Looking to understand cause of platy stress
Hello,
I have a 20 gallon aquarium (pictured) that presently only has 2 platies and 2 other livebearers (I am unsure what these actually are, they were sold as 'banana platys' but appear much smaller than my other two platies, and are apparently also sold online as 'mini mollies'.
I had purchased 3 female platies on Friday, all 'sunset' variants. From the outset they seemed to be a little lethargic, though this may just be compared to the smaller livebearers which are very active. However during feeding they were active. I did a 30% wc as I do on Sundays.
I'm not sure when it began, but the platies have been looking increasingly lethargic day by day, usually preferring to hide in a corner (sometimes at the bottom, sometimes at the top), or sometimes between the rocks. However they still came out eagerly to feed each day, until today, whereupon they were totally indifferent to food.
Their daily staple is aqua one spiralina flakes, though on Saturday I fed them instant brine shrimp, and on Sunday blanched peas (blanched for 10 minutes and then with the shell removed). I fast them on Monday
One of the 3 platies died this morning (Wednesday morning), unfortunately I did not take a photo of it but I realise I should have. Later when I fed them today they were not interested in the food, though my other 2 livebearers were. I did leave after 3 minutes though, maybe they came back to eat a little later, but I'm not sure.
- My water parameters: ph 7.8
- gh 8-9
- kh 3
- tds around 300
- ammonia 0
- nitrites 0
- nitrates 20
- temperature 22.8c (73f), heater set to 21c (70f) but temp is usually 22.5-24 (72.5-75.2)
Tank information
- Inert (sand) substrate
- 20 gallons
- Other livestock: 40x neocaridina shrimp and a similar amount of ramshorns, taken from an older tank, all seem to be fine
- Plants: jungle val, blue stricta, rotala rotundifolia, ludwigia (unknown variant), small amazon sword, pearlweed
- Plant sources are diverse: some from an old tank of mine, some from a friend with an even older tank, some recently purchased
- 10 hour photoperiod
- aqua one internal filter and heater both rated for a tank this size