Unexplained Flashing, Please Help

[mctavish132]

Hey fish forums, so starting a few days ago I noticed my big fat female balloon mollie, who I have really come to like, start flashing on anything she can, and quite often. she is still the most aggressive eater in my tank and does not seem any less active then when i got her a couple months ago, also she has absolutly no signs of parasites, infections, diseases ect.. (Have thoroughly inspected for hours) and seems to still be quite happy, and very healthy looking with bright colors. None of the other fish in my tank show any signs of flashing or any thing out of the ordinary. which is confusing me the most as to why only this one fish has starting doing this. I have not introduced any fish for the past week and a half.

FULLY CYCLED for months.
Temp = 26degrees celcius always.
PH = in between 7.0-7.5
Ammonia = 0
Unsure as too Nitrite and Nitrate levels, but I do 2 20% water changes a week (I did a water change yeterday to see if it would stop the flashing, but the next day he was right back at it, almost worse?)

My settup is:
-60gallon tank
-Aquaclear 50 x2, 10gallon whisper internal filter, and 20 gallon UGF(air)

STOCKED WITH:
- 2 Female guppies, 1 Male
- 1 Pleco
- 2 Corys M/F
- 1 Parrot cichlid (no dye, nothing removed)
- 1 Balloon Mollie (Flashing like crazy)
- 1 red tailed shark
- 1 blue lobster (or creyfish, whatever you wanna call it)
I have a 400gallon tank that i plan to move to sometime in the future, when i have the time, patiance, and proper filtration and my fish require it.

I recently added 4 or 5 rocks from my backyard, inspected them for any sort of un wanted metal/mineral deposites, then boiled them for an hour, all seemed clear except for one that i was skeptical about, when looked at from certain angles it looks like a whole bunch of silver shiny dots, but I put it in anyway as it was the perfect shape i needed. Could i have introduced some sort of heavy metal to my aquarium causing an irritant? as it is still in my tank If so why would this not effect any of the other fish.
Anyway im starting to go crazy figuring this out i just want my fish to be happy, and stress free, i keep my water pristine at all times and have completly come to a loss. The last thing i want is for the flashing or whatever it is to spread to everyone in the tank. Any input, advice, or help would be greatly appreciated, to me and my fishies.

Thanks!

 

[Prime Ordeal]

The obvious first move is to remove the rocks.

Mollies are sensitive to the electrolyte levels in the tank, more so than most other fish. Really you need to give readings for nitrite, nitrate, GH and KH so that a more informed response can be given. However, you can safely add some epsom salts to the tank (in the absence of more detailed water parameters) at a rate of 1tsp to ten litres. Mix it in a jug of tank water and add it gradually over a couple of hours. This may stop the flashing and you'll then know that it's an electrolyte problem.

Of course, it could just be the lead up to a proper parasite infection, like skin flukes (invisible to the naked eye), but I'd expect the other fish to be flashing as well.

I'm assuming you're using liquid test for ammonia, if not then a rise in ammonia would equally be the reason for the flashing. You should invest in a full liquid test kit that measures ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH. When you say you keep your water pristine, you don't actually know because you're not measuring the full range of toxins.

 

[mctavish132]

Ok thanks for the reply, I got a full test kit(liquid), sorry for the lack of information.
I removed the rocks which I am now quite certain had some sort of metal in them.
New test after a 25% water change:

Ph = 7.4
Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 5
Still unsure as to KH and GH, if these are very important I can go pick up another test for these.

So after the water change and another long inspection my Mollie is still flashing but is still the only one, and I noticed what looked like they could be tiny little moving white dots stuck to my parrot fish, so I immediately ran down to LFS and picked up some Jungle parasite clear tank buddies. (any good?) activated carbon is removed, and this is now the second day the treatment has been in the water, says to wait 48 hours and do a 25% water change and treat again (if there are still signs of parasites), does this mean full dose or just how much water I removed? I also baught some aquarium salt,but am worried to add to the water because of my corydoras, pleco, and blue lobster.
My jungle "start right" water de-chlorinator says it adds essential electrolytes to the water, is this not sufficient enough for the mollies needs?
should I just continue what I'm doing? is there anything Im doing wrong? any more input would be great
thank you.

 

[mctavish132]

ok extremely sorry for the double post but Im starting to get really worried, i took out my mollie and gave her a salt bath at 1tbsp of aquarium salt per gallon kept her in their for 10 minutes while monitoring. added half a gallon of my main aquarium water waited 5 minutes and added another half gallon and waited a bit longer, then put her in the main tank, she was ok for a few minutes now shes having really bad spasms/scratching on everything alot more then she did before, and she still seems to be the only one, whats going on with her, I'm starting to get super stressed out?

 

[FishFanatic04]

bump...for mctavish132. Now I'm stressed. Any opinions?

 

[mctavish132]

thanks for the bump, if this helps distinguish the problem at all, her poops are really long, clear, and constant like allll day long since I started treatment. During the constant strand of clear poop there will sometimes be small coloured parts which i assume is the food, (colour is in variation of the food) but otherwise just long clear strands all day. Do you think this is the parasites coming out of her from the parasite treatment? Anyways im really stressed out and could use some guidance, should i continue treatment if she is still scratching vigorously after 24hours? and as for my parrot fish he instantly goes into hiding the second I get close to my tank so i haven't been able to further inspect him, but was quite certain I saw moving white specs stuck to him, so am going to continue the parasite clear untill told otherwise.

 

[afremont]

thanks for the bump, if this helps distinguish the problem at all, her poops are really long, clear, and constant like allll day long since I started treatment. During the constant strand of clear poop there will sometimes be small coloured parts which i assume is the food, (colour is in variation of the food) but otherwise just long clear strands all day. Do you think this is the parasites coming out of her from the parasite treatment? Anyways im really stressed out and could use some guidance, should i continue treatment if she is still scratching vigorously after 24hours? and as for my parrot fish he instantly goes into hiding the second I get close to my tank so i haven't been able to further inspect him, but was quite certain I saw moving white specs stuck to him, so am going to continue the parasite clear untill told otherwise.

My guess on the increased flashing after the dip is that you really upset the parasites (gill flukes?), but perhaps didn't kill them. As long as the fish is flashing, it is being irritated by something that is still present.

On the other fish, when you say the white spots are moving, do you mean they are literally crawling around randomly? Or do they appear to be anchored to the fish, but standing out like a blade of grass sort of waving a bit in a circular motion with others spots making the same general motion, like when the wind blows across the grass?

 

[mctavish132]

that would make alot of sence, is using parasite clear going to help the problem? it looked more like little tiny white balls but not ick; they were swaying back and forth, and yes they did appear to be anchored to the fish. And for the mollie she is defenetly being irritaed arround her gills thats the only area she tries to scratch. Probably gill flukes on the mollie, and skin flukes on the parrot? what is the next best course of action?

 

[afremont]

that would make alot of sence, is using parasite clear going to help the problem? it looked more like little tiny white balls but not ick; they were swaying back and forth, and yes they did appear to be anchored to the fish. And for the mollie she is defenetly being irritaed arround her gills thats the only area she tries to scratch. Probably gill flukes on the mollie, and skin flukes on the parrot? what is the next best course of action?

I'd say that right now that is your best bet. I cant for the life of me think of the name of those parasites that sway like that, but I have seen a video of a fish just covered with them. They're deffinitely parasites and not fungal or bacterial so I'd try the parasite clear. Just read all the directions and follow them. You'll certainly know if it works by whether they drop off the other fish. If you don't have any air bubbles, you might want to add some while administering meds.

 

[mctavish132]

alright I have 3 powerheads and an air powerd UGF but ill throw in another air stone to be safe and continue treatment, i hope my blue lobster makes it through the treatments says the jungle parasite clear is really bad for crustaceans or whatever. anyway thanks for the help

 

[afremont]

alright I have 3 powerheads and an air powerd UGF but ill throw in another air stone to be safe and continue treatment, i hope my blue lobster makes it through the treatments says the jungle parasite clear is really bad for crustaceans or whatever. anyway thanks for the help

Oh wow, I didn't know you had a lobster in there. Maybe you can keep him in kitchen container even a cooking pot for a couple of days with an airstone while you treat the tank. Otherwise the meds could be fatal to him. They have very different metabolic pathways than the fish do, so do the parasites. That's why the meds kill the parasites and don't kill the fish. They do it by shutting down or otherwise causing severe damage to cell biology by wrecking some particular metabolic function. If the med manufacturer says it will harm crustaceans you can take their word for it. In my opinion they tend to understate the danger of some meds.

 

[mctavish132]

ok good call, ill put him in a rubbermaid with an airstone till done treating, again thanks for the help i appreciate it