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Helping fish with clamped fins but no other sign of disease? | 13 comments (13 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

This is another one of those puzzlers. (none / 0) (#1)
by unclescott on Wed May 10, 2006 at 08:02:36 AM PST

With my killies, clamped fins means that I look for really tiny dots, almost a haze, for velvet. While that happens with guppies, I don't know that is the case with your males, though please look. Velvet can be a result of water conditions fluctuating.

I pulled out Burgess, Bailey and Excell's A--Z of Tropical Fish Health: Diseases and health Problems because this is a puzzler. Because those fish have been doing it a long time, that rather eliminates the likelihood of dirty water, though you might check to see if that chlorine set back the beneficial bacteria which power the nitrogen cycle and if there is shock because of that.

I was struck by their suggestion that stress and aggression can also lead to clamping among fish lower down on the pecking order. That one male sounds like a pistol!

You might try and pull that male. Just watch those other guppies to see if they change .Or (this is easy for me to say) remove those other males.

All the best!
unc

Re: This is another one of those puzzlers. (none / 0) (#3)
by aurorahorse on Wed May 10, 2006 at 04:14:06 PM PST

Yep, he has those silvery spots on him...has for months actually. I thought it was velvet after he had had it for a month, but no one else has gotten it nor has he died...just clamps. I'll go check what I need to do for him at least.

I've seriously considered getting rid of that one male because I don't want ONE male to dominate the population, but not sure what I can do with him...except give him back to the pet store.:)

Dawn

[ Parent ]

Re: This is another one of those puzzlers. (none / 0) (#4)
by aurorahorse on Wed May 10, 2006 at 05:19:19 PM PST

Interesting....now I remember why I think he doesn't have it....because it says it spreads quickly, but he is the only one with those spots and he's had them for MONTHS. I guess I'll remove him in case and try treating, but seems odd he is only one with it. I have treated the tank for parasites during that time, too (remember the blocked birth canal guppy?). Hmmm Oh well. I think the old one died last night....guess I'm going fishing tonight.

Dawn

[ Parent ]

Re: This is another one of those puzzlers. (none / 0) (#5)
by miskairal on Thu May 11, 2006 at 01:56:56 AM PST

Well that really doesn't sound like velvet then but seeing as stress is a big part of their lives with that bully male maybe they are the only ones to show it. I would put them in a quarantine tank if you can and see how they go for starters because just the fact they aren't stressed might be enough to allow them to recover from whatever they have.

Please keep us informed as this is very interesting.

Cheerio
miskairal
--
Repeat after me,
I will read the Immediate Help
[ Parent ]

An aside on the salt and platies. (none / 0) (#2)
by unclescott on Wed May 10, 2006 at 10:55:35 AM PST

Our hobby platies are a long way from the wild Xiphoporus maculatus. They are probably more flexible in their toleration of various kinds of water they live in. (And they are also a widespread exotic around the world.)

The pH of one of the major river systems they are found in, when measured down stream by those collecting cichlids in the Rio Papaloapan, was 7.5 to 8.0. Most of those Mexican waters are alkaline. However the platies especially are found more in tributaries and backwaters. Some of those even have a peaty bottom under all sorts of water plants. These are not saline waters.

Platies are often found further up stream. While these are whitewaters as we describe South American fishes, with a fair mineral content, these are still not as mineral rich as some of those water supplies in the US which aquarists have to put up with. [Yes I know that Mexico and Belize are in North America. :) ]

Aquarists trying to keep wild platies from Belize have had trouble with all male batches of fry according to Wischnath in his Atlas of Livebearers of the World. That is getting close to the Mosquito Coast and I wonder if part of the problem is that those waters may be lower in mineral content and most western aquarists don't have that kind of water.

The commercial platies (or platyfish in some scientific articles - in reference to any early genus they were placed in) have been crossed with various swordtail and platy populations and maybe even with variatus, so we very tentatively can even speak of a species with those commercial strains. None of them are marine or brackish though.

As secondary freshwater fish, I don't think you hurt them at all with that much salt. But, despite the paucity of mineral content readings for those rivers, when I went searching, I also don't think that sodium chloride is at all needed by the platies. If you wish to put a bit in, there's probably no harm, just as there is probably no harm in putting a little salt in with guppies, unless your water is really low in minerals. You may limit some of the types of plants you could raise with them, but there are still several plants (hornwort, Java moss, Java fern) which will tolerate that salt.. :)

All the best!
uncle scott

[ Parent ]

Helping fish with clamped fins but no other sign of disease? | 13 comments (13 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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