Lethargic platy
- Thread starter imabot
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For reference, the below is an old picture of two of my platy females. They are obviously very preggo and are between 4 and 5 years old when the picture was taken. I measured one at 3.5 inches. Platies grow all their life until late adulthood so they get bigger and bigger.
Younger platies are just a smaller version of the below, body shape wise. If they're thin, they're riddled with parasites and as I said above, unfortunately its common. Have a good look at yours and if they look thin, I'd recommend you feed them with NLS hexshield and treat with either flubendazole or levamisole additionally. Good luck.
Younger platies are just a smaller version of the below, body shape wise. If they're thin, they're riddled with parasites and as I said above, unfortunately its common. Have a good look at yours and if they look thin, I'd recommend you feed them with NLS hexshield and treat with either flubendazole or levamisole additionally. Good luck.
I think they're like 1-1 1/2 years old but not sure. They were fairly large when I got them. They look fairly similar to your reference pic luckily.
I'd personally deworm them and treat them with hex shield. If you've had one getting like the previous one, you'll have more and you'll be pulling your hairs out. They'll just go one by one. It's no fear with platies because they also multiply but the fish are more stressed when they carry parasites. It actually can take months for the disease to properly show up. Look out for white stringy poop too. It will not be visible in each platy. As a person that's kept platies for quite a few good years, I'd consider yours on the small side, they can in fact grow to that size in 3-4 months.
This is not to say that they're damaged. I'd just consider treating them once for worms and protozoa.
This is not to say that they're damaged. I'd just consider treating them once for worms and protozoa.
Dang what do you feed them? I've had them for 8 plus months now.
Also, is it effective to treat them solely with flubendazole or levamisole? I found a levamisole livestock medication on Amazon that works for aquariums reading the reviews. Hexshield is $20 at minimum as far as I could find any for sale online.
For years I've fed my fish New Life Spectrum, including the platies. Lately I tried Northfin. I no longer have platies. I finally phased them out a couple of months ago.
Levamisole is soley a de-wormer. Flubendazole is more broad spectrum and treats pathogenic protozoa as well but you may need to dose 3 times or so. Flubendazole is also quite safe in aquariums suitable for any sort of sensitive fish. Just make sure you get FLUbendazole not FENbendazole.
Thanks. Where do you source Flubendazole from? I did some searching and the only thing I could find is a Korean website that takes a week or two to ship.
