unusual behaviour

[skimpy]

My black molly trish has been acting strange the last few days. She does not go to the top of the tank at feeding but stays lower. She also does not appear to go for any food that drops down. She will go for an algae tablet immediately but nibbles it twice then swims off.

She does not seem bothered by the other fish, i.e. she's not exactly hiding, but she doesn't seem to mingle either, its really strange to discribe.

Her fins in general are not clamped but the two fins at bottom furthest front are quite closed. She is just generally acting different.

I can't tell obviously if she is pregnant or anything, she is not particularly fat.

Nothing has changed within the tank - No new fish, water parameters are all ok (checked again today to be sure) PH7.2 Am 0 NitrIte 0 NitrAte 15/20

I do weekly water changes approx 28% (last done on Sunday)

All the other fish acting as normal, starving hungrey at feeding time, nosey and buzzing about the rest of the time.


Does anyone have any suggestions, she is really starting to worry me, but I can't really put my finger on why.

EDIT - Spelling Oops

EDIT 2 - It's not like she obviously ill, Its like she is off her food and a bit down. She does come to the side of the glass if I put my hand there etc. but then swims away as if depressed!

 

[appleblossom]

could it just be old age?

 

[skimpy]

Should'nt be, lfs guess she would have been 6 months when I got her - i've had her 3 months.

I'm not sure what is Old for a Molly?? but she should be in her prime surely at 9 months??

 

[skimpy]

Anyone???

 

[Fiddlesticks]

Im sort of stumped too. How is she doing today. Any better? Anything else you can tell us?

 

[skimpy]

Well she's having a nibble at the algae wafer - so that good.

It's wierd she was swimming around the top when I came near the tank then when I put in the flake and all the fish went for it, she swam down away from the flake and sat about one inch from the bottom - again totally ignoring any flake that was dropping. The I dropped in the algae wafer and she started nibbling.

I am beginning to wonder if perhaps she's gone off flake or that when the other fish are feeding its too much activity for her and she 'likes to dine alone"

No odd markings on her - nothing else unusual

I'll let you know how she gets on over the next period of time

Thanks

 

[Shiro337]

Could just be having a bad day or 2. My fish do it all the time. I have a 10 inch Clown loach who gets that way every now and again then it all ends in him detroying as many plants as possible and he is fine again. But if you think it could be a lil deaper than that try putting your molly into a tank on its own and add a lil salt black mollies love brackish water .

 

[SailfinGirl]

Try feeding her those freeze dried in jelly type bloodworms. They sink.

 

[fishdudein]

I have never had any luck with mollies in a community tank. Problem is, they don't just "like" a little salt in their water, they NEED it to truly be at their best. There may be some here who will disagree, but I have seen it firsthand. I set up a brackish water tank for my mollies and saw an incredible difference, ended up with tons of fry and some of the best looking mollies ever. They are really gorgeous fish if you can meet their needs!!

 

[skimpy]

Ok Update on Trish (black molly). Not any better unfortunately, still very strange. Still not signs of anything, (lumps, bumps, spots, etc). Water parameters still good.

She is now hiding a lot and stays hidden most of the time. Really not eating at all, but plodding on.

All the other fish are still acting completely normally, and eating well.

QUESTION: If she had something catching I presume I would see one or more of the other fish acting strange by now, its been over a week??? What do you all think

My lfs guy has suggested that I should NOT put her into a breading tank or seperate her, unless I can see that she is being picked on (which I can't see). No need to stress her out, just keep and eye one her and see how she goes.

I am really worried, but realise without any obvious symptons and the other fish all being OK, there is not much to go on.

My lfs suggested, to put in the general tonic, (I put it in monthly as a preventative - last used 3 weeks ago due again in one week). What do you guys think???

Edit: Bold type

 

[skimpy]

anyone???

 

[fishdudein]

I'm not sure what a "general tonic" is Sounds like snake oil to me. I wouldn't use it. Only additives I would use would be species specific, in other words if you are trying to keep a fish that likes soft, acidic water I would use a water softening/acidifying agent like peat. If I were trying to keep African Rift Lake cichlids and I knew they liked very hard 'liquid rock' type water, I might add some Rift Lake salts or a crushed coral substrate. If I were trying to keep a fish that required brackish water, I would add enough salt to their water to create a brackish environment for them.

Adding a "tonic" to their water is not going to make up for the fact that you have some fish that you are keeping in fresh water that need to be in brackish water.

 

[skimpy]

I'm not sure what a "general tonic" is Sounds like snake oil to me. I wouldn't use it. Only additives I would use would be species specific, in other words if you are trying to keep a fish that likes soft, acidic water I would use a water softening/acidifying agent like peat. If I were trying to keep African Rift Lake cichlids and I knew they liked very hard 'liquid rock' type water, I might add some Rift Lake salts or a crushed coral substrate. If I were trying to keep a fish that required brackish water, I would add enough salt to their water to create a brackish environment for them.

Adding a "tonic" to their water is not going to make up for the fact that you have some fish that you are keeping in fresh water that need to be in brackish water.

First of all the "tonic" i refer to is Aquarium Treatment No 5 Liquisil General Tonic by Interpet. I am not adding it 'to make up for the fact that they need to be in brackish water" I am adding it because I was advised that it is a good healthy preventative and given on a monthly basis, helps fish to live a healthy life and hopefully not get things like ich (and therefore in turn less need to medicate fish because they stay healthy).

Secondly I found you answer quite harsh. Whilst I now am beginning to understand a little about tropical fish and quite a lot about the nitrogen cycle. I am sure you can appreciate that to start with it is a little confusing.

The first hand advice I was given before I found TFF was only from lfs's and any other info was just reading what I could find.

I checked out the fish i bought beforehand and was ASSURED by 5 lfs's that they can take or leave salt. Whilst I do appriciate with further learning that they are brackish fish, the advice i was given at the time was that if they are bred never haveing been in brackish water they are fine/better to continue that way, and the shop that i purchased them from told me they were bred/came from fresh water.

I have considered using salt but come back to the advice given originally. Therefore I am in the process of looking into it further. I also have a bristle nose and Oto and I believe (but not too sure yet) that they would not like the salt.

Whilst I appreciate all advice, it would be nice if it could be put across in a fashion that was not so belittling. Yes we can all make mistakes but we learn from these and hopefully provide the best environment we can for our fish.

With that said, I'd like to thank you for your advice.

I am, however, still worried about trish, surely if it was just because of lack of brackish water the other 4 molly's would also be acting strange

 

[Joby]

How is she today?

I don't have mollies myself but could only think of pregnancy perhaps causing strange behaviour?

I have salt in all my tanks even the goldfish and have only had any disease problems when adding new fish and not quarantining (in the early stages of fish keeping <slaps self on wrist> and when I didn't know better). Might be worth putting some in so long as it doesn't upset the other fishes

Hope she gets back to her normal self soon

 

[fishdudein]

Skimpy, I would like to apologize if my posts here have offended you, I do not mean to belittle anyone. I am surely no expert myself. My comments are just my opinion, as I said originally, there may be some on this forum who disagree with me, but I am just passing along what has worked for me in the past 35 years that I have been keeping fish. I still am learning even after all this time. When you think you've got these fish figured out, they throw you a curve ball. I understand the confusion you are experiencing.

I have bought some very beautiful, expensive mollies in the past to keep in a community tank in my living room. They never lived longer than 8 or 9 months. No mass die-offs. One here, one there, pretty soon they're all gone. Very, very frustrating.

Then I stopped in a lfs that I discovered while out of town one day. The man had a tank full of the most beautiful sailfin mollies I had ever seen. I admired them, but told him I was unable to keep them alive very long, so I would have to pass them by. He explained to me, as I was trying to explain to you, that not all fishes are the same, they come from all over the world, and it is up to us to determine what their special needs are and meet those needs, when we do that we can be successful fishkeepers. This man took time out of his day to really talk with me about my fish and the way that I keep them. It's a shame there aren't more shopkeepers like him around anymore. He inspired me to be a better fishkeeper. I bought some of his mollies, gave them a tank of their own, slowly adjusted their water to a brackish environment, made sure they had a diet high in vegetable matter, did regular water changes, etc. They not only lived, but they THRIVED! I had more fry than I could accomodate, sold some of the excess to a lfs nearby, and kept these mollies for several generations. I just needed someone to point me in the right direction in the beginning.

In your first post you give your water parameters, etc. and a good description of your tank. It sounds like you are very conscientious about your fish. Regular water changes are very important, you are varying their diet, it doesn't appear that Trish is getting picked on by any of her tankmates, you have live plants in the tank. These are all very good signs, what you are doing is right. You may be very slightly overstocked, 20 fish in a 15 gallon, but your fish are small enough to not create a heavy bio-load, you are doing weekly 28% water changes, so I don't think that is the problem. You say you haven't added any fish, so there shouldn't be any introduced disease. Appleblossom mentioned old age, you don't think that is the issue. The molly's need for brackish water is the only problem that I can see with your setup.

I am not familiar with the product you are using as a tonic. I'm not sure if it is sold here in the States, if it is I would probably be the last person to know about it anyway. I didn't mean to come across as putting you down for using it. I have tried several of these things and haven't found one yet that did what it claimed it would do. I would rather spend my money on something that will help to replace in the aquarium what is missing from what the fish would have in it's natural environment. In other words, as I said, peat, crushed coral, salt, driftwood, etc......natural things. Keeping things simple is always better, I try to avoid any chemical additives at all. Treating disease is another matter, but treating the tank when there is no disease present is, in my opinion, useless.

Asking for advice at the LFS is a good idea, but remember that they are in business to sell you some fish. If they can sell you some fish and then you have to come back every few months and pick up a bottle of tonic to keep them alive, or buy replacements for them, then that is more money in their pocket. Some stores are very good, some aren't. Some of the ones that aren't nonetheless have some very good people working there. You need to do a little research, ask these guys some questions that you already know the answer to and see what kind of answer they give you, then you will know what kind of answer to expect when you have a real question for them. You will soon know who to go to.

And even then, remember that what works for one person may not work for you. You can ask 20 people on this forum their opinion on keeping mollies in a community tank, and you will get different answers from them all based on their experience. You know my opinion. Maybe for others, keeping mollies for 8 or 9 months is successful, they are happy with that. I don't think that is what you want, though, so I gave you my advice based on my experience. I'm not sure what I said that you interpreted as harsh or belittling, please be assured that I did not mean it to be taken in that tone, I am only trying to help.

Wishing you good luck with Trish, hope she comes around and is feeling better soon.