Platy Scales

Question
Hi,
One of my platies died yesterday.  He had been hiding and hanging around at the surface quite a lot over the last week and only in the last couple of days I noticed that the scales around his head and gills started to stick out (some looked missing too).  During this time he wouldn't eat flake food but did go crazy over cooked peas.

I understand that scales sticking out may be a possible symptom of dropsy however, he did not look any bigger, in fact his body was quite skinny!

All the other fish left in the tank (3 guppies, one neon and one other platy) all seem ok at the moment and the water quality is good, but I'm concerned that they may end up with the same symptoms.  I was wondering if there was anything I should do now or if I find the same symptoms in my fish again?  What do you think it was that he died of?

Many thanks for your help,

Liz  

Answer
Hi

I do suspect a bacterial infection , cause an internal damage to the died fish , however when the fish is hiding you can not till what had happened to cause such effect ,

in all cases bacterial infection most of the time should be due to water poor quality ,

try for water treatments as a preventive action , use anti bacterial , anti septic at the moment to prevent future possible effect and fish stress .