did this to her. I haven't seen any aggression and none of the other fish are injured. My only real suspect is Pinky the betta, but she's been in there since October and has never attacked anything. Unless the other female platy did it for some reason... but I bought both of them at the same time when they were just teeny toddlers and haven't had any issues... it's very strange.
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Post by murdock6701 on Jan 26, 2009 12:04:14 GMT -5
sorry to hear that - doubt it was another platy - platys are toothless....
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Post by Carl on Jan 26, 2009 12:45:33 GMT -5
Sorry about your sudden aggression of your Betta. This may be her being in a breeding mood or she senses a weakness in the poor Platy John (murdock) I am missing teeth and I still bite Carl
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Post by babygeige on Jan 26, 2009 14:33:18 GMT -5
I am missing teeth and I still bite Carl Good one Carl!! I moved the platy to the 5 gallon to stay with Red the betta for a while so I can treat her. Hopefully Red will be nice!! She was ok with the CPD's and cories, so I'm optimistic.
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Post by eve on Jan 26, 2009 14:39:47 GMT -5
CPD'
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Post by kagome on Jan 26, 2009 14:56:04 GMT -5
Sometimes fish that have lived together well for a long time just get cantankerous and fight with each other for no apparent reason. I'm so glad my loaches mostly just fight for dominance by showing off their colors.
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Post by babygeige on Jan 26, 2009 23:07:24 GMT -5
CPD' Celestial Pearl Danio. Well, here is an update on my little platy. I think it's more than an aggression issue. She looks thin, her top fin is ragged, and she is breathing heavy. What could cause all this to happen in 2 days? She was fine on Saturday. I don't think she's going to last another day.
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Post by eve on Jan 26, 2009 23:36:49 GMT -5
ahhh, ok
sounds like internal parasites maybe?
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Post by murdock6701 on Jan 27, 2009 9:44:40 GMT -5
just a long shot here....what's the ammonia level in your tank and how old is the fish?
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Post by Carl on Jan 27, 2009 10:59:03 GMT -5
Both Eve and John offered up good possibilities. Often other fish that normally are "friendly" with others will go after a sick fish as well. How do the eyes appear? Besides ammonia, internal parasites, bacterial pathogen such as Aeromonas can cause this as well (usually internal gut infections). Metronidazole and/or Neomycin can be effective for these problems You can also add these medications to a 30-45 minute bath at double dose as per bath volume. MB and salt in this bath may help as well (MB is quickly absorbed and then expelled internally) Salt in the tank at a slightly elevated level may be helpful. As you already know, check your water parameters first as John suggested. Carl
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Post by babygeige on Jan 27, 2009 12:46:51 GMT -5
I was kind of thinking internal parasite too... I put some metronidazole and salt in the tank. She has been very skittish since I put her in the 5, and I'm afraid of stressing her out too much more by doing a bath right now. From the glimpse that i was able to get of her a little while ago, I think her breathing might be better, but I may just be thinking too optimistic.
Parameters are fine ammonia and nitrite = 0 nitrate = 10 pH = 7.8 phosphate = 0 KH = 5 drops, or 89.5 - might be little below ideal for a platy, but it is pretty consistent every time I check it. GH= 7 drops, or 125.3
Her eyes are clear, but they look a little odd. Not really bulging, but prominent because her body is thinning out. Hard to describe.
I bought both female platies in August of 2007. Don't know how old exactly, but they were very small... about 3/4 inch long when i bought them.
Thanks for the tips!
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Post by Carl on Jan 27, 2009 14:32:32 GMT -5
I cannot add much more than a good luck Stephanie!
I asked about the eyes as sometimes that can be an indication of Fish TB or Streptococcus, although both are less common, Streptococcus is becoming more common in studies of fish farms. Wasting away can be symptom of either.
Kanamycin can be combined with the Metro as well for more wide spectrum.
Carl
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Post by babygeige on Jan 27, 2009 15:48:50 GMT -5
Thanks again Carl! I hope it's not Streptococcus! Even though I'm sure it's nowhere close to the human version, I have bad luck and bad memories with Strep, so that would really be a Big Black Cloud!
Her symptoms do sort of remind me of the ones that you listed for Fish TB, but it seems to have come on very suddenly.
She has been moving around the tank more and more as the day is going on, which is a good sign, I think. The big problem now is that Red the betta "smells blood," so to speak and is still occasionally picking on her. When I went out this afternoon, I stopped at petsmart and picked up one of those tank dividers. I need my dad's help to cut the plastic side support pieces, because they are too tall for my tank. There is no way to cut them with scissors. So hopefully by this evening they will be separate so Platy Girl won't get picked on anymore.
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Post by Carl on Jan 27, 2009 17:11:22 GMT -5
It is interesting that you noted the similarities to fish TB as we discussed earlier.
Since both these diseases are the much less common gram positive infections, but as well both these infections are much less opportunistic than the more common aquarium diseases such as Columnaris. It would be noteworthy to make sure to sterilize all equipment. And consider a more wide spectrum treatment such as the Kanacyn/Metronidazole treatment or even Erythromycin.
Carl
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Post by babygeige on Jan 30, 2009 11:47:32 GMT -5
Update: Platy Girl is still hanging in there. She's moving around her little half of the tank and her belly isn't quite as sunken as it was a few days ago. I put the divider in the tank and Red the betta was NOT amused, lol. She kept trying to squeeze under it somehow. I was amused watching her.
I do have a couple of questions: The divider is a Penn Plax brand. It's flexible plastic with tiny little holes in it. How much flow through do you think it actually has? If I'm medicating the platy, should I still use the amount for a 5 gallon tank, or use 2.5 gallon since it's divided in half?
Right now I am only using Metro -medicine. Is it ok to put some Melafix in the tank as well to help with healing her tail, or should I just do one at a time?
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Post by Carl on Jan 30, 2009 12:02:05 GMT -5
Although the flow throught the tiny holes in the Penn Plax divider is slow, you are still going to disperse medication through it, so I would treat for the whole tank. You can safely use both meds together, however since these are both more gram positive as is nitrifying bacteria, the danger of killing off this beneficial bacteria will go up as well. So if you do combine these meds, I would keep seasoned filter media on "standby" to switch into this tank every 3-4 days (monitor ammonia as well). Glad she is doing better Carl
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Post by bikeguy33 on Jan 30, 2009 22:15:44 GMT -5
melafix would be fine to add. it is a very mild med and would probably help in combination with metro.....
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Post by babygeige on Jan 31, 2009 14:14:09 GMT -5
Thanks to both of you. I kind of had a feeling it would be ok, since I know Melafix isn't a very harsh medicine, but I thought better safe than sorry! I definitely don't want to make it any harder for Platy Girl than it already is.
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Post by babygeige on Feb 11, 2009 16:24:04 GMT -5
Platy girl is still with us, but not getting any better. She hasn't eaten in several days. She will put the food in her mouth, but keeps spitting it back out. I doubt she's getting anything from it. Not sure what to do. She spends most of her time sitting at the bottom, but she will move around every now and then. I did a water change today and added some salt to the tank.
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