Platy exhibiting strange behavior

Question
Several days ago our female Platy, who we have had since March, started swimming against the current from the filter. That continued for 2 days. The past 2 days she has been laying on the bottom of the tank in the gravel sometimes falling over onto her side a bit if she isn't laying against something. Sometimes she is curled into a 'C' shape. Her color around her middle is getting lighter, and she has a red spot that I think is from her 'crashing' into the rocks when she does swim. She does try to eat and swim around but seems to not be able to stay up long and floats back down. She also sometimes swims around as if she is 'hyper'. We have had our tank since March. We just did a cleaning and water change about 2 weeks ago. She has also had babies 2 times since we got her. We lost an Angel fish 2 days after getting her about a month and a half ago, and lost a guppy a week after getting him about 2 weeks ago. The guppy showed no signs of illness, but the angel fish didn't eat since we got her. We had our water tested after the angel fish died and was told it was good and just like the stores. What could be wrong with her and is there anything I can do? Her 'husband' keeps rubbing on her and appears to be trying to help her.

Answer
Hi Beth,
Sorry to hear about your platy! I hope I can help!

Sounds like a stress symptom. And it can be hard to diagnose exactly what it may be from. Testing the water is a good first step. Though it would have been best to get the actual readings for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.

I am concerned about the red spot. It could be from crashing into the rocks. But it could also be a bacterial infection. Its always difficult to diagnose illnesses like this over email but I can give you my best educated guesses.

Is there any way you could put the platy in a seperate hospital tank? I would be willing to at least attempt a mild treatment for bacterial infection by dosing the tank with Melafix. Which is a natural gentler antibacterial fish medication. And can be found at Wal-mart and most petstores.

Make sure to do water changes of at least 30% on the hospital tank if you do set one up. Clean water is one of the best things you can provide for sickly fish.

Are you certain the red spot is also not from her 'husband' ;-) Sometimes, male platies can get rough with females, nipping and biting at their sides as part of courtship behavior. Not saying this is the exact cause. Its only a possibility.

Given all her symptoms, it sounds like her little system could be slowly shutting down. The best thing I can recommend is to isolate her (if possible), do daily 30% water changes and treat with melafix... If a hospital tank is not possible, you -can- treat the main aquarium though I don't generally recommend it because subjecting the other healthy fish to medication is not always the most ideal thing. And the medication can destroy a lot of the good bacteria that have established in your tank that keep the ammonia level under control.

If you do end up treating the whole tank, try to do daily 30% water changes (redosing the tank after each water change) on it as well during treatment.

But this is all entirely up to you. There's always hope for the little platy. But I cannot guarantee she will recover.

I do wish you the best and I hope this helps!
Susan~