Platies Sick?

perceypt

mine is a 20g fresh water tank wiht 4 zebra danios, 3 large tigerbarbs, 4 plaites (2 died in the past 3 weeks) they all get along well, don;t even care abt others....my platies got a black spot on top of their mouth, and its getting bigger every day, whn i bought them they didn;t have these spots....the plaites died had these spots whn they were dead, is tht black spot some kinda of disease ? my tank is 3 months old and i got diatioms...any idea ? if its disease hw do i treat ?

Falina

i have never heard of a disease that does this to fish, however it definitely appears that the black spots are responsible for their deaths. i wouldnt use medication, especially since you dont know what it is. you could perhaps use melafix which is natural and is used to help fish heal, or maybe salt. make sure its aquarium salt and dose 1tbsp/5gal. the last salt i used was "tonic salt for freshwater aquariums" and it didnt harm my fish. well, its debateable whether or not it harmed my pictus but he was scaless whereas your fish are not so this wnt be an issue. salt can often be used as a sort of general medication when the disease is unknown as it wont harm the fish as long as the dose isnt exceeded and doesnt harm the beneficial bacteria.

sorry i didnt know what you meant here. what is diatioms?

musho3210

diatoms are brown algae, there harmless and play a diet in many algae eaters

bettababy

Without pictures, this would be impossible to diagnose. What are your water params? (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and pH) temp? How often do you do water changes? How much decoration and/or plant life is in the tank?