# Male Platy staying near gravel *gasping* for air



## MoonyTonight (Dec 9, 2011)

Hello all. This morning upon viewing my tank I found one of my male Sunburst Platys dead on the gravel. I scooped him out immediately and took care of the matter properly. He had no signs of a fungus or anything. Looks perfectly normal. My tank is 50 US Gallons, and my tank has been cycled for 2 months now. Immediately checked my water parameters and they were: 

*Ammonia:0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:20*

Everything seemed alright so I let it go thinking maybe there was something wrong with him. I have had them for 10 days now and all my fish are properly acclimated before being released into the tank. Fast forward to tonight after work and I see another male Sunburst staying near the gravel in a corner. I just did my weekly water change of 10%. My Nitrates have never been over 20 so I don't do more. 

My current stock is:
8 Sunburst Platys 2 males now and 6 females. 
10 long finned Black Skirt(Widow) Tetras
10 Zebra Danios
4 Neon Tetras. ( I know 4 isn't a lot but they were taken from a friend who couldn't care for them any longer.) 

Feeding schedule is Omega One Tropical Flakes as their staple diet 1 small pinch in the morning 1 at night. San Francisco Bay frozen bloodworms once or twice a week (using tweezers to drop them in after being thawed in tank water) with one day a week without food. They are all little piggies especially my black skirts 

I have a Marineland HOT Magnum canister filter. Rated up to 55 gallons. 
Heater is set to 76 degrees. No real plants. Everything is artificial. I will link to a video I took of him swimming. mostly to show how he looks and what his behavior is at the moment. If anyone could recommend a course of action I'll gladly listen to any and all advice. (Of course he wants to swim in the video seeing as how hes camera shy ><)

*Video*:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vICTyipG-Xs&feature=youtu.be (Wife is talking about our Hedgehogs day outside ignore that)

I tried to include everything I could think of seeing as how 90% of help me posts give almost no info at all.


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## Sena Hansler (Aug 24, 2011)

To me, looks like stress. I've had mollies do the same, not from lack of oxygen or anything, just...stress. Does he get picked on? I'd be more worried if he were listless and gasping, or with red gills.


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## MoonyTonight (Dec 9, 2011)

I haven't seen any major bullying, but it's too late for him. Found him dead on the gravel. I'll watch the others for signs in the future, but for him it was too little too late. Thanks for letting me know it was probably stress.


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

I'm sorry. How long did you have your platies and where did you get them? I have discovered that platies from Petsmart tend to be ill and die quickly.


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## Sena Hansler (Aug 24, 2011)

I agree. Platys from petsmart seem to always be sick...May be just because of ill-breeding.


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## MoonyTonight (Dec 9, 2011)

They were all from Petsmart except for my Zebras which came from Petco. I just had another who did the same thing except he stayed at the top. Again my parameters are the same. Makes me think that I didn't get the healthiest of fish when I went. 

i'll be going to Petco next time to see if things go better. The rest are looking fine for now. Also forgot to mention I use the api master test kit so I'm sure about my readings.


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## Sena Hansler (Aug 24, 2011)

Always triple check the tanks before buying: lethargic fish, dead or dying fish, diseases including parasites.


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