MAJOR FISH HELP! Experts please help me!?

Question

Okay so just on Saturday, I bought 3 platies. I believe 2 are male and one female. Right away, I thought oh c**p they are going to be aggressive because of the one female. The next day one of my male platy's tail was bitten to the flesh. it looked white and cottony at the end. I knew he was going to pass away because of this and today he did. I also have five female bettas in with the platys. IT WAS NOT THE FEMALES PECKING THEM so don't even think about giving me a lecture. the females are intimidated by the platys and I am keeping an eye on them and they have left them completely alone. Anyways, now today one of my smallest female bettas has white cottony stuff around her left fin, eye mouth and back! I don't want her to pass away! Do you think the platy had the same thing? What is this? Will it pass on to my other fish? How to cure it? Please don't tell me to go to "bettatalk.com", I need straight up answers, I have read that site a million times!

they also have aquarium salt in there.. I separated her.. please help me.

Answer 1

sounds like you have a fungus in there.  You're gonna need to disinfect the whole tank.  Get a good anti-fungal medication like terramycin and aureomycin.  Maybe a saltwater bath will help the female in the short run.  Definitely get the medication in the tank so your other fish don't come down with it.

Answer 2

I get leery about a lot of the chemicals out there. If possible, get someone who REALLY knows about fish to take a look at your setup and give disease-specific advice(a lot of sales people don't really know what they're talking about & give bad advice about fish, but some of them are able to give excellent advice). Then treat using the appropriate medication. You run the chance of ruining things if you are using a random shot-gun approach and over-medicating your fish.

I like best an old fashioned approach that will do no harm to most fish and works for most things. If it doesn't work or isn't appropriate, I ask an experienced aquarist to take a look and give me appropriate advice.

I add as much salt as the species will tolerate, gradually, and gradually raise the temperature to 85 or 90, watching for any signs of distressed breathing etc. If all is well, I leave it that way for a few days or until the fish are  well. This approach is good for fungus, and the raised temperature helps the fish resist the illness while speeding up the metabolism of the parasite (if ich) which somehow effects a cure. If you need to use a chemical it is wise to ask the pet shop owner what approach he uses on his own fish. If you can take a picture of the fish it will make it easier to come up with a correct diagnosis.

The downside to the strong salt approach is that it is rough on some species of live plants. If that is the case, you can always remove the live plants for the duration, treating them with a chemical that won't harm the plants even if it might have harmed the fish. You can then return them to the tank after the fish treatment is finished and you have done some water changes to remove the excess salt.

It does sound like it might be ich, and adding extra salt and raising the temperature has always worked for me. It also seems to help the fish throw off most other afflictions as well.

Answer 3

It sounds like fungus or columnaris to me. To treat them use an anti fungal medication, and treat with a salt bath of 1 tsp per gallon of water.

Answer 4

i'm not sure but its caused by thw water too hot or cold

Answer 5

its a disease that fish get i forgot how its called though.. oh i remember its fin rot if it looks like this, it is

http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pf...

Answer 6

I do believe that the platy's you gave a new home to brought ick with them. It's a pretty common illness especially when you introduce new fish to your tank. And it will spread quite quickly to the rest of your fish. And as you already found out it can cause death when untreated. You need to get medication to cure your fish. Treat the entire tank including the one you took out. Place that fish back into the original fish tank so that it can be treated as well. You treat the ones that don't appear to be ill yet because you want to stop the fish from getting ick too. An excellent medication to use is called, All-In-One. It works awesome. And if there is something wrong besides the ick that will get treated as well. The aquarium salt enhances the medications affect leading to the cure of your fish faster and safer. Good luck with your fish.

Answer 7

my money is on the ick... it is very easy to treat.. it kinda looks like lil white spots all over them.. go ask local fish store, its this blue green power that will turn ur water blue and actually dye the air tubing when it cycles.. if its ick they eating habbits will have changed, jsut follow directiosn on box, run the cycles W/O the filter carlidge in though... also pet smart has brochures for common fish illness' and the symtoms and treatment at their store maybe online too