Help For A Female Molly

[rainbowcharmer]

She's swimming in 'barrel rolls' non stop. Any idea what might cause this?

She's active, she's swimming quite fast - but it is as though her equillibrium is non-existent now??

Just noticed it about 5 minutes ago when I walked in the door from work.

Everyone was fine when I left this morning.

Help??

 

[rainbowcharmer]

Sorry - didn't include this in the 1st post.

Tank size: 45 US Gallons
pH:6.8-6.9
ammonia:0
nitrite:0
nitrate:0
kH:?
gH:?
tank temp:80-81

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior):
One molly (female) swimming very strangely - barrel rolls is the only thing I can use to describe it. She's swimming forward but spinning at the same time. It's very strange.

Volume and Frequency of water changes:
About 15% every 1.5 - 2 weeks

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank:
No additives

Tank inhabitants:
Mollies (2 adult, 2 half-grown fry), Tetras (3), Kuhli loaches (3), Danios (7), 1 large snail, 2 ghost shrimp

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration):
None

Exposure to chemicals:
None

 

[rainbowcharmer]

Well, whatever it is, it's killing her.

She's struggling to stay upright now, and though she's still moving constantly, she's starting to swim slower and floats toward the surface whenever she stops swimming. Poor thing.

I don't know how long she will keep this up before she finally gives up, and I'm half tempted to try to put her down rather than let her suffer, but the only way I know of is to chop her head off, and I so can't stomach that.

Any other suggestions to help end her suffering?

Thanks...

 

[Spooky76]

Nobody posted

Well it sounds like swim bladder problem. Boil a few frozen peas for a minute, pop them out their shell, mush them in your fingers and add to the tank.

Swim bladder is usually caused by poor water and diet. What do you feed and how often ? How often do you change the water in the tank ? Do you know your water stats ? You have 0 readings on everything....either your tank isnt cycled which has probably caused this, or your kit isnt telling your stats properly....what type of test kit is it ?

You SHOULD have nitrate levels in the tank when its cycled. How long has it been running ?

 

[rainbowcharmer]

She's gone and flushed now, so not much we can do to help.

My stats are at 0 because I had just done a water change. I also have live plants, which tend to keep my nitrate levels pretty low.

The tank is about 8 months old, and yes it's cycled. Believe me, I went through some nasty nitrite stuff there for a while.

The fish eat spirulina algae fish flakes, tropical fish flakes, (alternating days - they are fed once daily in the afternoon). I also alternate sinking pellets. One of them is a shrimp pellet, the other is called "frozen food alternative with krill". So I'll feed one type of flake and one type of pellet today, and the others tomorrow, etc.

They also get veggies on their veggie clip, though I've not been to the store in a few weeks, so that has been slacking a bit. Could that have caused her issue? And if so, why are none of the others affected? There were 4 dalmation mollies in the tank, but only one became ill?

This is the first i've dealt with "swim bladder", so i'm going to have to go research that, because I do not know much about it.

 

[chibi]

I was gonna say she's most likely going to die. Sounded like a swim bladder problem. Sorry about your loss!

 

[Spooky76]

I still cant believe your nitrate is 0. Check your test kit if I were you.

My tank has been going ages, it has over 30 plants in it and I do water changes 25% per week and I still have nitrate readings.

99% of the time swim bladder is down to diet / water condition. IME its the water thats the problem as your diet seems pretty OK, feeding veggies etc is great for them.

 

[WILDER]

Once a fish barrel rolls they are dying,.
Need a better diet of frozen foods and veg.
Cook frozen peas for a few minutes, let cool down, pop out of shell and mush them between fingers, than add to the tank.
Frozen daphnia is good as it helps the fish to digest it's food.

Swim bladder is fetched on by poor diet, and bad water quality.

 

[rainbowcharmer]

The stats tend to have identical readings at my LFS.

I have a "chemist" style test kit at home. When the tank was cycling, I got big readings on all tests throughout the cycle, and the test kit has not passed its expiration date.

Before I do a water change, my nitrates do come up. Though they don't come up a whole lot.

Ammonia and Nitrites are always at 0 now. I've not seen a reading on them since I finally got them down when it was cycling.

I do have a bag of crushed coral in the tank to help keep the PH more neutral, and the filter that i use is a Pengwin with carbon in it, which if I read correctly does keep the nitrates a bit lower too.

I can take another sample in to the LFS and have them do a test with the strips that they use, and check the readings again - but at this point that won't bring back the molly.

I'll try feeding them some peas too and add that to their diet.

This is the first fish loss I've had since cycling the tank (lost a couple of zebra danios then).

The other mollies seem fine, and this was my "mama" molly - the one who has had at least 4 batches of fry since putting her in the tank about 6 months ago. The other female has never shown a sign of pregnancy, so perhaps she just lucked out at the LFS and the males left her alone.

The two fry I have left are both female as well. I don't need a breeding tank, so since my adults were female, I am only keeping surviving fry that are female - the rest go to the LFS or to other people with fish tanks.

Thanks for the input on the food and water. I'll keep it in mind.

 

[WILDER]

Good luck.

 

[kribensis12]

Sorry about your loss. I have lost alot of mollies that way, until i improved their diet. I heard that Crushed Coral makes the Ph higher and Harder?

 

[WILDER]

Sorry about your loss. I have lost alot of mollies that way, until i improved their diet. I heard that Crushed Coral makes the Ph higher and Harder?

Yes it does according to this
Ways to lower pH
· Filtering water over peat
· Add bogwood to the tank
· Inject carbon dioxide CO2
· Use a commercial acid buffer
· Water changes with softened water or RO (Reverse Osmosis) water

Ways to raise the pH
· Aerate the water, driving off the carbon dioxide (CO2)
· Filter over coral or limestone
· Add rocks containing limestone to the tank or use a coral sand substrate
· Use a commercial alkaline buffer

 

[rainbowcharmer]

Yes the coral does raise it. Mine was too low until I added the coral, now it stays at about 6.8 to 6.9, which is about where I'd like it.