Re: Re: VERY fat platy

Question
QUESTION: Hello.

I have a 29 gallon freshwater tank containing 3 zebra danios, 2 leopard danios, 6 cardinal tetras, 3 neon tetras, 1 diamond tetra, 3 glowlight tetras, 1 peppered catfish, 1 plecostomus, and 2 female platies. (one juvenile, and one extremely fat).

I keep the fat platy from eating too much food by scaring it away from the food.  I am trying to give it a "diet" by making sure it gets very little food, but it is not working!  The fish looks almost like a balloon that is ready to burst now, and the scales are puffing out from its body!  What can I do?

Thanks a bunch.

Quin

ANSWER: Quin, I'm sorry you're having problems.  Listen, you need to separate that fish from the other fish IMMEDIATELY.  If it's scales are sticking out from it's stomach he more then likely has "dropsy" and when it gets to this stage it's uncurable most of the time, unfortunately.  But you HAVE to separate it, as it is sick and your other fish can potentially catch this illness.  Please do this now, and I am going to send you another e-mail to elaborate more on this.  If you can put him in a bowl that's like 2-5 gallons, that would be great (or a hospital tank), you can add epsom salts to the water at the amount of 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons of water, or 1 teaspoon per gallon of water.  This MAY help.  I will explain further in my follow-up e-mail I'll be working on.  Keep an eye out for it, it will be coming to you soon.  But you need to get that fish out ASAP.  If you are home with the fish and the tank, after you get that fish out, carefully examine your other fish to see if you can see any outward signs of illness (white spots, cottony tufts, swelling, pineconing (scales sticking out),etc. and write me back.  I also need to know if you can test your water parameters and let me know what the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels are.  Your pet store can do this if you take a sample.

You may also want to immediately do a 50% water change and vacuum your gravel real well while waiting for me to respond.  You have some type of illness running through your tank, and you need to clean up the water.  Clean the gravel real real well while taking about 50% of the water.  Replace the water with dechlorinated water at about the same temp., and add aquarium salt if you have it in the amount of 1/2 tablespoon per 10 gallons, because your tetras are sensitive to it, but at a lesser concentration you'll be ok.  I use it in my tetra tank.  Get back to me and let me know if anyone else is showing any signs of illness (check their poo too, see if anyone has stringy white poo.  It should be chunky and short and the color of the foods you feed).  Check for clamped fins and clamped dorsal fins, hanging at the top or sitting on the bottom, labored breathing, check their gills, their activity level, are they still schooling?, etc.

I'll be sending the next part as soon as possible (within the next hour to hour and a half.   ;o)

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I do not have a hospital tank unfortantly, so I have euthanized it. :(
None of my other fish are sick, so that is good. :)  I will be adding the salt now.  Thank you for repling.

If posible, I'll check the nitrate levels and stuff.  I have already done a very good gravel clean and water change three days ago, so I don't think I should do it again right now, so as not to upset the bactiria level balance.  Thanks for all your help.

Quin

Answer
Awww, I'm sorry Quinn.  It happens though.  And listen, you can do a light vacuuming every other day until things get under control.  Also, when you rinse your filter media out, rinse it in the water that you take from the tank, not spigot water.  Reason being if you rinse it in sink water, you will kill the "good bacterias".  Your tank will then have to recycle.  Rinsing it in the water you take from the tank will save those bacteria.  You never want to overclean the inside of your filter either, because this is where the good bacteria live too.

In case you are interested, here is a GREAT site to reference that can help you with almost everything you need as far as caring for a tank and fish.  It's well worth taking a look at:  http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_cleaning.html and in regard to tank maintenance and disease control: http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Disease.html   I hope you have a chance to check them out.

Take care, good luck, and I'll be here if you run in to any other questions!    ;o)