odd behavior

[laboul]

I have a mollie that is exhibiting very strange behavior, which worries me because it's the same phenomenon displayed by his tank-mate, another white mollie, that died about a month ago.

He stays near the surface and moves his mouth like he's kissing the surface of the water. This is coupled with him pointing his "nose" up in the air with the tail pointed directly downward, sometimes it even looks like he's going to flip onto his backside. He rights himself, swims along and then repeats this about 15 seconds later. He has clamped fins. The poop is somewhat stringy, but alternating between brown and white.

My ammonia and nitrite are both 0. The tank has 10 other fish: 1 swordie fry, 2 molly fry, and 7 guppies. All other fish are fine, swimming normally, and not at the surface. Therefore I don't think this is an oxygen problem (tank has plenty of plants and good surface agitation).

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

If the molly appears like it can't maintain balance/stay upright in the water properly it is probably a swim bladder disorder; the white poop is also a big symptom of an internal bacterial infection, and internal bacterial infections can often lead to swim bladder disorders.
Isolate the fish in a breeding net(the lack of space and shallow water will help the fish maintain balance easier) and feed the fish some freezedried foods like daphinia/tubifex/bloodworms which float in the water for a long time(will make it easier for the fish to aim for them to eat) along with some fish flakes.

I would get some "Anti internal bacterial" med by interpet which is quite good at curing such deseases although swim bladder disorders can be very difficult to cure- there is only realy a 50/50 recovery rate for most people.
As long as you follow the instructions on the med and keep up the feeding his chances of recovery should be greatly increased, good luck

 

[laboul]

So glad to get a reply on a week-end! Thanks. OK, now should I treat the whole tank or just the one fish? Do these meds kill off the nitrifying bacteria? I definitely don't want to do that.

It's strange, there are bubbles attached to the white poop. Is he pooping air??

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

If you have carbon in the filter i would take it out just to be on the safe side- i have never had carbon based filters but have heard they don't work very well with meds as they remove them from the water; if you just have a normal sponge filter i wouldn't worry about it.

I would treat the whole tank or most of it simply because other fish have apparently died of the desease and internal bacterial deseases can be very hard to get rid of if you don't treat most or all of the tank.
I don't know about the bubbles in the poop- could be a sign of constipation in which case i would feed all the fish some shelled cooked peas or other vegetable based foods like algae wafers/tablets just in case.

ps: i have i missed anything, anyone please point it out

 

[laboul]

I would treat the whole tank or most of it simply because other fish have apparently died of the desease and internal bacterial deseases can be very hard to get rid of if you don't treat most or all of the tank.

Wow, that's amazing. I didn't have fish in there for three weeks while I put it through another cycling process! I guess these disease organisms can be very resilient.

Thanks for your help. Geez, if it isn't one thing, it's another!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Yeah i know how you feel.
If the fish are quite new, its posible some of them brought the infection in from the lfs; most fish deseases are already present in the water 24/7 but only make themselves heard when the tank conditions waver towards their benifet in some way or another or when stress levels are high in the fish.
Hope all goes well for you

 

[Morrgan]

What's the temperature? I hear mollies easily get ill if the temperature is below 25C (sorry, dunno what it is in F).