# 3 fish ill in one tank- what to treat for?



## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

found my old male platy covered in a thin white film, and a 6 month old platy with clamped fins and a white film all over.. noticed that a small male guppy was bullying them both as well as another male platy that seems to be the alpha fish in the tank.Assumed it was illness caused by stress.
have removed both platies to a q tank. have treated for one week with antifungal meds and they are both clear at present.
treated for 7 days with prazi pro as the smaller fish is extremely thin. Fins and tail remain clamped and despite him attacking his food with enthusiasm he generally spits it out.
the old big male platy eats well but has shimmy.
Another guppy from the same tank has been added into q as it now has shimmy. 2 male guppies died in the same tank.They were only 6 months old.
This is the tank that I had an outbreak of fungus in back in November.
The only new fish added since that time is one male guppy that I quarantined. He is going strong at this point.
I am not used to losing so many fish nor having so many sick at one time.
I am frustrated and do not know what to even treat for.
Currently I am running salt and prazi pro in the q tank.

Ideas please.


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## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

Well if you have treated for fungus and parasites, there is only one thing left to treat. Bacteria.


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## Peeps (May 24, 2010)

Milky Skin

Milky skin is nothing more than excess mucus production. The best cause of this in long-established "no new fish" collections is pH plunges. When the pH plunges, fish hover at the surface and get milky skins. Their eyes can even turn whitish. Cause of pH change should be identified and corrected immediately. 
In a collection of fish with new arrivals but which have a stable pH, then your mind should turn to recent Ammonia burn, or perhaps a parasitism. In either event, salting helps alot. In fact, it can be considered curative in a lot of cases. 

In some rare cases, a salt resistant Trichodina, Costia or Fluke infestation may be the culprit. Use of a microscope can help with the diagnosis of this. Treat whichever parasite discovered accordingly. Formalin can be effective for treatment. 


Shimmies

Jerky swimming or shaky movements (Shimmies) sometimes resulting from chilling or improper diet. Mollies often show this condition. 
Raised temperature, shallow tank and addition of sea salt of 1 teaspoon per gallon will cure the problem. Give live food during treatment. 


I got this off a web page, thought it would help.


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

Thanks for looking this up.
I got rid of the milky coating with a few doses of Aquarisol. The fish with the clamped fins has also been treated with prazipro and the fins came unclamped. it is still very thin- wants to eat but is spitting the food out. the old male platy died and a sister from another tank also died very similarly so I am assuming they were just at the end of their lives.
The platy that is still struggling is only 8 months old and he is more twitchy than shimmy.
I had 2 other platies from this same original parents have the same twitching problems- maybe something neurological- but the hungry and spitting out has me flumoxed. I need to look that up- something sticks in my mind that it migght be a parasite but as I mentioned he has been treated several times with prazi.
Currently I am treating for potential bacterial infection. I think he is going to die as he is very thin and getting thinner.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Sounds like an internal symptom. If treating with prazi doesn't work, you can try metro in the food, but if its not eating, it won't help. Could be something physical like a twisted intestine. Likely nothing you can do.


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

did a water change in the Q tank and added some anti parasitic med from Jungle that contains metro.
Interestingly enough the female platy that was the mother of the bully and the one that is ill is also having bowel problems in another tank. I find it interesting that 2 tanks with related fish are having similar problems. I am wondering if perhaps the female passed on some parasite to her offspring and the parasite has recently acivated in them all. the mother has been breathing heavily for the past 2 weeks and has only had a very slight almost clear poo from what I have seen. She could have had 'normal' poo at times when I was not watching, but since most platies poo all the time and she hasn't been it seems mighty suspicious. She had been treated with Prazi along with the fry back last fall so I was surprised she has this problem. Anyway my choice was parasite or bowel obstruction in the female. I added the antiparasitic meds at 4 pm today and as of 8pm this fish is now starting to poo out 'normal' looking stuff so I don't know if the drugs work that fast or not. I decided to treat both tanks with the antiparasitc stuff as a prophylactic for the other fish and I will be giving antiparasitic food this week even though I know that most of the fish will totally ignore it.
I noted to the clerk in Big Al's today that it would probably be cheaper to just buy new fish wheb the older ones get ill. They agreed for the most part it would be cheaper but to me that is not the point.
Even if the affected fish dies off the problem may remain in the tank only to strike another fish as it weakens.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

i agree, better to try treatment and see what works and what doesn't. Unless you are willing to wait for all the fish to die and bleach the tank before getting new ones. Even then, if you are likely to get fish from the same source, its worth it, IMO, to try to find out what they have and what treats it, lest you end up in the exact same situation with your new fish.


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

so the female platy with the bowel problem died in the night. She was eating ok but her breathing never slowed down. Also I had to add another ill fish to the Q tank. It was a 2 1/2-3 year old female glow light tetra. She had a patch of scales behind her dorsal fin start to look rough and stand up, then they seemed to fall off and leave a white area.Ahe also was breathing fast. I put her in the Q tank yesterday and added some pima fix on top of the antiparasitic that was in there.
She was dead this morning too. the little male that I thought was going to die is still there but very thin. he still spits out flake food but will take a worm.
I wonder if this is a string of coincidences with older fish or if there is something 'going around". The otto in the tank from which the tetra and the male platies and guppies came from is still going strong as are the 2 cat fish and loaches.
I have been adding Aquarisol to that tank as it had the problem last fall.
Some reading I did indicates that copper causes sterility in fish which may be why my guppy did not get pregnant!!
Now i have one small fish left in the Q tank.
I wonder if I should wait til that fish dies or completely recovers- not something I forsee- or strip the tank down now and try to cycle it. The tank where I was using a sponge filter as a Q tank back up now contains the betta with a sore mouth and is undergoing it's own quarantine issue.

Any help here is appreciated.

on the positve side the new guppy fry are doing well in their own tank. it looks as if the pinker fry are stronger than the grey and so they are twice the size.


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