justboots

when i went to feed this morning, one of my mollys was hanging around the bottom, nibbling at a plastic plant. when he finally came up, i noticed a white ring around one of his eyes, and it seems swollen. he is the smallest of the four males i have in a 5 gallon tank. wondering if this just an injury or disease. do i need to remove him for his own health or the health of the others all input is welcome. thank you.

just boots

armadillo

Hi Justboots

I've had the same thing with 2 of my mollies. One of them made it after I medicated with a broad spectrum anti biotic (eSHa 2000), the other one started to have a curved spine and did not make it second time around am afraid (it happened twice).

Pop eye can be hte result of an injury or a disease. Even as a disease, sometimes it affects one eye only. Pop eye can be the symptom of many diseases, the worst of which is TB. If your fish has other symptoms such as raised scales, swollen abdomen or belly sunken in, loss of colour, or bent spine, then you may be looking at TB, in which case it's imperative that you move your fish to a temporary container that you are ready to discard if the fish doesn't make it (apparently, TB can stick around on ornaments, glass, etc. and lay dormant for months. )

If you see no other fish with symptoms, I'd move him to a tank on his own. Make sure it's not too stressful by having similar water conditions (pH, temp, etc.) in th hospital tank as in the main tank. Also, make sure your hospital tank has a plant or something (relaxes the fish somewhat, even if a fake plant), and a hiding place.

One thing I always recommend for sick mollies is to add a bit of salt to your water if all the fish in the tank can take it. 1 table spoon per gallon is the general dose. Be careful to use aquarium salt, not rock salt/sea salt and, god forbid, table salt. Also, increase your tank temp to 30C or so, just for a few days. That tends to be good for sick fish.

Another thing to do is of course test your water for n'ites/n'ates/a'nia. The usual suspects for anything awry.

I'd also feed them food that boosts their immune system. Like food dipped in guarlic guard. Tetra does a 'tetra flake menu. One of the flavors claims to boost immune system.

I'd of course do more frequent water changes and gravel vaccuums for the duration of the problem. Make sure your fish don't get stressed by the water change by putting the water back in using a watering can. It's more relaxing for them, as they think it's raining.

Lastly, I'd use liquid vitamins, and vitamin gel if the fish will have it.

If you use a broad spectrum anti-biotic, double-check that it won't affect your good bacteria. Sometimes there's no choice and you'll need to get ready for the possibilty of a mini-cycle soon.

Amnagrla

lol listen to armadillo... she's a smart lady!

armadillo

Well, I don't know about smart, but she's certainly a lady who likes to make thorough points! LOL.

How's your molly now?

justboots

frenchy [my sick molly] is doing better. though he still spends most of the day near the plants and the bridge. this may be due to bullying by the other males. he seems to have a little loss of color under his chin, but does not looked bloated, bent or have sdticky out scales. he came up and ate very vigersouly last night, and his eye seems less swollen. another fish, cosmo, has taken the habit of staying near the top of the tank near the filter suck in portion. he doesn't look weird at all, and is eating just fine. i put salt [aquarium of corse] in the tank when i started it, and the temp should be fairly warm as it is very hot where i live. should i add more salt? if i were to move frenchy, he would need a tank with a filter and such too, not just a bowl right? i am asuming i get testing kits and the broad spec meds at my pet store. would it be safe to medicate the whole tank? or could this harm my healthy fish if this is just an injury and not a disease? thank for all your help. will keep you posted.

just boots

armadillo

That's good to hear (that he's feeling better).

It's never a good idea to medicate non-sick fish, as medication can actually hurt the fish (and your bacterial fauna) and should really only be used if on sick fish, or at least if a majority of your fish are sick of the same disease. It is actually downright dangerous to medicate a tank that has scaleless tankmates, such as some plecos or otos; or if some of the tank mates are very young.

A hospital tank can just a container but preferably heatered and filtered. Sick fish recover better in warmer and cleaner water.

Yes, your local pet store should carry the meds and the salt. But I'd act quick if you still think it's sick, or you might have to deal with much worse symptoms. When you buy the test kits, insist that they sell you the liquid type. A lot of people have had a bad experience with the paper strip type.

What do you mean you put salt in the tank when you started it? With weekly water changes/gravel vaccuums, that original amount of salt should be gone by now. Do I understand you right? Oh, and when you add salt, don't add it directly to the tank. Add it to the bucket you're using to put the water back in after a water change. Use 1 tablespoon per bucket gallon. What I mean is do not calculate how much salt your tank needs in total, and put it all in one bucket. Count how many gallons there are in your bucket and add that quantity of salt. If you want to end up with an average concentration of 1 tablespoon per gallon in the whole tank, you'll simply have to do close to 100% water change.

justboots

when i first got the tank, i had already read that mollys do well with salted water, and a good fish friend told me this also. so i purchased salt, and added it accordingliy before the fish were introduced. i have had the tank 3 weeks, to a month, and have yet changed the water. do i need to change it if it isn't cloudy or dirty? the four mollys are all that is in there. i am going to go get a testing kit right now, so i can be sure the water is safe. will the test tell me what my water should be at or do i need to look that up according to mollys? all the fish are eating well, and frenchy seems to have two to three small scapes on his back. i am pretty sure he is just being bullied by the two bigger mollys, as they chase him off if it isn't feeding time and he wanders to the top of the tank at all. the other odd acting fish seems to be having more normal also. maybe he likes the noise of the filter or something, not sure... thank you for all of your help.

boots

justboots

so i come home from work today and now i have two fish who look odd. i seperated the original fish, by putting him into a breeder floating tank with a plant so the others would leave him alone and to be sure he was able to eat. i get home, and him and another fish look like they are shedding/molting/peeling. do fish do this as a normal thing or in response to an injury everyone is eating, but the free odd looking fish seems less active, and instead of haning out by the filter is hanging out by the fish in the breeder. yea!!! more issues.

boots

Amnagrla

Yes, you need to change the water even if it doesn't look dirty or cloudy. The testing kit usually tells you what the levels should be at... but I would read these articles, they will help TONS!

http://www.fishlore.com/Beginners.htm

http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm

armadillo

OK, justboots. The good news is that it is not normal to have so many issues. What I mean is please don't pack up your aquarium and stop with the hobby, you're not having a normal situation.

Secondly, things hanging off fish could well be fungus. Does it look white and fluffy at all? A picture would help.

Thirdly, and most importantly, this is something I didn't know either when I first started, so please don't feel scolded or anything, but yes, it is imperative that you do at least a 25% water change every week. No matter whether the water is cloudy or not. This is because the fish get poisoned by their own waste, as in nature, they live in muuuuch larger bodies of water so waste disposal is not an issue. If you wait until your water is cloudy, most of your fish will have died of various diseases.

Forthly, and this is the most complicated: new tanks suffer from what is called the new tank syndrome. This means that the gravel and filter material have not yet developed the ability to treat fish waste, and this means that the fish waste is extremely poisonous to the fish, not just a little poisonous, as it is normally. What you need to do is test for ammonia and nitrites and if you see as much as a trace of it, do a water change. You'll need to test your water daily for now, until you read no more nitrites/ammonia, then you can go back to the maintenance routine I indicate below.

Fifthly (as if you could say that! ), this is what your maintenance routine should be like under normal circumstances: weekly gravel vaccuum, weekly partial water change (25% or 50%, depending on how the fish respond), and as-and-when filter sponge rinsing (in a bucket of water that you took from your tank. This is important).

6/ What do you condition your water with? I would recommend Seachem Prime.