Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => Fish Health => Topic started by: fruitbat on May 24, 2015, 10:27:35 PM
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hi, just recently 3 of my four platys are staying on the floor ,hiding etc... there is no sign of white spot or worms,just they seem very distressed. one does have his fins down a fair bit of time but otherwise looks healthy.. any advice would be appreciated , thanks
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Difficult to say on that info alone. Have you tested the water? Is one of the 4 bullying the others? I had 4 platys with a dominant male and he made life a misery for two of the others. Are feeding okay?
I'd recommend checking the water for the usual (ammonia, nitrite and nitrate) and doing a larger than usual water change (50%). Keep an eye on them and see how they go.
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hi, water quality is good, no nitrites ,ammonia etc ... as for feeding a bit hit and miss especially for one of them, he just seems listless.. i use nitro zorb in my filter and wondered if i could put some general tonic in with this or would i have to take it out ,
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No idea sorry. I don't use anything like that in my tank. I'm sure someone here will know.
My remaining platies tend to lie about a bit with their fins down from time to time. Usually at night/evening. I assume they're just resting, but could be wrong. They feed well and appear generally healthy, I do find that they are quite susceptible to illness though.
Do you feed them any fresh vegies? They get constipated quite a lot and a crushed skinless pea usually gets them moving. Mine always appear a little happier after eating one.
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API's page on Nitra-zorb doesn't say anything about medication. But they do say it an ion exchange resin which is recharged by soaking in salt; nitrite and nitrate will be swapped with chloride (not chlorine) and ammonia with sodium. Depending what is in the tonic, most of it should be OK though salts would be affected by the ion exchange process.
Can I ask, where in the filter do you have the nitrazorb? Media like this should be placed last in the direction of water flow. Because it removes ammonia and nitrite (according to API) you don't want to starve the bacteria and placing it after the other media means there shouldn't be much left after the bacteria have had first go at it.
As for the platies, I'm not really much help. Try a tonic by all means but they don't usually do much. If there was some definite symptom to go by you could treat that, but it sounds as though there is nothing definite.
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hi guys.. i will try a tonic just to see if it makes a difference and if i see any signs of illness will treat as necessary. the nitro zorb is behind the filter media.. since using nitra zorb my water has been stable which is great as i had lots of problems in the past ... do you think its best to put media behind intro zorb bag ?
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No the nitrazorb should be last. That way the bacteria get first dibs on the ammonia and nitrite and the nitrazorb only removes the amount that gets past them.