Lying On His Side=Death

[James From Cali]

My Sunburst Platy Male was on his side this morning and I had transfered him to a 2g bucket to make sure it wasnt contagious(spl) My other fish are fine as far as swimming and breathing and what not. Here are my water parameters:

pH: 7.6
NH3/NH4: 0.25 ppm
NO2: 0 ppm
NO3: 0 ppm
Temp: In the 70's. Need to get a Thermometer!

The only reason I came up with was stress from my Male Red Wag Platy. Could the red wag chasing him around cause him to stress so much that he ended up leaning on rocks?

He had died already and its odd that I just now have been losing fish(mysterious disappearences and deaths). My tank has been stable with conditions for a while now(A month) so I dont think its anything with the water.

I also was believing it may have something to do with the 100% water change I had done recently(a week or so ago). I had rescaped my tank and filled the tank back up(50% old water and 50% new water). But they were all fine no signs of stress or illness. Then Tuesday I had seen him hiding in the Anachris on the bottom as if trying to hide from the other platy.

This hasnt been the first time my Red Wag has done anything. He had harrassed my Betta and my Platy before. Im just worried that whatever it is may very well be contagious(spl). Any ideas on what it may have been? Sorry for the long thread.

Thanks,
James

 

[Dino]

Could you clue me in as to what fish you have in the tank?
A lot of the platies/swords will hassel other fish unless kept with at least 2 females per male.

Hope this helps,
Dino

 

[James From Cali]

I have a Male Betta, Platy, 4 Neons. The Betta doesnt do much except eat. The Male Platy (red wag) mentioned above was a b******. I would do the female thing but I have the factor of overstocking with fry or losing more fish.

 

[Seleya]

Here are my water parameters:

pH: 7.6
NH3/NH4: 0.25 ppm
NO2: 0 ppm
NO3: 0 ppm
Temp: In the 70's. Need to get a Thermometer!

He had died already and its odd that I just now have been losing fish(mysterious disappearences and deaths). My tank has been stable with conditions for a while now(A month) so I dont think its anything with the water.

I also was believing it may have something to do with the 100% water change I had done recently(a week or so ago). I had rescaped my tank and filled the tank back up(50% old water and 50% new water). But they were all fine no signs of stress or illness. Then Tuesday I had seen him hiding in the Anachris on the bottom as if trying to hide from the other platy.

I would be more suspicious about your ammonia reading. You say this tank has been stable for a month but with the changes mentioned above, the newness of this most recent set-up for you, ammonia reading and zero nitrates, I would be more concerned about ammonia and possibly new tank syndrome. If you had higher ammonia and suppression of pH due to high ammonia prior to the water change, the 100% (or 50%???) water change could have caused some major parameter fluctuations. In a cycling tank, disappearances and deaths don't carry as much mystery as in an established, stable tank.

 

[James From Cali]

The tank is established been checking no more ammonia, no more nitrites, and 5 nitrates. His death was more likely due to my other Platy. I never had a problem with this Platy before during other spikes and doubt if I would have problems now. Also I would think my tetras would have shown signs of the ammonia bothering them due to them being more sensitive. On the disappearing fish still a mystery to me.

 

[Seleya]

It may be cycled, it is not established -- there's a difference. The readings taken around the time of his death are what is salient anyways, not what they are now after the fact. Fish can be amazingly resilient creatures -- just because they showed no signs does not mean everything was fine by them. What you describe is a very stressful situation for a fish.