Worried Beginner

[radiohead]

Hi guys and girls, i've just found this site and i'm hoping you can help

I'll try an keep this short.

I set up my first tank at beginning of Janurary, had issues with cycling which resulted in a couple of deaths but thats all sorted now I think.

There are two questions I would like answering (3 if you count the disapearing siamease fighting fish but thats another story!!)

Tank is a 48ltr and has 2 Plattys, 2 Mollies, 1 siamease fighter, dwarf Gourami and a couple of tetra's

1. The female Molly has started to be a little placid of late and has what i can only describe as white stringy poo (we did have some fry from her a week or two ago. Is this something to worry about? I've only just started feeding them bloodworm recently, does this have anything to do with it? Do i need to get medication? or is she a gonner?

2. I was cleaning my gravel tonight and found something weird under my driftwood moss thing... I can only describe it as a translucent newt looking thing, it was tiny with 4 legs a long body (if you will) which look like a tale. Any guesses to what this maybe, as to my knowledge fish do not have legs!!!

well t hanks for reading and any help would be great

 

[-FighterFishh]

Hi guys and girls, i've just found this site and i'm hoping you can help

I'll try an keep this short.

I set up my first tank at beginning of Janurary, had issues with cycling which resulted in a couple of deaths but thats all sorted now I think.

There are two questions I would like answering (3 if you count the disapearing siamease fighting fish but thats another story!!)

Tank is a 48ltr and has 2 Plattys, 2 Mollies, 1 siamease fighter, dwarf Gourami and a couple of tetra's

1. The female Molly has started to be a little placid of late and has what i can only describe as white stringy poo (we did have some fry from her a week or two ago. Is this something to worry about? I've only just started feeding them bloodworm recently, does this have anything to do with it? Do i need to get medication? or is she a gonner?

2. I was cleaning my gravel tonight and found something weird under my driftwood moss thing... I can only describe it as a translucent newt looking thing, it was tiny with 4 legs a long body (if you will) which look like a tale. Any guesses to what this maybe, as to my knowledge fish do not have legs!!!

well t hanks for reading and any help would be great

I'm afraid I can't help you with your questions, but I may be able to give you some advice on your siamese fighters
If it was one male and one female, or two males, chances are the male killed the other fish and then he was eaten by the other fish.
What gender were they? It should help you try and find out why it disappeared!

 

[radiohead]

The fighter is a complete mistery, I only bought a male as I was advised not to out more than one in the tank. Had him for about a week and then he was gone, I gutted the tank of plants etc and he was no where to be found, even checked the filter.... If he died, could the other fish have eaten him in less then say 8 hours when I was at work? Only just bought the new fighter this weekend...

 

[markandhisfish]

the symptoms you describe in your molly could be either internal bacterial infection or internal parasite. other than the white stringy poo . does the fish show any other sypmtoms , such as hiding away , loss of apetite , lethargy , etc?

 

[Curiosity101]

2. I was cleaning my gravel tonight and found something weird under my driftwood moss thing... I can only describe it as a translucent newt looking thing, it was tiny with 4 legs a long body (if you will) which look like a tale. Any guesses to what this maybe, as to my knowledge fish do not have legs!!!

I can't think of anything other than frogs/newts to be honest. But pictures are going to be your best bet. If you could try to net it out and put it in a tub floating in the tank that might be best. That way if it's in any way likely to eat fish then you've got it contained.

 

[radiohead]

the symptoms you describe in your molly could be either internal bacterial infection or internal parasite. other than the white stringy poo . does the fish show any other sypmtoms , such as hiding away , loss of apetite , lethargy , etc?

Hi - yes she is hiding away, not fed them for a day or two though as they had the bloodworm, her gills do seem to be going faster than normally though now i've looked.

2. I was cleaning my gravel tonight and found something weird under my driftwood moss thing... I can only describe it as a translucent newt looking thing, it was tiny with 4 legs a long body (if you will) which look like a tale. Any guesses to what this maybe, as to my knowledge fish do not have legs!!!

I can't think of anything other than frogs/newts to be honest. But pictures are going to be your best bet. If you could try to net it out and put it in a tub floating in the tank that might be best. That way if it's in any way likely to eat fish then you've got it contained.

I've no idea how a frog or newt would get in the tank - it was really really tiny not sure if i could find it again (if its still in there after the gravel clean) Do any kind of fry have 4 little front legs?

 

[markandhisfish]

deffinately sounds like an internal issue to me . when i had the same problem with 1 of my discus . octozin by waterlife sorted it for me . in the meantime try soaking some food in garlic and feeding it to her . this will (assuming she eats it) help boost her immune system . the garlic can also help increase appetite too .

 

[-FighterFishh]

The fighter is a complete mistery, I only bought a male as I was advised not to out more than one in the tank. Had him for about a week and then he was gone, I gutted the tank of plants etc and he was no where to be found, even checked the filter.... If he died, could the other fish have eaten him in less then say 8 hours when I was at work? Only just bought the new fighter this weekend...

Oh. Very strange.
It MAY have been eaten in 8 hours. I had two male platies once, and one just disappeared while I was at school, but I only noticed when I went to bed. We searched through all the tank and never found any trace of him. No ammonia or nitrite spikes, nothing. So I suppose we can only presume that they died and were eaten!

 

[fishlove75]

Hello, It seems like you have received some good advice already. But i will go ahead and add/reiterate a few things.

First it definately sounds like your molly has some kind of internal issue going on. White stringy poo is never a good sign, it usually indicates some kind of internal parasite (experts please correct if I am wrong). You may have to medicate for it, if none of your other fish are showing signs you may want to isolate the molly in a QT tank and treat with an internal parasite med (check you local stores, or someone here may know the names of the meds)

Second, check your water stats. If your tank is up and running for only a month you may not be fully cycled (unless you cycled before you added your fish) and your fish may be experiencing the effect of high ammonia and/or nitrite levels.

Third, the missing Betta. Is it at all possible that he jumped out of the tank? Check around the tank and see if you find him. I have just started keeping Bettas myself so not overly familliar with the behaviour, not sure if they fall into the "jumper" catagory of fish. But as there is no sign of him at all that is a possibility, or he may have died and the other fish ate him (it is possible to do in 8 hours).

Finally, as for the mysterious creature, it is really hard to say what it could be without pictures. If you are able to find it again try to get a picture that would help out a lot. It could be any number of things from a newt (as mentioned earlier) or even something as simple as a piece of food that went moldy. That happened to me once, a piece of food that I didn't catch got left in the tank and when I went to do the next water change I found this oddly shapped translucent thing under a cave I scooped it out of the tank and started to investigate and sure enough there was a small pellet under all that slim.

Best of luck and keep us posted.

 

[radiohead]

Thanks for all the help and advice. I have started to treat the tank with Octozin, I dont have a QT tank but was told it wont do any harm to the other fish so the whole tank is being treated.

As for the dissapearing fighter - im putting that down to it being eaten.

And finally the little thing in the tank was definatley alive and moving but I think I scooped it up while cleaning the gravel - I was just interested to know what it could be.

Thanks again for all your posts - i'll let you know how it works out with the Octozin

 

[markandhisfish]

good luck . keep us posted

 

[VickiandKev]

Hi,

Hope all is going better for you. It could be worms that your molly had but then again you said you had just started feeding bloodworm so it could be undigested bloodworm. If she is showing any other worrying signs (like the fast breathing you mentioned) would suggest using your meds for worms. I can say its almost defo not bacterial as systemic bacterial infections are characterised by red tips to fins.

hope that helps

cheers

 

[markandhisfish]

i would expect undigested bloodworm to still resemble bloodworm . ie be red . from the symptoms described this fish is showing classic signs of internal parasite . the octozin should knock it out