# What causes a platy to up on an croak like this ?



## Candymancan (Mar 10, 2010)

I had 3 sherbert orange platy's.. Very pretty.. yellow in the orange and orange in the tail. One of them yesturday started to hang around on the bottom of the tank gills moving fast. Then he would be around the top of the tank and then the bottom. He'd swim around a little... 

This morning i found him dead, he was fine the day prior beforei noticed he was just sitting around. Then 1 day later he seems to have died.. It cant be an air problem i have a 3 inch airstone, and powerhead, and filter pump going.. My nitrates were 10, ammonia was 0.25 for a awhile then later yesturday it was 0.00, nitrites i dunno cause i havent got a kit yet but the store a week ago said they were 0. Ph was 6.0 i cant seem to raise it, it could be my driftwood but the wood is like 6 years old so i dont see how it could still be lowering the PH..

tried a water change and put 4x amount of prime in the water and it didnt help him... I would like to know what can cause a platy to just die like that ? If it was the water wouldnt the other 5 platy's do that ? Cause i have 1 yellow one and 2 blue ones on top of the other 2 orange and him. I also have 9 neons they look fine.. So if it was the water im pretty sure the neons would feal it.. He was in the tank for about 3 weeks

Iv decided to turn the water temp up to 82f maybe it ws a internal bacteria infection or something ? I dunno but this makes me mad.. he was so pretty


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## Guest (Mar 13, 2010)

ok you MUST be doin something wrong. i dont think overdosing on your prime is a good thing. 

and who ever told you turnin the temp up to 82 will kill internal bacteria? god! if you suspect internal parasites or bacteria u NEED TO MEDICATE the fish. upin the temp wont do your fish any good. 

how long was your NH3 at .25? and did u cycle your tank before adding fish?


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

4x prime will help fish survive high ammonia or nitrite. But it can lower the oxygen in the water and possibly drop the pH, so use with care. 3 weeks isn't long enough to 'clear quarantine" or to cycle your tank, so it could be either disease or water quality (a spike can kill fish and then vanish before you test) or a combo (poor water stresses fish, stressed fish are more likely to get sick).


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## NatBarry (Feb 19, 2008)

Id say use less of the prime as emc7 said, it can lower the oxygen available in the water even if you have an airstone. It would be good to get the nitrates slightly higher and you can buy things for this from your LFS and also, id turn the temp down slightly.


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## Candymancan (Mar 10, 2010)

Ok i turned it down to 78F.. As for higher temp for bacteria i read all over the internet a higher temp can help kill off bad bacteria in the tank. Who said my tank wasnt cycled when i got the fish ? I said i had him for 3 weeks. My tank was at 0 and 0 nitrites and ammonia PH was 6.0 when i had the water tested when i got the fish. My tank was cycled.

My ammonia i think went up to 0.25 for a couple days because i had to change the filter ause it was falling apart in peices it was so water logged. Low oxygen even if that is the case for other people's tanks. How would that have been the case in this instance ? I said i put the prime in when he was lethargic and sitting on the bottom. It wasnt the prime that killed him he was dying before hand. I have a airstone, powerhead and my filter running in the tank anyway.. People say the filter alone is enough for oxygen in a tank i have 3 sources.. The bottle of prime says that i can do up to 5x the normal amount in emergency's. Since i dont know my nitrites and had some ammonia in the tank thats why i put so much in there. 

Why do i need to raise nitrates ? I thought they were bad at high levels, before i got my fish my nitrates were 120 according to test strips no counting how reliable that was. So i did water changes for 4 days and got them down to 20, the last water change i did when he was sick they went down to 10. 

As for what im doing wrong.. I dont know honestly, i havent changed a single thing in the last 3 weeks that i had him cept routine water changes every week and changing that filter 4 days ago. I do almost daily ammonia tests my bottle is half empty already cause i want to be sure there is none. There wasnt for the longest time, cept whe ni do water changes cause my city water has 1.0ppm ammonia prime doesnt seem to remove ammonia at all. So when i change my water my levels go to .25 or .50 from dilution. 


If prime drops PH then i dunno, but like i said he was sick long before i put that amount of prime in and b4 i did the water change i mentioned when i noticed he was sick. My fish dont even had red gills. I'll keep a sharp eye out on them in the comming days and see hwo the others are. So far all my neons are accounted for cept that 1 that died the day i got them, my other platy's are happy and swimming together in pairs.


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## br00tal_dude (Dec 26, 2009)

I know it's tough to lose a fish like that but sometimes they just die a few days or weeks after you buy them... we have had perefct watr conditions and lost fish for no reason many times... It is frustreating but sometimes it just happens. Just because your fish died doesn't automaticly mean you did something wrong.


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## Guest (Mar 13, 2010)

wait....u 1st changed the filter there by kickin off an minicycle and then you OD'd prime which as per people's review starves the tank of O2....so.....yea. there u go. if you ARE OD'ing prime get your self a good airpump and airstone. will help keep the fish alive and the water aeriated.


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## Candymancan (Mar 10, 2010)

zakk your not reading what i said right..

I changed the filter 4 days ago. Aprox 1 1/2 days ago the platy got sick.. I then decided to change 25% of the water and i add'd 4x the normal amount of prime. To see if it would help him. He was still alive through the day when i woke up in the morning and turned the light on he was dead. Also i mentioned like 3 times i have a powerhead "that is a thing that sucks water from my gravel filter to the top and makes bubbles." I also have a 3 inch airstone and pump, with my normal fish filter... I have 3 means of moving water... its not a oxygen starvation

Hense he was dying long before i put prime in the tank... I said multiple times i put prime in after he was sick to try to help him.. Not before


Anyway i went to the fish store today they told me sometimes fish just die like that even if my water is perfect... I also bought the last 2 kits i need the nitrite and PH.. I lined up all my kits and tested the water.

Ammonia is 0.00 ppm
Nitrite is 0.00 ppm
PH is 6.0 
Nitrate is 10 ppm
Water is 78f

Only thing i see that could be wrong is my PH is 6.0. It was 6.0 when i had it tested at the LFS a week ago also. I tested my moms tank for PH hers is 6.8 she has seashells in her tank, and i use 2 big peices of driftwood for mine. 

The tap PH from my city water is aparently 7.6 i tested that. So the PH diff between my water is 1.6 thats pretty big lol. Still tho i didnt do a water change before he got sick so i dunno.

Im guessing the platy just died naturally.


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## NatBarry (Feb 19, 2008)

Getting your nitrates up isn't vital but it would help the fish in the tank. Theyre best at about 20/25 ppm


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## Guest (Mar 14, 2010)

i give up. the fish died a natural death. may his soul rest in peace.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

what are talking about nb? nitrates need be under 40 ppm, but the only thing that benefits from them are plants and algae.


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