molly mysteries

[JacopoFishy]

My ten gallon has been running for about a month now, and following the advice of multiple sources, I purchased four mollies to break in my tank and get the cycles going. I had two balloon mollies, one black molly, and one orange molly, although I have forgotten its full appropriate title. The male to female ratio was 1:3 as I had heard that male mollies could be persistent and cruel to females when pursuing breeding. Well, within after about two weeks one of my balloon mollies died from evident exhaustion. My male had picked her as the favorite and constantly harrassed her, despite my efforts to help her hide and placing her in a private bowl (floating inside the tank, to maintain temperature, she seemed unhappy there as well).

If I continue at this rate this post will be far too long.

In any case, I bought a dalmation molly the next day (she's been in the tank about two weeks) to replace Neptune (the deceased balloon molly) and to maintain the gender ratio.

Three or four days ago (my sense of time is horrendous) the other balloon molly died. Either she had swim bladder disease or whirling disease. Her symptoms cause me to believe it was her swim bladder. She lay at the bottom of the tank upside down and struggling, occassionally spinning about in a fight to regain her normal state of uprightness.

Being busy, I have not been able to replace her yet, but plan on it tomorrow. Upon closely inspecting my fish today, I was not too thrilled to discover white spots all over my black male molly, Toulouse. I think it must be ICH. It is especially thick around the bottom of his gills and around his face, although they are also over the rest of his body. He doesn't seem to be suffering (not rubbing up against the conch I have in the tank or the pebbles at the bottom, since ICH is supposed to itch for the sufferer a lot?)

Ugh I apologize for the long post.

My dalmation molly (who is also pregnant, or appears to be, I worry its something else? her belly is incredibly bloated) also has white spots on her fins. She does not appear to be suffering. Much to my frustration, I cannot tell whether or not she also has them on her body, since most of it is white. There are none that I can see. (I can only see the ones on her fins since those are transparent.) I think it is ICH, because her tank mate is also infected, but is there a way to tell the difference between that and fin rot?

The third fish in the tank, a female orange molly, doesn't seem to be suffering. but I decided to give her a close visual inspection since her tank mates aren't doing too fabulously. Some of her fins seem slightly discolored, kind of whiteish, but not quite spots. And other than that and a single tear in her dorsal(?) in, she seems content and healthy.

Earlier today I put aquarium salt and pH down in the tank, following the recommended amount on the bottle. The pH was 7.7.

I haven't had a chance to check out the nitrite, nitrate, or ammonia (crazy, I know! busy gal! I have a final tomorrow.....) which is very essential information. sorry! I can check it when I get back from work tonight, which I am late for.

would appreciate any advice or.....whatever. I plan on buying something for ICH tomorrow.

The water has been changed once, 25%. I think that's bad and I should be changing it more? )

Appetites and behavior seem normal. Temperature is stable at 70 degrees farenheidt. Filter seems fine. Should check it.....

I feel so irresponsible.

 

[JacopoFishy]

nitrite- between 1 and 5 ppm, I think its 1 or 2 though. with the color chart thing its difficult to tell.
nitrate- 10 ppm
ammonia- between 0.5 and 1 ppm
pH- 8.6
but.....but? I put in pH down earlier today, when it was 7.7!!!

now I'm worried, what's going on?!

help?

 

[JacopoFishy]

now my dalmation molly has some of her fins tightly clamped, which I know is not a good sign. also, when I came home today, she had ridiculously stringy poop. it looked as if it was hanging in mid water underneath her, except I noticed it was a thin, almost invisible string holding it to her. my fish are so sick, why?

I hope someone can give me some advice. I keep posting because I'm so nervous! sorry for the pushiness and long posts!!!



)

 

[gaya]

Hi ya,

I didn't read your entire post so excuse me if I missed something. Don't buy any more fish until your ammonia and nitrite levels are at 0. Now that you have ich in your tank...don't buy any more fish until its gone. I would do 20% water changes per day and add ammonia lock until your water specs are up to par. i choose not to add meds when my specs are not perfect. Check out to see if mollies can handle high temps and then raise the temp to 85F ...very slowly... 1 degree every twelve hours is what I do. I suspected ich in my 29g and now the temp is at 87F and any signs have vanished. I will keep it at this temp for at another week. If this does not help and if you don't have live plants maracide and copper sulfate work well.

hope this helps

 

[gaya]

by the way, i don't know this for sure but your ammonia and nitrite levels are probably affecting your ph but i'd imagine that would lower it? also, I know it's not always practical but if you could quaratine new fish (once every thing is happy in your 10g) you would save yourself future head aches. even if you watch fish at your LFS for two weeks and they are fine, you bring them home and then the differences btwn your ph and your LFS ph brings on ich and its such a pain in the butt.

good luck with your fish and finals!

 

[CathyG]

Since you only have mollies in your tank, you can also use some aquarium salt to treat the ich.

Re your PH, take the conch shell out, and your PH will come back down again.

BTW I would not advise PH Up/Down products, since fish can acclimatise to PH levels not recommended for them provided they have been introduced to the water carefully. Fish are actually are more sensitive to PH swings (which you are experiencing now) than they are to living in water with a range outside of their "natural" PH reading. If you have high KH readings (buffering) then the effect of any PH altering chemical would not last two minutes since the high KH would compromise it.

I would advise

Get yourself a test kit to monitor your water parameters
Take out your conch (although pretty, shells raise the PH)
treat your fish for the Ich (raise temp, add salt or Ich meds)
Change your water (about 20%) and do this daily until the Ich has gone and the Ammonia/Nitrites read 0

Good luck!

 

[JacopoFishy]

So glad I found this site, I wonder what would have become of my fishies without the advice of you guys? Thanx. B)

I went to visit my LFS, talked with an employee well versed in everything fishy I purchased a treatment for ICH and so far I have done two rounds of treatment. My dalmation molly looks fabulous, all signs of ICH on her fins have disappeared, and she no longer has any of her fins clamped. I cannot actually tell if my gold molly is aflicted with anything, she prefers the back of the tank and is so hyper I can't get a good look at her. I think her gills may be a bit white, but her fins look fine. My black molly seems to have improved, there are no more signs of ICH on his body, but still a great deal of white all over his gills. I only hope with more treatment he'll improve.

At least he doesn't have any symptoms other than the spotting, and he seems happy enough.

Doing constant water changes and measuring the pH, nitrite, nitrate, and ammonia. Bought a new and far superior heater to my old one.

All in all, thanx a ton

-Jacopo, Toulouse, and JC (my fishies!)