Platy deaths

[smm333]

I have lost 2 platy fish and I don't know why. One seemed like it was hiding a bit, but she still was eating so I thought maybe she just wanted to avoid the males. Then she died. ☹ About a week later another one began to act the same. I was really concerned so I watched her and searched videos explaining different diseases. She looked a little thin but always ate and pooped. I never saw worms like the wasting disease says to look for. She took a bad turn and was sinking to the bottom. I put her in a hospital tank and added some salt but the next morning she was gone. I looked closely at her and saw no signs of anything unusual. The tank has 2 remaining platies, 4 juvenile guppies and a guppy fry. I added a little salt (1tsp. in my 15 gallon tank) because I have mystery snails in there and I don't want to hurt them. I did a 50% water change before adding the salt. I'm hoping that they will all be okay. Any ideas? I can't stand the thought of losing any more.

Edited February 20, 2023 by smm333

[CJs Aquatics]

Im sorry to hear about your loss. Let me start off by saying your being proactive about this rough situation and I’m sure many myself included can empathize from experience. It is almost impossible to 100% determine even with symptoms livebearer illnesses as there could be so many causes, even experienced keepers struggle from time to time. With that being said I would start off by taking an inventory of the tank. List everything, for example: glass tank, rock substrate (inert) potted anubias, SpongeBob pineapple decor, sponge filter, fluval 3.0 light, heater etc….after you have your list I would go through it and list anything dosed or fed as well. Has anything changed recently since you’ve seen the issues? Next step would be test the water and check parameters to see if anything is off. Is it a new tank or has it been set up? From there I would make sure my equipment is functioning properly example: heater didn’t malfunction, filter is working. Is the food your feeding different, new or expired? There’s so many variables within our control but even more outside of it. If everything is checking out it’s possible that they carried the illness since you’ve had them, or were just old or something stressed them, or other, and perhaps it’s just an isolated set of incidences. Salt is a good treatment for a wide range of things , so is the med trio (that’s what I use). How are the other inhabitants, it’s important to monitor. I use a system of checks and balances or rather process of elimination to make sure I didn’t do something first then I move on to the next step which is meds. I’m sorry this is long your situation just really hits home for me, I hope something in here might help. As far as specific meds if you’ve chosen salt, the coop website has dosing instructions which may help as well as some info on meds that treat a wide range of things that could be physically effecting the inhabitants of the tank.