CristinaWare

I have a dalmation molly that I bought one day ago at PetCo who is having problems staying upright. I watched the tank at the store for 30 minutes before buying him to make sure all were okay and then picked him out. I put him in my established quarantine tank and he was doing well at first. After 4 hours he sank into one corner and wouldn't leave. Then he started flipping sideways and even flipped upside down a few times. He got worse by last night, having problems staying right side up and off the bottom, and I didn't think he'd make it through the night. I was surprised to see him doing better this morning but he is still slowly listing to the side from time to time. He won't eat though. Could this be a swim bladder problem, or and infection? He has no ICH spots or fin bites, and his eyes are still clear. He appears healthy in every way but this.

My water is at 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrate, 5 PPM nitrite, 7.4 pH, and 75 degrees. I'm not sure what to do and I would like to save him if possible. He is very beautiful, more white than black. I am willing to buy any medication he would need.Please help!

platy ben

Sounds like a swim bladder problem to me. I'm not sure of any cures for this I'm afraid .
Your QT tank is 1 Gallon? Surely thats not big enough for the molly?

CristinaWare

I'm getting a 5 gallon tank this week, and that should be big enough. I don't usually use this tank for mollies, usually only for neons. I worry about putting a sick fish in a new tank, but I'm going to transplant some rock and water from a water change from my 30 gallon to it and hope that gives me a jump start on the cycling. I'm afraid it's his swim bladder too. I had heard of whirlings disease, but I can't find anything much on it except the symptoms, and this molly only has the sideways swimming. Thanks for your help!

Tigerfishy

Aw, I'm sorry to hear this, I have some mollies too, they are lovely little fish. Hope he gets better and sending little fishy wishes from my mollies to yours

CristinaWare

Thanks! As of Thursday, he was a whole lot better, and eating normally again. He is back in the big tank with the other mollies, and after a few hours of the other male asserting his dominance with a couple of fin nips everything is fine. I bought two males when I should have bought two more females and there is a little tension competing for the females attention, but they settled who was in charge and all is well now. I'm still watching him, and checking to make sure his tail heals from the two nips. I won't buy fish at Petco again though. I believe the lady who bagged the fish must have bumped him as she got him out, damaging his swim bladder, nevermind the fact I had to point out which ones were mollies and which were algae eaters. Seems like they could try to hire someone who knows something about fish!

platy ben

Haha

Atleast everyone is doing well

Errrm..... which is which?

Attached Images

	molly.jpg (19.7 KB, 14 views)
	697px-Chinese_algae_eater.jpg (75.6 KB, 15 views)