can't diagnose my fish! Help!

[Angel Lady]

that is what one of my sharks has is a left over gold fish tank the only thing I wouldnt use a tank after is those furry things like hamsters I think those things pack diseases. How are your mollies doing today have you changed thier water yet ?

 

[Alien Anna]

that is what one of my sharks has is a left over gold fish tank the only thing I wouldnt use a tank after is those furry things like hamsters I think those things pack diseases. How are your mollies doing today have you changed thier water yet ?

I'll have you know that hamsters are extremely clean animals and certainly do not harbour diseases! But anyway, most people use old, leaky aquariums for keeping rodents in, not something suitable for fish without a lot of work (re-sealing, polishing etc.).

 

[Kissifish]

Rosie, it's been a while since I raised mollies. I have a couple now in my kids tank. They shimmy when they are stressed. Usually due to water quality. So, check water parameters first. Doesn't hurt to do a water change. Salt dip if you want to, helps rid of parasites. I have never added salt to mollie tanks by the way. Some do.

Sorry, I begin to ramble.......But, first do a water change, then, recheck your water parameters. How long has your tank been established?

 

[Thomas A. Anderson]

If you are planning on re-using a tank then you will have to take the following into consideration:

1) What was the cause of the previous fatalities?
Certain parasites can remain in the tank,substrate etc and await a suitable host.

2) If one does decide to strip the tank, then remember to make sure everything is completely scrubbed clean leaving no traces of cleaning materials at all. Also the tank would need to be re-cycled from scratch.

I would think that from a seperate post I read about this, that the possible problem was new tank syndrome and the tank hadn't been cycled properly before introducing fish and/or too many fish were added to quickly thus putting too much of a bio-load on the existing colony of bacteria.

Take the usual readings for the tank, (Amm, NitrI & NitrA) and maybe add some gravel from an established tank to help speed up and go through a mini-cycle.


HTH

 

[rosie T.]

Yes, I changed my water. They actually look great! They seem to be healthy, and my water quality is good. But... that was also the case when the other one died. It's just a mystery I guess.

They still seem to be hanging out near the surface, though. Do they do that normally? And my water has gotten cloudier than it was before I did the water change? Bacterial bloom? Is that harmful?

 

[rosie T.]

By the way, thanks everyone for all your help! I've only had my tank for about 2 months now. I'm just a beginner, although my brother is quite the hobbiest! He's been in the game for awhile now... so I'm just learning as I go along. I wish I had a couple of my original advice to share... maybe next time, huh?

What is a salt dip? Is that different than just adding salt to the aquarium? ( Stupid question, I know!).

 

[Ron]

My male did the same exact thing right down to the very detail. He was shimmying, white feces, at the surface, ext. He died when he seemed he was doing better. I figured out it was because he didn't have enough oxegen, via airstone. That was the problem because I had salt in my tank, ph was at 7.0, amonia, nitrate, and nitrite were at solid 0's. It was the air for me, and since we had the same simptoms, I'm wondering if it wasn't the air for you too.
Ron

 

[Angel Lady]

I sure have to think since the tank has a bacterial bloom then that leads me to believe that it is ammonia or nitrites one but thats just me. I didnt say that hamsters was nasty I just know that everyone has told me not to use the tank after you have had little hairy animals in the tank.I have used one used tank before and I done a lot of cleaning using salt and hot water and I havent had any problems with my sharks,they are growing everyday.

 

[Mogo]

Seems like the white stringy poops have been brought up twice since the original post.......

IMO a little more than water quality problems are going on here. Perhaps a little more info, going back to page one, would help me determine if it's protozoan, metazoan or bacterial in nature. As I already said, treatment is very specific.

If your fish are being effected by some kind of internal infection, they are going to suffer externally, and will become extremely suseptible to even slightly unfavourable water conditions, or small amounts of stress.

 

[rosie T.]

How do I know if they're suffering internally? To me, they seem fine on the outside... except for the white poop and the fact that they love to hang out at the surface of the water. One WAS scratching itself against surfaces, but he's not doing that anymore. Should I still treat that as a symptom of some sort even though he's not doing it anymore?

 

[Mogo]

White poop is how you know they are suffering from some kind of internal ailment.

If you could please answer the following questions:

How long has the fish been having white poop for
Approximately how many times a day is the fish having white poop
Is the fish having alternating poops, sometimes normal, sometimes white
Is the pooh long and stringy and takes a long time to break off
Is the pooh all white or does it have random coloured parts in in
Is there any air bubbles in the poop
Is the poop like an opaque white or is it pretty transparent

You have had the fish for 2 months?

When I said your fish would be suffering externally, I didn't mean it in the sense that there would automatically be visible physical ailments, like white patches or ulcers or what not. What I was trying to say is that if the inside of the fishes body isn't functioning properly, it is causing general ill health and the fish is left open to stress...etc.

As for right now, I suggest you use some small tubing, like airline tubing to suck out the fish poop several times a day. If this is indeed an internal parasite, this is an excellent precaution to take. Although most fish won't eat poops, sometimes it can be accidentally ingested. Internal parasites are transmitted this way from one fish to another.

 

[rosie T.]

Hey Mogo! Thanks for your advice... here are some answers to your questions.

THe fish WERE having white poop for about 4-5 days. However, the fish that I currently have are now having their regular-looking poop. The one that had it bad was the one that died the other day.
They WERE having it about once a day, but the one that died was having it abou twice. The poop did look long and stringy, more opaque than transparent, and the entire thing was white. It was pretty hard for them to break it off. The one that died held her poop for a really long time. I know it had to be irritating her. Oh... and there were no air bubbles in the poop.

I had a feeling that my testing kits were wacked out... so I brought a sample to my LFS and they found everything to be fine.

Do you think that it was just that fish, or is my whole tank affected? Do you think that they were eating each other's poop, making them sick?

I would love to get another friend for my tank, to replace the molly I lost. How long should I wait and what precautions should I take?

 

[Mogo]

No problem Rosie, glad I could help.

If all the other fish in the tank are having normal poops for the time being, I would just keep a close eye on them and make sure the poop stays normal. Since they were having white poop and are now back to normal, it is likely that their infection was small, and was resolved by the fishes immune system. The one that died probably had a heavy burden and it was just too late for it. Just keep a close eye on them for now.

Make sure to do do a good thorough gravel clean over the next week or two, a small section at a time. You want to make sure you get out as much of the infected poop as possible. This will cut back the chances of infecting the other fish greatly. As I said, most fish wont feast on feces, but some can be accidentally ingested when the fish is foraging through the gravel for food.

I would hold off on bringing home any new fish for a minimum of six weeks. If the poops remain normal for this amount of time, you can be pretty sure that the problem has been resolved. If I was in your situation, I would rather wait to get new fish, then to bring a new one home and put it at risk of getting sick.

Please keep us posted on how things are going.