is my platy sick or pregnant?

[venzi]

Hi.  I can't tell if my platy is pregnant or sick or both.  I've been feeding it medicated food for the past week and today she stops eating the medicated food.  She still comes to the top of the water column to feed but she keeps spitting it back out.  I tried a few pellets and she eats that just fine though.  She seems more sedentary/hiding/shy today than usual as well. 

She's had this bulge in her stomach for at least 2 weeks I want to say.  But what I'm really trying to figure out is that white spot on the roundest part of her belly.  I don't think that's just like from ich or something similar to the other white spots on her body.

https://youtube.com/shorts/-SMbG7J6GVQ

[TheSwissAquarist]

Platys usually give birth after a month or so…could be bloat???? @Colu

[Colu]

Does she eat the none medicated food if she is spitting out the medicated food it can because she doesn't like the taste you could add to some garlic guard to the food if she spitting out medicated and none medicated food I would worry about possible wasting disease the bloating is more than likely because she is pregnant you can get bloating with internal parasites  but spitting food out and hiding she could she is sick have you notice any other symptoms such as rapid breathing hanging near the surface listlessness sunken belly spitting food in any of your other fish @venzi 

Edited December 7, 2022 by Colu
Stupid autocorrect

[Theplatymaster]

sick. I dont know with what, but i have kept many platies, and that doesn't at all look pregnant. Id say the wrong part of the body is swollen

[MattyM]

Could be stress - doesn't look like you have many hiding spots/plants (my platy tank is heavily, heavily planted), and stress opens the door for disease. Could this behavior coincide with a change in the tank? Tough to tell about the white spot, could be a scrape. Her fins aren't clamped or anything. 

I have a younger female much like that but even rounder, but acts perfectly normal. This one doesn't look pregnant to me - their belly starts to square off towards the front. But if I'm wrong, she could be pregnant and be stressed about not having a good place to give birth. 

[Schuyler]

Are her fins normal for a platy? They look kinda frayed 

[venzi]

On 12/7/2022 at 5:33 AM, Colu said:

Does she eat the none medicated food if she is spitting out the medicated food it can because she doesn't like the taste you could add to some garlic guard to the food if she spitting out medicated and none medicated food I would worry about possible wasting disease the bloating is more than likely because she is pregnant you can get bloating with internal parasites  but spitting food out and hiding she could she is sick have you notice any other symptoms such as rapid breathing hanging near the surface listlessness sunken belly spitting food in any of your other fish @venzi 

Hi @Colu.  At the start of the week, one female betta fish had fin rot starting (2 white spots on her fin) and the platy had white spots on her body.   So I started treating medicated food (made from gelatin, kanaplex + paracleanse). The platy along with the rest of the fish were eating the medicated food just fine for the entire week.  The rest of the fish still gobble the stuff up right away no problems.  She will eat the (non-medicated) pellets just fine.  I'll try again later today and see if she takes the meds.

I can't really make out sunken belly b/c the bulge is so big (which I think you're saying is likely b/c she's pregnant).  I did notice for the past week or so that she did tend to go up to the top of the water column and stay planted in a corner and blow bubbles.  She didn't do this 24/7, but would spend a good amount of time there whenever I'd observe her.

The female betta has recovered (no white spots, but just a darkening of the fin where the spots used to be).  The female platy still has a few white bumps/spots on her.  Now that I think of it.  I'm guessing the meds might not be working for her.  She might have some other disease than the betta.

On 12/7/2022 at 9:40 AM, Schuyler said:

Are her fins normal for a platy? They look kinda frayed 

I can't tell if they are slightly fraying at the very edge of the fins or if that's the natural color (like is it supposed to fade from black to translucent at the very edge?).  But I think it's been like that for quite some time.

Edited December 7, 2022 by venzi

[venzi]

I took another look and I think it's probably not a pregnancy bulge.  The bulge has gone down and I think it's only on one side.  I'm pretty sure the white spots on the female platy have gotten better over the week of meds, but not completely gone yet.  I'll see how a few more days of meds works out (if i can get her to eat the meds).

[Colu]

If the white spots have gotten better with kanaplex in food it could be Epistylis it feed's off gram gram negative bacteria on your fish skin and spreads more quickly at higher temperatures if she eating the none medicated food and not spitting it out it more than. Likely not wasting disease it could be a combination of stress and Epistylis if the bump is on one side that could an internal growth or caused by constipation have your Notice her pass anything recently @venzi

[venzi]

Hi @Colu.   So for today's feeding, she was right alongside the other fish at the top of the water column.  I think she got like one or two bites in, then started to spit out the medicated food.  I took her out and put her in a clear cup to observe her more closely.  I tried feeding her pellets again and she took to them really fast, but she stopped eating those after a few pellets (I use 0.5mm micro pellets).  So I think she's only able to eat so much then has to stop (nothing particular about whether the food is medicated or not).  But this is a drastic reduction in appetite for sure.  I do notice her doing a chewing motion all the time, but with her mouth closed.  If it were open, then it'd be a sign of gasping for air, but she typically hides next to some fake plants at the bottom of the tank.  So I don't think she's gasping for air or has a disease in her gills.  

in the cup, I noticed that she passed a small amount of poop that looks black to me.  I notice from time to time the siamese algae eater's poop is dark.  So perhaps the platy is helping herself to some algae when I don't realize it.  

I had a thought that maybe the white spot on her belly is a burn from the heater?  Not sure what heater burns look like on fish...

 

One other thing to note.  I've never seen the other two male platys try to mate with the female platy.  Perhaps it's b/c they're different species of platy or the female is quite smaller than the males.  Or the female platy has been perpetually sick all this time and the males don't have interest b/c of that?