Vertical Molly

[cferns]

Hi All

I have lost of a couple of mollies in the last couple of weeks including one on Monday. Now one of my female mollies is swimming vertically in the tank.

It is a 75 litre tank set at 24 degrees. Unfortunately I bought test strips that do not measure amonia so I can't tell you what that is at the moment but NO2 and NO3 appear normal and PH is about 7.6.

The tank has been running since July and contains the following:

6 Platies
5 Pristella tetra (x-ray)
2 Glowlight tetra
9 Mollies
Since Monday I have 12 molly fry (5 more rescued on Monday on top of the 7 I already have, they are about 1 cm long)
2 Chameleon shrimp

I only added the shrimp on Sunday and they seem to hide all of the time.

These problems seem to start at the same time as I introduced some live plants to the tank and accidently bought in some snails.

I have just done a 50% water change.

Tank is an Aqua one aqua style 510 with the filtration built into the hood.

Any advice gratefully received.

Thanks
Chris

 

[smegforbrains]

Tank sounds a little over-stocked without including fry.


Is the affected Molly the parent to the fry?


I had a Molly give birth a while ago and she suffered big time. I had to euthanise a few days later as she could hardly swim at all.


Does she look like she is using the whole of her rear end to move rather than just flicking her tail fin? mine had this symptom and it looked most likely to be TB.

 

[cferns]

Tank sounds a little over-stocked without including fry.


Is the affected Molly the parent to the fry?


I had a Molly give birth a while ago and she suffered big time. I had to euthanise a few days later as she could hardly swim at all.


Does she look like she is using the whole of her rear end to move rather than just flicking her tail fin? mine had this symptom and it looked most likely to be TB.

Don't think she is the parent to the fry but she may have had some recently. I'm not used to spotting when they are about to drop yet. It does look like the whole rear end is moving rather than the tail.

The one that dies on Monday appeared to have brusing on her body.

Thanks for your feedback. If it is TB can is it contageous [sp]?

 

[smegforbrains]

Bruising?

Did it look like she had been attacked? Were there any wounds visible?


I've known Tetras to be rather happy to nip long fins all day long.


The best thing to do would be to isolate the Molly asap. TB, as far as I know, can spread to other fish.


If you don't have a spare tank, float a bowl in the main tank. Put 50% tank water and 50% fresh in.


I would advise a 50% water change on the main tank and a course of treatment to get rid of any nasties that may be lurking. Melafix is a good all-rounder.

However, I cannot stress enough the need for a good test kit like the API Master Kit. It really is worth the investment.


A set of test results including Ammonia, NitrITE and NitrATE would help us no end.

 

[cferns]

Thanks for your help.

There were no obvious exposed wounds just looked like burgundy spots over her body (she was yellow). The tetras have been in there for a couple of months and there have been no problems. The only recent addition was the shrimps.

I did a 50% water change about 2 hours ago.

Looks like a trip to the LFS tomorrow.

Thanks again!!

Chris

 

[WILDER]

Take a sample of your water to the lfs and ask them to write the readings down for you.
Test strip cards are not accurate, liquid test kits are the best.

If a fish looks like there tails weighing them down in the water it can be swim bladder.
Any fish look bloated or thin.
What does it look like when the fish go to the toilet.
Any fish every had sunken in bellys.
Check the anus of the fish to see if it enlarged or red and inflamed.
Lost any fish to bent spines.
Bruising bemeath the skin can be septicemia.
The spots do they have any whiteness to them.
Any signs of flicking and rubbing.
Melafix is expensive and overated. Its only good on cuts and wounds and thats it.

 

[cferns]

Take a sample of your water to the lfs and ask them to write the readings down for you.
Test strip cards are not accurate, liquid test kits are the best.

If a fish looks like there tails weighing them down in the water it can be swim bladder.
Any fish look bloated or thin.
What does it look like when the fish go to the toilet.
Any fish every had sunken in bellys.
Check the anus of the fish to see if it enlarged or red and inflamed.
Lost any fish to bent spines.
Bruising bemeath the skin can be septicemia.
The spots do they have any whiteness to them.
Any signs of flicking and rubbing.
Melafix is expensive and overated. Its only good on cuts and wounds and thats it.

Going to see about a test kit at the LFS at lunchtime today. Will post the results as soon as possible.

She is back swimming horizontally this morning but not moving normally. One of the male mollies (a black one) looks thin.
The poo is normally long and quite thick (i.e. looks normal) but a couple of times I have noticed it like a piece of cotton.
No sign of suken bellys
The anus does not look enlarged, red or inflamed.
No fish lost to bent spines and I have had white spot before (about 2 months ago) and treated it. No sign of it back.

 

[WILDER]

Fish that look thin means old age, not feeding enough, fish tb, internal parasites.
I think I would worm your fish with one being skinny and some producing long stringy white poo.
Internal parasites damage the organs and cause bacterial infections.

There this med for internal parasites.
http/www.thegreenmachineaquatics.com/mal...ol%20001/198936

 

[cferns]

Right then. Couldn't get the API kit the LFS didn't have one. Instead got a nutrafin kit and the readings are as follows:

Amonia 0 mg/l
Nitrite no2 0.3mg/l
Nitrate no3 110 mg/l
PH 8

Sick Molly is still alive and back to swimming horizontally and all the others are still alive. I've got some Interpet Anti Internal Bacteria which I am going to put in before I go to bed (LFS didn't have the one you rceommended Wilder and I want to get this sorted before the kids get any more stressed by the fish dying!!!).

Cheers
Chris

 

[WILDER]

Your tanks overstocked and your water stats are telling you that.
Your nitrate reading high, above hundred it wants fetching down.
What's your tap nitrate reading.
If you want to keep all the fish I would add another filter to the tank.
When did you last rinse a filter sponge in old tank water.
I would rinse one of your sponges in old tank water if its really mucked up.
How often do you preform a gravel vac and water change.

I would buy the internal parasite med online.

 

[cferns]

OK, Thanks. I guess I now have three options:

- Buy a bigger tank, cycle it ant put the fish in.
- Buy an additional filter for the current tank
- Return some of the fish

One of the newer LFS has told me I can take a few of the fish in and swap them. Was thinking of taking of taking 4 platies, 2 mollies and the two glowlight tetras and just getting two or three back. Probably something different but not to large. Any suggestions? Once the molly fry get bigger I want to ship those off to another LFS.

 

[Corleone]

An additional filter might eventually help clear up the nitrIte, but the nitrate won't go anywhere unless you do water changes. If it weren't for the number of livebearers, I might suggest increasing water changes to 50% twice a week until you could upgrade, but in this case, I'd suggest trying to return some of the livebearers, as they're the messiest fish in the tank and the bulk of your stocking.

Do you know how many of each gender you have? Eliminating all the females might be enough (possibly more than enough) - male platys and mollies are a little bit smaller, and without females around you won't have to worry about babies raising your stock farther.

 

[cferns]

An additional filter might eventually help clear up the nitrIte, but the nitrate won't go anywhere unless you do water changes. If it weren't for the number of livebearers, I might suggest increasing water changes to 50% twice a week until you could upgrade, but in this case, I'd suggest trying to return some of the livebearers, as they're the messiest fish in the tank and the bulk of your stocking.

Do you know how many of each gender you have? Eliminating all the females might be enough (possibly more than enough) - male platys and mollies are a little bit smaller, and without females around you won't have to worry about babies raising your stock farther.

As far as I know all of the platies are male. There are three male and six female. I don't know about the fry yet.

I was thinking of returning (swaping) 4 of the platies and 2 or 3 of the mollies and maybe the glowlights and bringing back just 2/3 new fish, something cleaner. So return 9 fish and come back with 2/3.

Does that sound better and what would you recommend?

Many thanks for all of you help!

Chris

 

[Truck]

Test strip cards are not accurate, liquid test kits are the best

how can the 5 in 1 test strips not be accurate, when there exactly the same as what doctors use? if they were inaccurate, why would a doctor take a urine sample and prescribe antibiotics if not accurate? the API 5 in 1 test strips are exactly the same as the regency 100 urine test strips used by doctors

 

[cferns]

Hello again

Did another water change yesterday and swapped over a load of fish.

I took back 4 of the platies, 3 mollies and the 2 glowlight tetra and replaced then with 4 black widow tetra. The molly fry will be next to go as soon as they are big enough.

So that leaves

2 Platies
6 Mollys (plus the fry)
5 Pristella (xray tetra)
4 Black widow tetra
2 Chameleon shrimp.


I'll test the water again this evening