cmo1922 Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 Hello, Just noticed one of my platies has small, whitish grey, slightly raised irregular lesions on its body, most apparent when it is swimming in bright light (cannot see them when the platy is not swimming directly in the bright light of my tank). There are minimal to no lesions on the fins themselves. Also the platy seems to have an overall more dull appearance to its scales than the others in the tank. Platy appears completely normal otherwise and no other fish (platy, apistogramma, clown plecos) appear affected. The tank was set up in Nov 2023, has an undergravel filter and is heavily planted. Water is always extremely clear. I do 30% water changes once a week. Current parameters are 75 F, ammonia and nitrites 0ppm, nitrate 10ppm, pH 7.8, gH 13, kH 5. Fish were all added in one batch from one supplier in Dec 2023. Treated an ich outbreak with Ich X in January 2024, with the last ich lesions subsiding at the end of January...could this be a reoccurrence of ich, or some like tetrahymena or epistylis? With Ich I'm used to seeing all of the fish in the tank affected, the white spots looking more solid white and circular, and the lesions being mostly on the fins. This looks a bit different. If it's tetrahymena or epistylis, is this gonna spread throughout the tank? Recommended treatment? Here is the best picture I can get as she moves too fast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xXInkedPhoenixX Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 I'd compare it to this chart that our friend here @Colu uses to ID and treat accordingly. Remember that Epistylis can be worsened when using heat so if you think it might be that but are on the fence just go with the meds only treatment. : If you search what you think it is with the word "treatment" on this forum you'll come up with lots of threads to help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmo1922 Posted March 2 Author Share Posted March 2 On 3/2/2024 at 12:08 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said: I'd compare it to this chart that our friend here @Colu uses to ID and treat accordingly. Remember that Epistylis can be worsened when using heat so if you think it might be that but are on the fence just go with the meds only treatment. : If you search what you think it is with the word "treatment" on this forum you'll come up with lots of threads to help. Thank you! Yeah I'm not a fan of raising temp to treat ich either...I just to keep it high enough (around 74) so that it doesn't take forever to treat. I'm thinking doxycycline in food and ich-x...also wondering what @Colu thinks! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 On 3/2/2024 at 5:31 PM, cmo1922 said: Thank you! Yeah I'm not a fan of raising temp to treat ich either...I just to keep it high enough (around 74) so that it doesn't take forever to treat. I'm thinking doxycycline in food and ich-x...also wondering what @Colu thinks! Looking at the pictures the Spots look raised the most effective treatment for epistylis is a combination of ick X to treat the tank and treat with maracyn2 in food feeding amount twice a day for 7 days 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmo1922 Posted March 2 Author Share Posted March 2 Thank you! Started the treatment today! Hopefully goes well 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmo1922 Posted March 3 Author Share Posted March 3 This morning another platy appears to have a whitish irregular lesion on one pectoral fin. Definitely not ich. Likely some other external protozoa, or possibly some other external parasite. Or maybe this is the start of lymphocytosis. I'm seeing a little flashing today as well. Otherwise fish are extremely active and are enjoying the medicated food. Apistogramma and pleco not affected. @Colu still thinking I treat as if this is epistylis? Does lymphocytosis ever look like this? Could this be flukes? Also, should I just go ahead and start praziquantal? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted March 3 Share Posted March 3 I would keep treating with maracyn2 and ick X that's not a parasite on the fins I don't think it's lymphocytosis it can be caused by damage to the fins causing a thicken of the tissue or a growth on the fins or cyst update after 7 days of maracyn2 and ick X will go from there @cmo1922 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmo1922 Posted March 3 Author Share Posted March 3 On 3/3/2024 at 2:24 PM, Colu said: I would keep treating with maracyn2 and ick X that's not a parasite on the fins I don't think it's lymphocytosis it can be caused by damage to the fins causing a thicken of the tissue or a growth on the fins or cyst update after 7 days of maracyn2 and ick X will go from there @cmo1922 Thanks colu! Well, the patch on the platy's fin was gone this afternoon...must have just been some goop from the medicated diet I made haha. Will let you know how treatment goes. Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmo1922 Posted March 9 Author Share Posted March 9 I have treated the whole week with twice daily doxycycline in food and once daily 25% water change with ich-x added after the water change. The lesions on the affected platy look a little better but are still noticeable. Everyone in the tank is eating well (in fact they love the food gel I made) and generally acting normal with no one else developing the lesions. Couple of things though. I occasionally notice flashing of the platies (never the apistogramma) in this tank. It seems to have gotten worse this week, which I assume could be in part from the ich-x treatments. Any thoughts on that? But even before, I have always noticed that the platies occasionally flash. Also, this is my first time keeping platies. They seem to have a pattern where in the morning for the first few hours after lights go on (which is when I feed) they are very active, swimming around the tank and picking at food. But then after that, the rest of the day, most stay near the surface with their dorsal and ventral fins held closer to their body and aren't very active. Towards end of the day they are more active again until lights go off when they go to the bottom to sleep. Just want to make sure this is normal platy behavior and I am not missing a bigger problem here. Most of the other species of fish I keep have a similar pattern in terms of activity, but they don't hang at the surface like the platies do with their fins like that. I do have some praziquantal now in case that recommended @Colu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted March 9 Share Posted March 9 (edited) Fish will often have periods inactivity as they have clamped fins hanging at the surface that can be a sign something of with there water parameters low KH or GH drop in pH your previously posted water parameters look fine it's possible it's a reaction to the medication if your not seeing much improvement after a course of maracyn2 and ick X what i would do is treat the tank with a course of kanaplex and dosing ick X once at the start of week and let it marinate while doing your course of kanaplex @cmo1922 Edited March 19 by Colu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmo1922 Posted March 9 Author Share Posted March 9 Thanks @Colu. Yeah I have pretty hard city tap water and occasionally will do some monitoring in my tanks just to see how things change between water changes. Everything is pretty stable as kH is pretty high. PH starts close to 8 out of the tap but never will drop below 7.6. It usually hovers around 7.8 in all tanks with very little variation. As for gH and kH it is somewhat seasonal but will be 12-15 gH (higher in dry season) and around 7-8 for kH. The fish will look like this when they are in their less active periods (big guy towards the top). I'll see how things go for a bit after I finish treatment today. Thank you for your help! You are a great resource for this forum. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted March 9 Share Posted March 9 On 3/9/2024 at 2:07 PM, cmo1922 said: Thanks @Colu. Yeah I have pretty hard city tap water and occasionally will do some monitoring in my tanks just to see how things change between water changes. Everything is pretty stable as kH is pretty high. PH starts close to 8 out of the tap but never will drop below 7.6. It usually hovers around 7.8 in all tanks with very little variation. As for gH and kH it is somewhat seasonal but will be 12-15 gH (higher in dry season) and around 7-8 for kH. The fish will look like this when they are in their less active periods (big guy towards the top). I'll see how things go for a bit after I finish treatment today. Thank you for your help! You are a great resource for this forum. If they still have clamped fins in couple of weeks and your water parameters are fine something else could be going monitor and give us an update if you have any issues Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmo1922 Posted March 19 Author Share Posted March 19 The platy with the lesions looks pretty much the same still, but acts completely normal. Thoughts? The platies def flashed more during the ich x treatment, and though it decreased after treatment was over, I still catch one flashing here and there. Doesn't seem to be one specific fish that I can tell. There are a couple of platies that continue to hang out at top of tank for a couple hours mid day with their dorsal and ventral fins held closer to their bodies. Their pectoral and caudal fins are held normally (not clamped). In the morning and towards the end of light cycle they are super active and eat like pigs. Parameters are same as before. So I'm wondering if this is just normal activity for them and I'm overanalyzing? I'm hesitant to do another course of abx just because I really don't see any other fish with lesions, everyone seems to be doing ok other than occasional flashing, and the fish with lesions hasn't gotten worse/didn't seem to have any change with the previous course of treatment. My praziquantal came in last week, and since there was still some flashing, I put a dose in after my water change. Recommended dose frequency @Colu? Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 On 3/19/2024 at 2:01 AM, cmo1922 said: The platy with the lesions looks pretty much the same still, but acts completely normal. Thoughts? The platies def flashed more during the ich x treatment, and though it decreased after treatment was over, I still catch one flashing here and there. Doesn't seem to be one specific fish that I can tell. There are a couple of platies that continue to hang out at top of tank for a couple hours mid day with their dorsal and ventral fins held closer to their bodies. Their pectoral and caudal fins are held normally (not clamped). In the morning and towards the end of light cycle they are super active and eat like pigs. Parameters are same as before. So I'm wondering if this is just normal activity for them and I'm overanalyzing? I'm hesitant to do another course of abx just because I really don't see any other fish with lesions, everyone seems to be doing ok other than occasional flashing, and the fish with lesions hasn't gotten worse/didn't seem to have any change with the previous course of treatment. My praziquantal came in last week, and since there was still some flashing, I put a dose in after my water change. Recommended dose frequency @Colu? Thank you! With praziquantel you want to treat every two weeks for a total of three full courses of treatment so treat week 1 week 3 week 5 with praziquantel with clamped fins and hanging at the surface i would monitor then very close the praziquantel might help with the behaviour there showing i would give an update after the first full course of praziquantel go from there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmo1922 Posted April 6 Author Share Posted April 6 Hello, treated with 2 courses of praziquantal so far. I haven't noticed much/any flashing for about 2 weeks. However, the original platy with the whitish lesions that prompted this post still has them. They seem to come and go and pop up in different places. This platy seems completely normal otherwise, and no other platies have developed this appearance. Here is what she looks like today. You can see she has dull scales (perhaps excessive mucous?) compared to the other platies and when she is in a certain light you can still see the greyish slightly raised lesions. There is a prominent one on her nose today. As for the other fish, the 2 males in particular spend most of the day after breakfast time at the top of the tank. Their fins are sort of clamped (not fully) and one of them has started going nose up. When I come up to the tank and tap on the glass he snaps out of it and starts swimming around like the other platies. And finally one of the females has been more inactive lately. Hangs out mostly at the bottom. She doesn't appear pregnant. I have 7 total platies in all. All fish eat like pigs even the ones I just mentioned. Nothing has died in this tank. My clown pleco and apistogramma cac are unaffected. I just don't know what is going on with these platies! I have one more praziquantal treatment to give next weekend. Any ideas of what else to try, if anything? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmo1922 Posted April 6 Author Share Posted April 6 Double checked parameters as well, pH 7.8 temp 76 F, ammonia/nutrients 0, nitrate looks 10-20 ppm. @Coluthoughts? Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted April 7 Share Posted April 7 What I would suggest is quarantine the fish with white spots and treat with aquarium salt 1 table spoon for 1 gallon for two weeks do the third course of praziquantel if your still having issues I would do a course of expel p if you notice the fins are less clamped than I would follow with a another course on week 2 third course on week 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now