Platys !!!just A Couple Questions Please Help.

 A few days ago i bought 6 platys for my fairly new tank(been cycled for roughly 2 month 20 gallon with 4 danio) I picked up 2 males and 4 females a variety of colours and the moment I put them in my tank I loveD them . Any way they were all quite shy which is ofcourse natural after the stress of being moved but after a couple hours they were swimming about exploring all but one . Iv rairly seen her swimmin and shes like a ninja in the water impossible to find .I have seen her eat when she's out in the open and she can't b pregnant because she's too small. Anybody no what this could be ?                         ....also I did a water change yesterday and the gravel is filthy again ! Don't no whether to do another one tomorrow just to get some of the big pieces of poo up ?A couple of them.have had really stringy poo and a couple also have white poo I've read that this could be a bacterial,infection/disease .non are showing signs of illness othe than the one ninja Platy that I can never find . Any opinions or suggestions are much appreciated thanks

Thx for reply, and the poo is the usual size but just extra long and one was quite pale ,I red also there diets can have effect on the colour ,I noticed one eaten abit of algae on a rock and today his poo was sightly green , am I correct to think that is y ? Iv inspected if anythin was weird but it jus seems to be slightly white with two or three of them, I think il leave it a couple days n go back to my LFS on Monday and see if any of the platys in the same tank they were from have the same problem.

The ninja I think she probably is sexually mature but there's no bulging of the belly so I just assumed that but I am new to this but learning as much as my brain can take in lol also the biggest platy is the one with freakishly long poos that are slightly white ,she is quite active and er bellys qbit plump

I reckon il skip feeding tomorrow and do a water change the following day seeing as others mess all over the gravel, I don't think they'll get a chance to over feed swing as my danish are monsters at feeding times there like pirrana on a fallen bird

Thanks again for the reply

Gaynor - it wouldn't surprise me to find some shops had been feeding something odd 

Graygang - yes, platies will eat algae and it will make their poo green. Typical flakes (with red yelow and green in there) usually make the poo brown, bloodworm turns it red.

Aha, another poo watcher ha!

That doesn't sound too good. keep an eye on her and remove her as soon as possible if she does die. Eatig a sick fish is the most effective way of passing on disease. Unfortunately it is not unknown for one of a group of fish to die shortly aftre purchase.

Sorry to hear about the death.


The greenish patch is probably not what she died of. Dead fish can get fungused pretty quickly after death.