Platy with a fluffy eye

[Jinglebellsforthebetter]

Hi one of the platies has a fluffy eye - just come on today. Googling tells me it's a fungal infection. What strategies should I use?

I'm keeping the tank light off. It was left on overnight once but otherwise isn't on more than a couple of hours a day.

I don't have a quarantine tank (I know, I'm getting one tomorrow )
I've just run the usual quantity of water for a change and added Tapesafe. Do I need to wait 24 hours? Advice on the internet is contradictory.

Pets at Home have been shit with queries so far. The woman who sold me the tank was really knowledgeable but since then other staff have been largely clueless.

Do I need to change the (carbon?) filter?

TIA

How long has the carbon been in the filter? Have you got recent water test results? How big is the tank and how many fish do you have? Is the fluffy stuff the only symptom?

Since I bought it about 8 weeks ago. I've washed it in tapsafe water. They said nothing about replacing it.

It's a 28l tank. 1/4 tank water change weekly.

2 danios
2 platies
2 white cloud minnows
2 zebra snails which have reproduced

Nothing else wrong AFAIK.

Oh dear, Pets at Home strikes again :(

Carbon needs replacing every 6 weeks. Rinsing it does nothing because the filtration action is chemical rather than it mechanically filtering out bits of crap. So you need to put new stuff in, or ditch it altogether. Carbon isn't necessary in a properly stocked and maintained tank, but....

Your tank is too small. Sorry :( 45 litres is the bare minimum I would recommend for any fish, but even that would be too small for the fish you have. You also have shoaling fish that are not in large enough groups. They should all be in groups of 6+ to ensure they are not stressed and that they can behaved naturally. If you wanted to keep all your species of fish in proper shoal sizes then you'd be looking at 130 litres.

How large of a tank do you have space for? You could keep just a shoal of minnows in a 60 litre tank which would be 2 ft long.

How soon did you introduce fish after setting up the tank? It takes about 6 weeks for a tank to be prepared safely for fish but I'm guessing Pets at Home didn't tell you about this.

For now, I would get a water testing kit, do larger water changes (50% is fine and you may need to do it more than once a week) and use a fungal treatment. It's fine to treat the whole tank with something like Pimafix, it's fairly gentle. I'd plan to get a bigger tank or rehome the fish as soon as possible because they won't be happy in pairs in a small tank.

If you've got zebra nerite snails then the eggs won't hatch in fresh water. If there are baby snails in the tank then they're some other species, probably physa or ramshorn. They won't do any harm.

Are there any proper aquatic shops near you?

Thanks.

PAH are shit, aren't they? Poor fish

I was specifically told I could stock this tank with this quantity and breeds of fish. I am in a major city so will keep researching decent places. The local forum is full of arguments about the quality of local suppliers.

If there's a Maidenhead Aquatics near you then they're a pretty trustworthy chain. PFK has a fish shop finder but they don't all have reviews.

Problem with fishkeeping is that there aren't really any hard and fast rules so it's all down to experience and opinion. I like to understock tanks because I think it's kinder to the fish, you get more natural behaviour and it looks better (also I am lazy and don't like doing extra water changes), but you might find someone else who really knows their stuff but prefers heavily stocked tanks so might suggest something more like 90 litres.

Good luck, let me know if you need any more advice about what to do next. Hope your fish are OK.

Managed to find a place 12 miles from here.

They said platies shouldn't be in a coldwater tank anyway - PAH advice wrong again!

It's a coldwater tank?! Yes, P@H definitely wrong there! Platys actually need quite warm water compared to most other tropical fish. They're not really compatible with the other fish you have.

Glad you found somewhere that knows their stuff a bit better.

New tank set up with bacteria start-up (another little thing PAH forgot to mention ). Hoping to move the platies I there tomorrow. My poor fish I just hope the damage done is reversible. I am sooo angry with the shoddy service and poor fish welfare at PAH.

Thanks for your help

New tank has a heater. It's 70l too

Will get another 70l for the danios and minnows too (meal plans baked beans for rest of us for a few months )

Have you tried freecycle? There's always loads of fish tanks on my local one.

they're in the new tank. poorly fish is swimming but pointing downwards not looking good is it?

Did you move the filter over? Have you got a water testing kit yet? Have a read of this, it'll explain the basics of water chemistry in fish tanks.

new filter, aquavital biosprint basically followed detailed instructions from guy at maidenhead acquatics. test stripped both old and new tank (old was v high nitrate so did second trip to MA to get bacteria to sort that. ammonia test ok. new tank levels are fine. will look at the link now.

Ah right, did you get some bactinettes or something? Bacteria won't sort the nitrAte level, water changes are the way to get rid of excess nitrAte. Make sure you test your tap water too because sometimes the nitrAte level can be really high.