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I know generally this is a sign of parasites. So far the fish seem to be doing great, and none of them seem ill in the least bit, but today I noticed one kind of throwing it's side into the flower pot in the tank like it was trying to rub something off of itself. There is absolutely no outward signs of anything. They all seem happy and healthy. I just finished a 50% water change on them before this. What would you suggest I do? Should I treat for something that is unknown and unseen and risk my bacterial colonies?

If that one platy is repeatedly scraping itself on things, I am going to be old-fashioned and recommend a saltwater bath. Take the fish out for a while and put him/her in a container with saltwater for a few minutes. IME salt baths work great with parasites, especially if you catch them early on, as you seem to have done and you will not have to risk your bacterial colonies or anything.

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It most probably is ich, sorry to say . Treat with melafix or another ich medicine as soon as possible. If you can quarantine her so she does not spread the disease to other fish.

Melafix does nothing for ich. and i wouldn't rule it as ich unless the fish develops tiny white dots all over the body.

My first instinct was to think it might be ick too, but they came from extroidinarily clean tanks, and I have had them for weeks now with not even so much as one tiny white dot. (I always watch extra close for ick whenever I get new fish because it is so common.) The fish came from HEAVILY salted water (so much so that the lady in the store warned me to not just put them right into fresh because so many people were bringing back dead fish because of that), so they are living in brackish water right now as I SLOWLY wean them off their salt habit. LOL! At this point, these fish have been together so long that if one of them has ick, or anything else for that matter, then chances are they are all going to have it. I do have ick meds on hand, but they are showing no visible signs of any illness. Is there any other possible reasons anyone can think of? If I could get them to slow down long enough to get a picture of them I would love to show them off. They are stunning little platy kids!

It could be that it just has an itch. my yoyos and acaras always do it but there has been no other sign of ich so i just ignore it now

I was actually wondering if that might just be the issue. It only did it a couple of times and then it seemed satisfied. I just wanted to make sure I nipped any problems in the bud right off.

ah yeah. If it was scratching itself a lot, that would indicate a problem. Fish will definitely scrape themselves against something once in a while "just because". I've definitely observed some perfectly healthy fish recently diving down in the sand (odessa barbs, which don't normally do that), and scraping against driftwood (pearl danios... there are so many you're bound to see it occasionally)

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There are 4 females in the tank... from far away 2 look the same, and the other two look the same... the 1 male looks totally different. I am not sure if it was the same female or not, but there was another one doing it. Part of me thinks they are just really loving the new flower pots because these are new additions to the tank. They seem to almost have a fascination with them. The point of them, however, was not to make a platy scratching post, but to plant baby crypts and java fern in until they had a chance to grow some. I suppose they can enjoy themselves all they want, but as soon as they disturb the plants, I am moving the plants to a different tank (quarantine first just in case). Thanks everyone. I will let you know if I spot any changes in them.