Sad platy

[babygeige]

Hello! I've had my aquarium for 5 weeks. I started out with 3 platies and they were doing really well, so last week and i went and bought 3 Cherry barbs. One of them is a little male, and he seems to like chasing the other fish around. For the last few days one of the platies has pretty much been hiding in a corner next to a plant. She won't eat, but appears to be healthy. All of the other fish are behaving normally. Does anyone think that my platy is afraid of and stressed out by the male cherry? I rearranged all the decorations and plants in the aquarium (except for the plant the platy is hiding under). I don't know what to do. I'd feel bad getting rid of the cherry, but if he's causing problems, I guess I'll have to...

Thanks for any help!

[cstrohmeyer]

Cherry barbs can be one of the less aggresive barbs, but they still can be nippers. Also sometimes there are fish that should get along that don't and fish that should not get along that do. I would remove your cherry barbs and see how your platty responds. If the platty continues to act strange after this, then you can pursue other possibilities.

Carl
Aquarium Design and Maintenance since 1978
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/

[Jonergin]

Amen to fish that shouldn't get along but do! :D My sole Convict male shares his favorite skull decoration with two full grown Pictus Catfish. Its a tight squeeze but they seem to like it anyhow.

Fish are very strange sometimes.

[Bettachris]

it is possible that beginning stages of labor can be occuring. often livebearer females will like to hide and find a peaceful area of the tank to drop her fry.

As far with the cherry barb, i haven't really known them to be aggressive. I have a quad(1m,3f) in with 2 varitius platies and there is no aggression.

[babygeige]

Thanks for the suggestions!

The hiding platy came out of hiding a little bit this morning, but still hasn't eaten anything that I've noticed. If she is pregnant, usually how long does it take for them to drop the babies? She doesn't look terribly fat. My other female platy looks pretty chubby, and I thought she might be pregnant, but she's been doing fine.

I think I'll give it another day or so and see what happens. If there isn't any improvement (or babies), I guess I'll get rid of the barb like cstrohmeyer said. Would I be ok just losing the male that's doing the chasing? The other 2 pretty much mind their own business and get along fine with the 2 platies that aren't hiding. I'd feel really bad losing all 3 of them...

[Bettachris]

platies dont usually get fat like guppies do. Most livebearers will drop babies about every 28-29 days.

you can return the cherry barb, it wouldn't make a differnece with the other cherry barbs.

[babygeige]

Well, maybe I panicked for nothing, because my platy has come out of hiding and begun eating again. She still hangs out in the corner, but not nearly as much. Do fish get stomach aches or anything temporary like that? I'm still suspicious of the crabby cherry barb, but he seems less nasty.

A friend suggested that I put a little bit of table salt in the water to keep the platy from getting too stressed and getting sick. But she started acting normal before I tried it. Would that actually help anything?

[cstrohmeyer]

Most livebearers do well with salt, but do not use table salt, as most table salts have iodine and anti caking agents. Use water softenere salt or aquarium salt or even marine salt. One tablespoon per 5 gallons works well with livebearers. As to the stomach aches, I do not know (maybe their is a fish whisperer out there who would, LOL), but i have seen fish isolate themselves for many reasons, one was already addressed by BettaChris, and that was giving birth.

Carl
Aquarium Design and Maintenance since 1978
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/

[babygeige]

Well, the sad platy died a couple of days ago. I got an ammonia test kit and the ammonia level is pretty high. Maybe that was the problem. I've done 2 water changes, one on Thursday and one today (Saturday). If I do frequent water changes, will that really help? That doesn't really sound like a permanent solution. As soon as I stop doing water changes everyday, the levels will just go back up, won't they?

If I have any platies left next time I go to the pet store, I'll get some salt. It sounds like it wouldn't hurt. Thanks!

[Bettachris]

well what size tank and how many fishes are we dealing with.

did u cycle your tank?

your ammonia levels should have stablized by now if you cycled.

I do weekly water changes and my levels are good. except my hardness but thats is the way i like to run all of my tanks.

but anyway. there are stuff to add to tanks and filters to help with ammonia control.

[cstrohmeyer]

As Bettachris asked, what size is your aquarium, what are your filters (i recommend two fro redundancy). It sounds like you need better biological filtration.
AmmoCarb is a good product for chemical removal and ammonia removal (do not leave it in longer than a month as it can release ammonia back). this is a good TEMPORARY fix, but getting you bio filtration going is important.

http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Ammocarb.html

Carl
Aquarium Design and Maintenance since 1978
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/

[babygeige]

My tank is a 10 gallon with a Whisper filter that takes the cartridges and hangs on the back of the tank. I didn't do a fishless cycle. I was too impatient to get started, I guess. I think I may have changed my filter cartridge too soon, from what I've been reading in my research. I changed it a couple of weeks ago. So maybe the new bacteria hasn't built up or something.

I checked my ammonia levels this afternoon and they were a little better, and I did another change of water.

[babygeige]

Is Pond salt the same as aquarium salt? That was all they had at the little local pet shop, so I grabbed that and put some in. I dissolved it in a little bit of water and then poured it in. I didn't put a whole 2 tablespoons in just in case it's not the exact right thing. I also bought a filter insert of Ammonia REmover by AquaClear and stuck that in behind my filter cartridge. That should help my ammonia level, don't you think?