# Sick Fish??.....and a Platy Bully!!



## Flossy (11 Aug 2015)

Hi guys!
Glad to have joined the site! Hoping you can help me with a couple of issues!

(I've attached a video for one of our lovely fish who have unusual poo! I'm not sure if this means some of them are infected with whatever??! We are very new to having a fresh water aquarium but being the gal I am, I'm constantly worrying about our fishies! (Sorry guys, I can't upload the video, it doesn't seem to give me an option!) The poo is a long string of thick white poo)

Also, when we initially bought the aquarium at the beginning of July we bought 5 zebra danios & 5 platys as they were deemed "safe" fish for new aquarium trainees. Since then, one of the platys has sadly passed away BUT we have one platy who has grown considerably bigger than the others but is severely picking on one of the others!....weirdly enough, the one that's being picked on keeps following the one thats bullying him around but he is giving him an awful time!....to the point that the poor wee thing hides in the plants at the bottom of the tank even if the bully is passing overhead....its really upsetting me! 

I read that sometimes removing the offender for a few hours and re-introducing it to the tank can help but I spent half hour tonight trying to get the bug*er out of the tank but he was too cute and I caused a whole lot of stress to the fish with my trying so gave up in the end!

Don't know what to do....any advice would be so appreciated! 1. the poo! 2. dealing with a bully 3. easiest way to get a live fish out of the tank!!!....O!....and just out of interest.....why do fish go up and down the glass really quickly & vertically??....looks like they are flirting with themselves??......or....dread to think, is it another sickness related thing??!

Thanks for any help!


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## Lindy (11 Aug 2015)

1. A photo of the poo might help whoever would like to tackle that one.
2. I don't think there is anyway to deal with a 'bully fish' other than removing it. It might help to know how big your tank is as they may be overcrowded. 
3. To catch a tricky fish - Use the largest net you can manoeuvre in your tank. Put it in slowly and try and gently herd the fish against the glass where you can scoop it up. Fast swoops will just freak the fish and send them into sonic mode! It can help if you lower the water level. 

The last point, glass zooming up and down can be a sign of stress and again, it would help to know how big your tank is/ photos etc.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk


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## PARAGUAY (11 Aug 2015)

Welcome to ukaps. Its all difficult to be definite in what you describe,first thing stop feeding your fish altogether and,test the water this is a must if you have not got a test kit try a quality LFS and get them to test a sample.A clue is you say the aquarium set up in only July has it been cycled properly?Strings of poo-wrong food? overfeeding,poor quality food,(,platies for example require vegetable based quality flake)water quality issues can lead to infections difficult to treat.Often removing a "bully "paves the way for another bully to take over and you need to platies or danios in correct ratios plenty of females to males . Providing its cycled do a water change.Also check the forums for fish health posts.Hope this helps.


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## Flossy (15 Aug 2015)

http://s989.photobucket.com/user/flossy1970/library/

Hi guys, I hope the photo above has uploaded! It shows the rather long "poo" from one of our fish. There was only one fish which had this but I've noticed a few others are now having this problem.....is it a parasite?? They all seem very well in themselves, none of them showing any signs of lethargy etc. I did stop feeding the fish and gave them only cucumber to help clear out their systems. We use the Tetra food for the fish which the LFS said was one of the best. We feed once in the morning only and give vegetables about 2 times a week. We do have a bottom feeder which I try to give an algae wafer every other day to but the other fish i.e. danios/platys & molly's seem to devour before our Catfish gets a chance. Would the algae wafer be affecting the other fish? We have a 120litre tank which has clear water, I do a weekly water change of about 10-15% at the mo as its  a fairly new tank. We live in a very hard water area of the UK. The recent water readings were ph 8, kn 270, gh 500. nitrate 25, nitrite 0 & no ammonia. Thanks for your help & comments.


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## PARAGUAY (16 Aug 2015)

Dont rely on crystal clear looking water.If your water if parameters ok its either feeding overfeeding or too rich a diet or than or could indicate parasites in the gut,a few years ago Nathan Hill discussed a similar enquiry in PFK .issue 2 February 2011, or you could go on line and locate Dr Peter Burgess (Fish health articles ) Dave Hulse technical advisor for Tetra all experts in this.If using a medication in the meantime ESha are the range I personally would look at.In any event go back to the dealer who sold you the fish,Good luck.


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## sciencefiction (16 Aug 2015)

If the poo is segmented, it could be tapeworms.  However, that's unusual for aquarium bred fish.  The black fish on the picture looks like molly, not a platy.
Platies are very peaceful with each other unless they are males, then one would bully the other to death. That's in my experience at least.


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## Flossy (17 Aug 2015)

Hi Sciencefiction, thanks for your comments. Yes, the picture was of a molly, he is the one having problem poo! I went to our lfs who thought the fish might be a little constipated which I found odd as the really long poo would say different! I fed them peas last night instead of tetramin so I'm hoping that will help! The LFS also showed us how to sex our platys and it would seem the one bullying is a male and the smaller one being bullied is also a male. We have 2 females aswell so I guess the ratio is wrong as its supposed to be 2 females to every male? I'm hoping if I get another 2 female platys it might settle things down. We have put the bully into a clear hatcher in the tank which we've heard we should do for about a week. Its very odd though, because the one being bullied now sits outside the "jail" as if he's pining for the bully?? Anyway, still doesn't solve the mystery of the very long poo!


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## sciencefiction (18 Aug 2015)

Flossy said:


> We have 2 females aswell so I guess the ratio is wrong as its supposed to be 2 females to every male?



In my experience the ratio is one male to a whole harem of females. My males have been really jealous of any other contender and I always had just the one male as the strongest killed or chased the other males to death. And this was in a big enough tank so they'll chase each other until one dies of stress related disease.
However, if you keep just males, they will be fine together as they won't compete for females and will stick together.
The best is having just females. Unless you want to expand to several tanks, don't mix males and females as they breed and the offspring are tough and survive.

As for long poo, platies can have trailing long poops without a problem. Feed less and see how that goes. However, if the poop is not solid then there could be a problem. If the fish is constipated, it won't have a trailing poop so that's not your issue. Platies and livebearers often suffer from internal parasites. Their poop then will be either clear, very white and thin, etc.. Normal poop of platies is red/brown and solid. If they eat cucumber, it will be white but solid and not wrinkled/segmented or clear, or stringy


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## Lindy (18 Aug 2015)

Flossy said:


> , because the one being bullied now sits outside the "jail"


Fish version of Nah na nah na na


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## zozo (18 Aug 2015)

Mollies are know to fight eachother, there is nothing you can do about it. best is to keep them in harems as seincefiction says.. That would be like 4 females and 1 male, then there is still a chance you have a pair of females constanly fighting.  Bump in to eachother and slap eachother with their tails. Usualy this is harmless and as long the other female doesnt show signs of distress theres nothing to worry about. Best is to keep them in a dense planted tank so the one who's getting tired has opportunety to hide away out of sight, to rest, recover and come back to start the fight again. Thats what they do, they look sweet but actualy are real hooligans. Give them a piece of delicate moss and they love to shred it agresively to pieces. That's why i gave them away for free..  They are known to eat hair algea but also nibble and feed on delicate plants. So they eat a lot, they are the pigs in the tank constanly hungry and feeding.. I've seen pooping mollies like that before  they poopalot and even  pulling eachoters poop out and eat it.. .


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## OllieNZ (18 Aug 2015)

Long poop can be caused by the binders in commercial foods. Giving them fresh veg for a few days will clear their systems but it would come back again as soon as you switch back to flake.


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## Flossy (20 Aug 2015)

I can't thank you all enough!...you have all been so helpful with your comments!.....especially with regards to the Mollys!...after sexing them, we appear to have 3 boys....GOD HELP US!.......there are 2 of them which are absolutely dissemating our live plants!....they are constantly hungry like you said and we have one who looks like the bad boy out of the gremlins lol!....who is actually nipping at our female dwarf gouramis!!!!!....not sure if it thinks they're food!....the gourami's are half scared to death and are now hiding at the back of the tank groan! ....thank you all so much.....I know how to feed the fish peas & cucumber but have heard they also like broccoli......do I just boil it for a few mins and then put the florets into the tank??.......would imagine it would make an awful mess though in the tank???!


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## Lindy (20 Aug 2015)

Either rehome the gourami or the mollys as gourami can't take much bullying


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