White scales / sheen on my platies. Can't seem to solve this issue.

[Wesley]

Okay so I have no idea what is going on. I treated for ich, bacterial & fungus infections. At first I thought it was nitrate burn, but water parameters checked out. Then I thought of columnaris but it has been around for about 10 weeks, only one death so far. My next guess is some internal parasites / worms but I don't know if that would cause any issues I'm seeing. The aquarium they are in I got from my mom as she didnt want to take care of the fish anymore. They didnt show any symptoms before when they were babies.

One thing I noticed is that any medicine with coloring seems to be gone within 3-4 hours (Esha Exit (blue) & Esha 2000 (yellow)). Even with the filter off. Could the substrate play any part in that? I dont know exactly what it is, though it looks like some aquasoil / PH lowering soil. I'm thinking of taking the substrate out if I cannot get this issue solved.

I tried my best to take some pictures of some fish but they cannot sit still.

I ordered some meds for internal parasites & worms. If that doesnt work I'll ask a vet for some levamisole, I'm not in the US and its a prescription drug here.

Symptoms:

- White scales above eyes / mouth
- White scales on top near the end of the tail for one platy
- 1 Thinning platy, white stringy poop. The rest are fat & happy and regulary have solid poops though they do have some white scales.

Water parameters:

- Ammonia: 0
- Nitrite: 0
- Nitrate: 10 ish

Suggestions? Ideas?

Edited September 19, 2020 by Wesley

[Cory]

Usually this is a sign of water being too soft, or pH being too low. Unfortunately both of those are missing from your post, so you'll want to check them. I fix this by having some alt in the water, might take a month or so to clear up. I go with 1 tablespoon per 3 gallons of water on something like this. 

[Wesley]

4 hours ago, Cory said:

Usually this is a sign of water being too soft, or pH being too low. Unfortunately both of those are missing from your post, so you'll want to check them. I fix this by having some alt in the water, might take a month or so to clear up. I go with 1 tablespoon per 3 gallons of water on something like this. 

Thanks for the reply.

Is salt safe with baby bristlenose?

How many grams is 1 tablespoon of salt? Google gives me anything between 12 to 20 grams per tablespoon.

I havent tested PH in a while, I will do that tomorrow.

The tap parameters as reported by our water company are:

PH - 7.68

CO2 - 9.6ppm

Cl - 13ppm (Should be save < 20ppm)

11.4 dH (Pretty hard)

Ive been battling this for a while and am thinking of nuking the tank if I cant get it fixed. Next up salt & meds for worms / parasites. If that doesnt work I will take the soil out as I dont know what brand or type it is.

Edited September 19, 2020 by Wesley

[Ben Ellison]

I believe  its 17 grams per tablespoon according  to my Google search of how many grams of salt in a tablespoon. 

[Wesley]

20 minutes ago, Ben Ellison said:

I believe  its 17 grams per tablespoon according  to my Google search of how many grams of salt in a tablespoon. 

Thanks. To me tablespoons are like "a hand full of x".

I'm not from the US so not really used to imperial units. 🙂