FishMama814

I just noticed it when I got back in town from Thanksgiving. She’s still eating good. I’m pretty sure one of the babies is hers but it’s probably about a month to two months old. She does hang out at the surface quite a bit but not 24/7. Doesn’t seem to be breathing rapidly. No flashing lethargy or any other symptoms.

Tank/water info: 29g with 1tblsp/5gal aquarium salt; established 1 year; swordtails, 1 SAE, and platys pH: 7.6 ammonia and nitrite: 0 nitrate: 10 KH: 150 GH: 150 carbonate: 120 water temp: 80F i have a female platy that looks like a humpback. Her belly looks flat on the bottom but normal curvature at the top. Her back fin sort of looks likes it’s drooping. Like she can’t quite swim upright, if that makes sense. Her back fin isn’t clamped even though in the pics it might look that way. Her back fin has never really “fanned” out. She sometimes looks like she is shimmying and other times looks like she swimming normal but her back end drooping is making it look like a shimmy. Any ideas? Pics attached.

What if I don’t have a pre-cycled ready to go quarantine tank? I know, I feel irresponsible but I don’t really have a place for it to be honest. I have a 10 g tank and the same cycled water I used in resetting up the 29 gallon, but no filter media except what’s in the 29 gallon which I don’t really want to mess with right now considering it’s recent trauma. Is there another fast way to get the ten gallon tank setup to quarantine her? Or should’ve I go a different direction?

I have a Platy in my 29 gallon tank that had some minor fin rot. It WAS extremely minor. However, the tank had a bad seal and I woke up Thursday morning and the tank was only 1/4 of the way full. So I remediated and had all 15 fish in a new tank by about 7pm that night. The gravel, plants, filter media, and decor didn’t get washed or anything. I used fully cycled water to refill the new tank and added a dose of stability and stress guard. I came back today from being out of town overnight and it looks like the minor fin rot has turned into a growth. the tank was about 9 months old. And has a mix of platys and swordtails and I recently added a Siamese algae eater cause I was starting to get a hair algae problem. 6 of the platys are babies ranging from 1-6 months. The water isn’t testing with its old numbers yet but it still doing good in my opinion considering it’s recent trauma: ph: 7.0 (typical was 7.5) gh: 250 ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate: 0 alkalinity: 100ish (typical was 180ish) I have crushed coral mixed in the substrate and I keep a 1tbl:5G salt ratio in this tank. she was stressed before the accident but now is laying at the bottom or swims to the top. Seems to have a hard time moving the injured back fin and her gills are working harder. The growth doesn’t seem fuzzy in texture but almost seems gel like. Almost looks like slime attached to her back fin. Pics attached should I go with a fungal treatment? Or could this be just part of her fin healing? (I doubt it but my fingers are secretly crossed that her fin is just healing 😬🤦🏻‍♀️🤣) thanjs for your help in advance.

I can adjust the flow (it says “open” and “close” on the knob). The 29 gallon I have set in the middle between open and close and the 10 gallon with the babies I have set to close just because their babies so I don’t want the intake to be too strong. I’m attaching pictures for a better reference of setup and such.

Thank you all so much. To answer questions: Lets start with the 29 gallon: 14 total fish: 1 swordtail, 3 guppies, 10 platys however, 4 of those platys are still babies (they were good hiders and never got moved to the baby tank. I would say 3 are about 2 months old and one is about 4 months old.) KH tested by tetra easy strips (my master kit doesn’t test for KH) and usually measures somewhere between 0 and 30. I do water changes purely based on the nitrate level getting above 20/30. Typically every two weeks and they are usually about 10 gallon water changes. (I use a 5 gallon bucket to keep track.) it’s heavily planted but no active substrate. I started salting this tank (1tbl aquarium salt:5 gallons) because it went through hell with some sickness but I have kept it salted with water changes only adding the amount of salt based on water change amount. I also put in a large wondershell with every other water change. Typically once a month. The filter is a Top Fin Silenstream. It came in a 29 gallon kit. All of my tanks are Top Fin kits. I use the fluval sponge and bio media filters in it though. I like them better than the filters that are made for it. And then have the 2 cups of crushed coral in the media bag in the filter as well. The 10 gallon tank of babies probably has about 15 babies in it. KH is testing at 0 with the same strips. The same substrate as the 29 gallon and has a few Java ferns and bacopa in it but not heavily planted like the 29. Same water change schedule based on nitrates above 20/30 and about 3-5 gallons of water when changed. I do an xsmall wondershell as needed - typically every other water change. No salt or crushed coral in this one but it does have the holey rock piece. Filter is the Top Fin silenstream from the kit as well. If I forgot to answer anything, please let me know. Happy to answer. thank you so much for all the responses. That’s a good analogy for “money in the bank.” I just get nervous about the stability of the ph. And I can never get a good answer in research for what it should be. All the research I’ve done makes me think my KH and GH should be the same for the species I have in here. But that doesn’t seem right. I keep my GH pretty high in both these tanks because of the recommendation for the species. Usually around 300. thank you so much for all the help!!!

I need help. My KH is consistently and frustratingly low. I have a 29 gallon tank of platys, guppies, and swordtails and a 10 gallon tank of Platy, guppy, and swordtail babies. The 29 gallon has a media bag of 2 cups of crushed coral in the filter and a decent size chunk of Texas holey rock buried in the substrate (it’s got sharp edges so I was afraid it would scratch the fish if I didn’t cover it). The 10 gallon baby tank has a the same Texas holey rock situation but no crushed coral. I feel like I did have a decent KH reading for awhile in both tanks but the last 6ish months I can NOT get it to raise up. Any suggestions?

@Colu My response never posted for some reason but it said “perfect! Will do! Thanks!” however, I lost that fish yesterday. Today, another female guppy with the same symptoms. See attached pictures. It SEEMS to only be the female guppies. Or at least they’re the only ones showing visible symptoms and passing. I’m starting to get discouraged. I feel frustrated that I’m not doing something right. Will this tank ever get back to normal? 😔😩🥺

@Colu Meant to send this as a reply but it included the whole previous post. Sorry about that. Reattached pictures for convenience. Read quoted portion above. it doesn’t look fuzzy to me. More like a couple bleached scales.

@Colu UPDATE: I completed the treatment - 10% water change before every ichx addition + ichx everyday + kanaplex every other day + metroplex in food treatment was continued for 3 days after all spots and symptoms disappeared. on day 3 (last Friday), started to see flicking again but had just added the “last dose” of ichx and was going out of town the next day (Saturday). Decided to leave it and see how they looked when I returned today (Monday). I have seen a couple flicks but could be due to stress cause they’re all pregnant. I have one guppy that has a suspicious couple of cloudy (potentially fluffy) white-ish scales on her back. She’s also much more stationary than usual. Especially for a guppy. Swimming in the same spot, mid area of aquarium. Should I go ahead and start a round of fungal treatment? I was thinking of following your columnaris or fungal infection treatment. Which one would you recommend or would you do something else completely. tank is still salted (1tblspn:5gallons) and I am doing the water change today from the last dose of ichx. it looks like it could potentially be fuzzy. It’s just the two little scales but I know it’s definitely not normally that color and hasn’t looked that way in the past. There was the previous potential case of dropsy in this tank which is what started all of this. It looks similar to this (pictures attached) on the fish that I thought had dropsy and ended up passing. It could be pine coning. She could also very likely be in labor. She is hiding a lot too.

@Colu UPDATE: I completed the treatment - 10% water change before every ichx addition + ichx everyday + kanaplex every other day + metroplex in food treatment was continued for 3 days after all spots and symptoms disappeared. on day 3 (last Friday), started to see flicking again but had just added the “last dose” of ichx and was going out of town the next day (Saturday). Decided to leave it and see how they looked when I returned today (Monday). I have seen a couple flicks but could be due to stress cause they’re all pregnant. I have one guppy that has a suspicious couple of cloudy (potentially fluffy) white-ish scales on her back. She’s also much more stationary than usual. Especially for a guppy. Swimming in the same spot, mid area of aquarium. Should I go ahead and start a round of fungal treatment? I was thinking of following your columnaris or fungal infection treatment. Which one would you recommend or would you do something else completely. tank is still salted (1tblspn:5gallons) and I am doing the water change today from the last dose of ichx.

How long should you leave the salt in the water? Or how long should you keep the salinity up to 1table per 2 gallons with water changes?

I found the cause. I swear I know every single fish that has ever been in any of my tanks. I have been known to count my fish daily. However, I went to do a water change to add ich x treatment today and a dead fish covered in a cotton ball (fungus) fell from one of the hiding decor pieces. 🤦🏻‍♀️🫣 I seriously, even now, can not account for this fish. No recollection of what it looked, don’t recall ever buying it…so strange. But there was definitely a very dead very fungus infested fish in my tank. Any change in course of treatment? (*metroplex in food, 6tbls of salt added, ich x every 24 hours until 3 days after the last spots disappear)

I really really appreciate it! I will follow these directions exactly! Will give updates with progress! I can’t thank you enough!

Perfect! I will do exactly that. Do need to anything for the dropsy? Or will the metroplex food work for that? sorry for all the questions. Thank you for your patience.