# My Platy stays at the top of the tank!



## Will96

Can anyone help?! I have 2 platys and one of them always stays at the top of the tank! The other platy seems to every now and again go up to the platy and nuge it. I don't know whether its a he or a she, if its a she, could she be pregnant? Every now and again it will swim elsewhere, but mostly stays at the top. I also have 2 danios, and they are acting normal, as well as the other platy.

This is a new habit, only been happening for a few days. The tank is still uncycled, but doing regular water changes. Had the 14L tank over a month now, will be moving them to a larger 35L in a few weeks after xmas, and once the new tank has finished doing a fishless cycle.

Thanks in advance!


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## kittih

Hi and welcome. You say the filter still hasn't cycled and you are doing a fish in cycle. This is very hard on the fish as ammonia and nitrite is needed to feed and grow the bacteria but ammonia and nitrite even in very very small amounts is highly toxic to fish and will interfere with respiration. Staying near the surface generally is where there is more oxygen. Fish who do this are having problems getting sufficient oxygen and the usual culprit is ammonia and nitrite toxicity. Smaller fish like the danios can manage with lower oxygen concentrations as they are smaller fish. Also fish differ in their ability to efficiently get oxygen so fish of the same species may vary in the concentrations they need.

What do your test results show for ammonia and nitrite ?

Unfortunately exposure to these toxins long term even if they don't kill the fish will weaken them. This is why fishless cycling is the best method to grow filter bacteria.

My advice would be to buy some seachem prime or api ammolock. And treat the water as per instructions to remove all ammonia and nitrite. Do daily 50 % water changes to remove the toxins.

Move your partly cycled filter to a container eg a bucket with some of the old tank water and carry out a fishless cycle of the filter in the bucket using pure ammonia. If the cycle is partially cycled the remaining cycling will happen very quickly. Once the filter is cycled you can reintroduce it back into the tank. Meanwhile the fish will be safe from ammonia and nitrite poisoning.

Read up on fishless cycling and the nitrogen cycle.


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## NaomiM

Hi,

I agree with kittih re the cycling/ammonia toxicity. Also, 14L is far to small for those fish, and even the new 35L will be less than ideal, as danios (although small) are very active fish that need plenty of swimming space (and to be in groups of 6+), while platys will also be unhappy in such a confined space and may show this by bullying each other or smaller fish. It may be that the other platy is picking on the affected one and stressing it out. This is even more likely if the yellow/orange one is female and the yellow/black one is male (can't tell from your pics) as males are prone to harassing females - this can be managed by keeping a ratio of at least 2-3 females to each male (though again, you'll need a bigger tank for this).

Any chance you can look into upgrading to a 60-70L+ instead of the 35L?


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## Kirsty1982

Can anyone help me please, does my platy fish look pregnant? Its been big for a few weeks now! Thanks


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## NaomiM

She does look big yes. Is she/has she been in with males at any point in the last few months? If so then yes she is pregnant, they are very prolific breeders and can store sperm so they can give birth up to 6 successive times from just one mating.


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## Kirsty1982

NaomiM said:


> She does look big yes. Is she/has she been in with males at any point in the last few months? If so then yes she is pregnant, they are very prolific breeders and can store sperm so they can give birth up to 6 successive times from just one mating.


We have only had the fish for about 2 months and already had one load of fry from a different fish, now this one looks pregnant, we had 2 females and 1 male, not that i knew that until the fry came along! i think this one looks pregnant.


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## bunnygeek

Kirsty1982 said:


> We have only had the fish for about 2 months and already had one load of fry from a different fish, now this one looks pregnant, we had 2 females and 1 male, not that i knew that until the fry came along! i think this one looks pregnant.


If the females are housed with a male they will spend their entire lives in various stages of pregnancy.


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