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Hi everyone.

I have a sick platy here with what I think is fin rot (the end of his tail is jagged with red splotches). We noticed it last night, when we saw her kind of laying on her side on the gravel at the bottom of our tank and having trouble swimming and doing things.

We went ahead and transferred her to a small 1-gallon "hospital" tank with some gravel and an air stone. I put some MelaFix in there along with 1tsp of salt. I checked the water properties and everything looks good. The temperature indicator says about 76-78 deg F (we don't have a tank heater).

My question is about feeding... it looks like she's having a lot of trouble swimming at all, much less up to the top of the tank. I have some livebearer flake food that I use that sits at the top for a few seconds, then starts to sink once it gets disturbed. I fed her last night and I didn't see her make it to the top before everything had sunk! It does have a few tubiflex worms in there that stay up at the top longer, but I haven't see her eat any of those either.

Does anyone have any advice? I'm afraid she's going to starve or something before her fin heals. I'll provide all the environmental stuff if needed, but this is more of a care question.

Thanks in advance.

Unless shes already very thin shed be unlikely to die from starvation for near on a month, I would concentrate efforts on getting the bacteria thats affecting her killed off as quickly as possible.

You cant force feed a fish that small,and a platy doesnt eat only from the topwater, a platy should be quite capable of taking food from anywhere within an aquarium. Sounds like shes too weak to feed anyway. Its a roll of the dice moment, keep going with melafix and hope she makes it, or try a stronger more systemic med like an antibiotic and again, hope she makes it.

Feeding high quality nutrition is especially important after an illness, but during, when a fish ceases to feed, there really is very little you can do. If shes in community and getting outcompeted by cagemates, and if her weight really is an issue, then you can try to segregate her, but a fish that unwell wont take tankmoves too well.

Its always a worrying scenario, and one most fishkeepers will come up against at one time or another, the focus is usually on identifying the disease at fault as quickly as possible and providing the most appropriate med, when it comes to feeding, you can deal with competition, but aside from that its very much up to the fish to recover.

With fish this small theres no real way to provide dietary support, which is why treatment must be quick. Ive often been in the situation where you have to turn them round before they starve, particularly with diseases like hexamita , and other diseases that rob a fish of essential bodily sugars. metabolic support for most small fish outside of medication is basically limited to providing oxygen,and a little extra heat, usually to around 84f , as that keeps the metabolism up and gives the fish half a chance to fight ailments. Im afraid youve kinda shot your fish in the foot by not having a heater, and id recommend getting one. Even if its not in time to save this fish, it might be in time to save another. Heaters arent just for routine maintenance, when fish have diseases they can be lifesavers. Platys may have a big temperature tolerance range, but they arent coolwater fish, and heat during periods of illness really helps them.

Never nice to have a fish that is too weak to feed, my sincere sympathies, I too find such things most worrying, but the only support you can give then outside of meds is environmental, ergo, no food competittion, warmer temps and plenty of oxygen. Sometimes a little garlic in the water or some livefood stimulates fish to feed, but its all hit and miss stuff. Even metronidazole acts as a minor feeding stimulant for some fish, and it often restores their gastrointestinal health, thus making them more willing to feed, but again its hit and miss. Being an antiprotozoan with some antibiotic effects it may kill some internal parasites, that once killed, sometimes provide a brief protien boost,as they are digested by the fish, and much the same can be said of a selection of dewormers, although the purgative nature of many of these can negate that effect. If shes too weak its a matter of killing the disease as quickly as possible and hoping she has the calorific reserves to recover and begin feeding again.

When fish become this debilitated its a lottery im afraid, but good luck with her.