swoozypoo

One of my molly fry (about 4-5 months old) has been floating belly up for about a week. She seems to be fine otherwise but can only swim around for a short time before floating to the top again. There is one other molly fry and 2 African dwarf frogs in the tank (10gal). I stopped feeding the fish for several days (the frogs I fed because that food is at the bottom and the molly won't go down there to get it). I also increased the temperature a little (78F). These things haven't seemed to help. I have read about the pea trick but does anyone have any ideas on how I could feed it to the sick fish. She won't go to the bottom to eat it. My tank readings are ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 10-20, pH 7.2 (been cycled for about 6 months). Any help would be appreciated.

Richard

I'd seriously recommend you have a tank for your fry only.. it doesn't have to be anything big and expensive, a 1-3 gallon plastic tank would work fine.. the fact that your Molly-Fry don't go down to eat at the bottom is because of the Frogs, but Mollies at any age are enthusiastic bottom feeders and in fact do a pretty good job of helping keep the bottom of your tank clean between feedings (along with any Cories, Plecos, Catfish, or Loaches you may have).. fry require more feeding-times daily than mature fish, but since that's difficult to do unless you're home everyday all day, they will head to the bottom to feed when they're hungry in between the times you feed them, so it's better for them if they have no competion at the bottom at those times.. as for your sick fry, that's a tough one, the only thing I've ever been able to cure on fry is ICH.. but ailments that require them to eat something like a pea will require you serving a portion in such a way that it's small enough for their small mouths.

Stradius011

I agree with Richard.

swoozypoo

I think I worded someting wrong in my first post. It's not that they won't go to the bottom to eat, she can't get to the bottom because she is floating at the top like a beach ball would do in the water. They had no problems eating at the bottom before, and actually when I feed the frogs the frozen brine shrimo, they all eat together. My dilemma was that when I crushed up the pea, it sank and she cannot swim down to get it. I have been using a net to basically hand feed her the pea. It hasn't worked as of yet, the pea treatment. I also broke down and am doing a maracyn-two treatment in case of an internal parasite. It has been almost 2 weeks and the poor little fry is just hanging in there. I also put her in my fry net cage thing so she doesn't have to deal with the filter and struggle to get away from it. I am just hoping for a miraculus recovery I guess.