# pintail problem continues.



## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

not affecting the guppy fry but continues to hit the platies one by one despite treating with prazipro. Fish are getting hollow stomach as if they are wormy but it seems that they are actually not taking in any food. Another forum suggests it comes form feeding blood worms which I have done . Any ideas about what to do? They have had 3 treatments of prazi over the last 3 weeks.


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## Bettawhisperer (Oct 1, 2010)

Well I have heard pros and cons about feeding bloodworms. All I can say is I have fed them to my Bettas for three years now and never had a problem. You can add garlic juice to the tank water and also grind up the garlic very small and feed it to the fish. It's great for getting rid of parasites. I give it to my fish just to ward it off.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

My bloodworm problems were always gorge, stop eating, bloat, die. Quick.


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## Bettawhisperer (Oct 1, 2010)

Never had that problem.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

I learned to feed the frozen ones sparingly, esp. to angels. They are such pigs. There are brands of worms that claim to be parasite-free, so it seems likely there is a real issue.


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

well have done quite a bit of research on forums for other ideas of treatment for this pin tail. here is what has been done. 
3 treatments with prazi pro for parasites and flukes.
Massive water changes.
currently treating with quick cure and lifebearer.
Platy fry continue to die. Fins no longer clamping.
I check them several times a day. they seem ok one moment and then you see them suddenly thin looking and lying on the bottom. several hours later they are dead. 
The only odd thing is that it looks as if their brains have exploded from their heads. it does not seem like fungus at all. It is solid matter that when touched floats off the head like a cap.
Because these fry have basically not grown since they were born- a couple made it to about 1/4 inch out of approx. 45 fry- it is really hard to see a lot even with the magnifying glass.
I had trouble with my last frytoo only got 3 adult fish from over 50 fry. the mother of that lot was a high fin platy I bought. She died relatively young after days of passing thick white poop alternating with normal. I treated her for parasites too.
The fry I am currently working with are her grandkids and the mother is not doing all that well either. Same problem as the original fish.
I wonder if they are having a genetic issue or if they have some kinfd of parasite that is transferred from mother to fry.
it is odd that the guppies are seemingly unaffected.

It is really heartbreaking to see these little guys live for 4 months then die off like this.
They have such a variety of beautiful colors,parental history is red wags, gold, hifin greens. All these colors were represented in the fry.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

I've read of using hydrogen peroxide to treat suspected external parasites in discus and angels. Not sure how it would work in hard water, but if you are desperate for new ideas...
Also found it as a blue-green algae remedy, and that is tempting me to try it. 

The other "completely different" thing you could try is increasing the salt as if you were treating ich w/o meds.


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

it seems there are a lot of problems that fish can have that we do not yet have all the info about.
A huge field for resaearch I suspect.
Funny that I managed to raise platies and guppies for a number of years with almost 100% success and now am having problems.


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## fishloverzj (May 3, 2010)

Would this affect gouramis? I was just thinking, because they're a good food for them. My friend has hat a parrot chiclid for at least two years. It lives off a diet of bloodworms, and maybe some pleco food that the pleco has left behind. Never had a problem. She (the fish) likes to try to kiss me.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

All kinds of disease can conceivably affect all fish. But different fish seem susceptible to different things. Columnaris is also know as 'black molly disease' for a reason. There is a "dwarf gourami disease" that is supposed to be in many of Asian suppliers of those fish. When fish are closely related, they can be wiped out by a disease that leaves other fish unaffected.

There must be a platy forum somewhere, or use ALA (american livebearer association) to find other breeders to correspond with. Enough people with the same problem will at least be able to compile a list of what doesn't work.

If all else fails, you could switch to a totally different kind of fish and hope it is resistant.


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## naksampotah (Nov 30, 2010)

try adding salt(1/2 teaspoon per gallon) and do daily water changes(25%).


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