Troy328

0ppm Ammonia 0ppm Nitrite 20ppm Nitrate I have already been through ich and parasites with these platies and now I'm worried I have something else going on. There is a younger platy in my 55 gallon tank that has had a small pale area near it's tail, past the dorsal fin, for several months. Early on, as colors were still developing I had assumed it was simply a difference in coloration. However, as the platies have grown to near full size, I am getting a better picture of what is going on. My fear is columnaris, or something fungal. Some of the scales are paler, some almost white, despite most of the scales being black. Her and her siblings do have a couple of iridescent scales, which is what I thought I was seeing when she was smaller, but looking more closely, the scales look unhealthy. It also appears that maybe a couple of the scales are sticking up at the top of her back? This is a more recent development, I noticed it just this week. The area hasn't spread on her body or to any of the other fish for months, which is maybe a hopeful sign. But I would like some opinions on what could be causing this. I tried to get some pictures: Here you can see the paleness, especially right behind the end of the dorsal fin. From the ither side, you can see everything past the anal fin is discolored, except for one small black patch in the middle, which is near where the scales are sticking up. It almost looks like bald patches, but I think the scales are still on there. excuse the algae on the glass in this one, this was taken from one of the glass panels I don't bother scrubbing the algae off of, but I included it because you can sort of see the scales sticking up in this one. Any ideas?

Hello all! Quick question about platies today. I'm curious when they are finished growing? I have 3 young platies from my first batch of babies, and another 3 that came about a month later. These platies are about 6 months and 5 months old respectively. I feel like they have not been growing as much lately and I'm worried their growth might have been stunted, because they are only about half the size of all of their potential parents. I've attached one picture as an example, sorry it's a bit blurry and also they're both pooping lol. I fed them Hikari First Bites, Hikari Fancy Guppy, and Fluval Bug Bites while they were all young. I also still feed my tanks with Fancy Guppy and Bug Bites, but also mix in NLS pellets and occasional freeze dried bloodworms and tubifex. I know love baby brine would have been ideal, but did I mess up with my feeding options? Will they catch up in size?

Thank you for your thoughtful response, and for taking the time to reply. I do not want to come across as sounding argumentative whatsoever, but where does the 4 weeks of treatment recommendation come from? While I found the schedule to be very helpful, I mostly followed the instructions on the package. Expel-P seems to suggest 2 treatments, not 4. Aquarium Co-Op seems to also suggest 2 treatments and then continued weekly treatments until the worms ate killed or fish are regaining weight. I saw significant improvement in my fish, and so I stopped treatment after 2 doses. To your point about fecal parasite screens and the potential of drug resistat parasites, it is true that I technically do not know that all of the parasites are gone. But I never visually saw any parasites in the first place, nor did I see them at any point during treament. I did take extra care to siphon my tank thoroughly, but I never saw any. In other words, without visually confirming the deaths of the parasites, I would technically *never* know if I was successful, regardless of whether I did 2, 3, 4, or more doses. What I *was* able to see, though, was one symptomatic fish (spitting food, low energy, not yet wasting) completely regain it's appetite and energy, along with none of the other fish developing symptoms. That said, what would you recommend from this point onwards? I am a month removed from the last time I dosed medication. Should I pick back up where I left off? Should I start treatment all over again? Should I simply observe for now? Furthermore, how long would you say I need to wait without seeing any symptoms of parasites to know I'm fully in the clear? Thank you again for your words and patience with me. I understand I am probably coming across as stubborn, but I am legitimately trying to do what's best for my fish. I thought I had done so successfully, but if it turns out I judged incorrectly amd have more work to do, I will accept that. Maybe I just got lucky, in which case I will be more careful in the future.

Hello everyone, it has been a while, but i have a positive update!! The struggles seem to be finally over (fingers crossed). I can confirm that praziquantel + levamisole worked for my tank!! I ended up with 4 casualties total, but only 1 after I started treatment, and that was early on. Everyone seems to be healthy now. I just wanted to share what worked for me in the event someone comes across similar issues in the future. I mostly followed @Colu's instructions, but with a little bit less medicine and a slightly different schedule. I decided to start with paracleanse initially, because that was what I had on hand. After that ran it's course, I did a water change and did my first dose of expel-p. I turned out my tank lights for the day as well, and then did a big water change the next day, about 50%. I wasn't able to give the next dose of medicine until a week later. I switched from paracleanse to prazipro, which is what two separate local fish stores recommended to me. So I then dosed prazipro a week after the levamisole treatment. I let it sit for about six days (instructions said 5-7), and then did a 30% water change, followed by another expel-p dose the following day. This time, I not only turned the tank lights off, but partially covered the tank as well to sort of black things out and help the medicine work, as my tank also gets a decent amount of natural sunlight and apparently light is detrimental to expel-p's effectiveness. 24 hours later, I did another big water change, a little more than 50%. After that dose, I ended up with some cloudy water, which I think was moreso due to the blacking out of the tank, and had much less to do with expel-p or any side effects. regardless, I stayed the course and it has since cleared up naturally. I did one more dose of prazipro for good measure, which was about a week after that second expel-p treatment, and once again did another 25%-30% water change 5-7 days later. Everyone seemed to be doing really well from the second dose of expel-p onwards, despite the cloudy water, so I have not given any more medicine. I have been closely watching the fish and everyone seems to be doing well, no wasting, high energy, and fish are readily eating without spitting anything back up. I also wanted to add that I had three small fry in the tank that I discovered shortly after the first dose of paracleanse, and they handled the medication perfectly well and are still doing well and growing! I know the original instructions had called for more doses of both medicines, and it also had the medicines working simultaneously as opposed to alternating, but this seems to have worked for me and my fish. I will be keeping both on hand going forward, just in case if the problem does crop back up again or isn't truly resolved, in which case I will attack it more aggressively. I also think I will definitely use both in quarantines going forward, too! Thank you so much for all of the help!!

Today's update: Symptomatic fish passed away overnight. I finally tracked down a fish store that has Expel-P. Picking it up now. No fish show signs that I have seen yet.

Perfect, thank you! I did the Paracleanse water change this morning, so I will try to start Expel-P pretty much as soon as I get it. I have been doing research and seen the drug fenbendazole mentioned for treatment as well. Is that also something to consider if Paracleanse + Expel-P does not work? Thank you again for all of your help thus far 👍

Alright, good stuff, thank you. I tried the closer of my 2 local fish stores, but they didn't have it. I'll call to see if the other one has it, otherwise I'll just order it online. How long should I let the fish rest between treatments? Or should I just start Expel-P right away?

New update today: Female platy that was displaying symptoms is doing simultaneously better and worse. She is showing more signs of activity and fins are less clamped, but she has more rapid gill movement even when hovering in place. I fed the tank after doing the recommended water change after paracleanse treatment, and noticed she seems very interested in food, but is not swallowing any of it. She keeps trying over and over to eat, but spits it out instantly every time. Every day, this fish (and really the whole tank) gives me a new surprise. Is this another indication of parasites? Not sure why the breathing now appears labored?

This is the newest patient as of today. Hangs near the top, no gasping. Gills appear red in the picture, but the yellowish platies have always had visibly red gills, especially in certain lighting. Moves less than the other fish, all who are behaving completely normally. Sometimes keeps fins clamped, just like yesterday. Tests are coming back 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, ~10ppm nitrates. Here is a picture of the same platy when they were in quarantine: Really not much ot a difference? Still not sure what to make of this. At a loss.

Completed second dose of ParaCleanse today, per instructions on the box (dose, 48 hours, dose, 48 hours, water change). Everyone seems to be mostly the same, except now a new platy has a clamped dorsal fin. I could just be paranoid, and maybe it's just stress from pressure from the males, but I'm on high alert now. If I do not see any improvement in her, I will try Expel-P next, will probably try to save a bunch of snails before I do, I don't want the potential of a mass die off to spike my ammonia, even if it's not guaranteed to happen. @Colu seemed to suggest running both more or less at the same time, and doing multiple courses of each medicine. So if I complete this course of ParaCleanse, and then do a course of Levamisole, should I repeat the process, or is it more likely to be something else at that point?

The fish ended up passing. I have decided to do a round of paracleanse, despite some of my concerns. Doing the first dose today. Will post updates if anything happens. Attached are some pictures that show the difference in the condition in the fish from when I first got him, when I first added him to the tank, and then shortly before his passing (which was quite blurry, but if you look at the belly across the pictures I think it's very noticeable)

Well, now I'm torn. I was considering doing a course or two of paracleanse on my 55 gallon to see if that does anything, but if it kills snails (I have a colony of bladder snails that were originally an accident that I've grown fond of) AND it has a chance to knock down my beneficial bacteria (says so on the box), AND it might not even actually be parasites causing the problem, AND it would be expensive to treat the whole tank, it makes me a bit hesitant. But I suppose it would be better to do something rather than nothing? I don't even know. Maybe it would be best to get some diagnostic tests done on the little guy if he ends up passing. Once again, I'm curious, does anyone have experience with getting lab tests/autopsies done on a fish? Would they at least be able to rule out mycoplasmosis?

This is great stuff, thank you so much! But I have a few questions: I only have ParaCleanse on hand (Praziquantel) and do not have access to Levamisole today, unless Petco surprises me (LFS closed today.) Will that be enough? Should I just go with that? Also, should I be treating the whole tank for suspected parasites? Or just any symptomatic fish? I am nervous about my plants, snails, and beneficial bacteria, I don't want to crash the tank by overmedicating, but don't want to take all of the fish out to be quarantined, either. But obviously don't want to lose any more fish, either! Just a bit unsure how to proceed.

I have an unfortunate update to add to this saga. I now suspect a parasitic infection or fish TB. Recap of timeline: Jan 14th - New platies, began quarantine Jan 19th-24th - Treated for ich Feb 9th-11th - Second bout of ich, but could have just been stress ich. Feb 24th - Posted thus topic, platy having trouble swimming. Feb 25th - Platy passes away Updates to timeline: After waiting to see if any new signs or symptoms developed in the otherwise healthy fish, I decided to add them to the display tank with cherry barbs on March 5th, having not seen anything concerning. The transfer process went almost painlessly, although I had one of my male platies jump out of the bucket I was drip acclimating them in. The bucket was on a table, so he jumped off the table and onto the carpeted floor, a big fall for a tiny fish, maybe 4 feet. I picked him up and added him back in to the bucket and he seemed to be completely fine. I decided to pay extra close attention to him and did not notice anything unusual. On March 25th, I noticed the same male platy was swimming slightly slower than the other fish. Small but noticeable difference in activity. I noted that he looked a little bit skinnier than the other fish, and decided once again to keep watching him closely. I fed the tank that day and was relieved to see he was still very interested in food. On March 26th, I noticed another small drop in activity. Occasionally hanging at the surface, not swimming very much, splitting off from the rest of the fish more often. Fins were a bit clamped. At other times, looked On March 27th, I noticed him sitting at the bottom of the tank. He would occasionally swim up to the top of the tank, or swim in the mid-level for a brief period of time, but would always return to rest at the bottom, but he remained completely motionless. Which brings us to today, March 28th. (coincidentally, my birthday.) Woke up to seeing him on his side at the bottom, occasionally attempting to swim up, but only seems capable of swimming in circles. Body seems to be stuck slightly curved. Seems noticeably skinnier now, especially when compared to pictures of him when I originally got him. Video here: https://imgur.com/a/I4KDUex Not sure what to do at this point. It could be related to when he jumped out, if there was an injury. Skinniness and listlessness seems to point towards parasite to me, but difficulty swimming and curved posture points towards TB. Slow progression of disease, if this is indeed related to the first death, points towards both. I have some of the platy fry in their former quarantine tank, so I will likely be getting myself a new 5/10 gallon tank today as a new quarantine. I don't think he has much longer, but I might need it for some of the other fish, though. Also, I am thinking about getting him sent in to a lab for tests if he passes to determine the cause. If fish TB is probable, I'd like to know sooner rather than later. But if it's not TB, that means it's likely treatable or preventable. Anyone ever have experience with sending fish in before? What would I need to do? Any thoughts/suggestions welcome. Tagging the always-helpful and super responsive @Colu, thank you all in advance!

Update: 5 days later and everyone still seems to be doing ok. I had to do daily 25-50% water changes to get back down to a little under 20 ppm. I have noticed just a little bit of breathing at the surface, but it seems to be occasional, and only for 3-5 seconds at a time. Color and activity levels are good. Seems like maybe I'm in the clear? How much longer should I continue to observe them?