Fish Death From Disease, And Fry In The Same Day .. What Do I Do

So.. weird thing happened.
I introduced mollies into my 10 gallon tank to temporarily home,
2 out of the 3 mollies died very quickly from what I thought was swim bladder, today- my Betta, the original inhabitant was suddenly SUPER sick, and it clearly was columnaris. I head out to get supplies, get back and he's dead. The one Molly is currently the only inhabitant of the tank... Well.... Actually- she gave birth,
So I have a tank infected with columnaris, along with God knows how many fish fry. What do I do

 

Tough call. You could try to get the fry into a separate tank just in case they're not already infected with the bacteria. You'd have to set up the filter separately without using any media from the current hospital tank. You could use Stability to try to get the beneficial bacteria going faster in the fry tank. It can be dicey--I've had low survival in emergency fry quarantine tanks. But it you keep them with their mother in the hospital tank, they will definitely pick up the bacteria.

 

Tough call. You could try to get the fry into a separate tank just in case they're not already infected with the bacteria. You'd have to set up the filter separately without using any media from the current hospital tank. You could use Stability to try to get the beneficial bacteria going faster in the fry tank. It can be dicey--I've had low survival in emergency fry quarantine tanks. But it you keep them with their mother in the hospital tank, they will definitely pick up the bacteria.

Thanks, it's weird. The mother is the only one in the tank who wasn't affected whatsoever by the bacteria. Why do you think that is? Is it possible she could have bullied the other fish so bad that they became weak from stress?

 

Thanks, it's weird. The mother is the only one in the tank who wasn't affected whatsoever by the bacteria. Why do you think that is? Is it possible she could have bullied the other fish so bad that they became weak from stress?

Who knows? She may be a stronger individual who is now a carrier of the bacteria but hasn't succumbed to it, or she may not have it yet. If she didn't have it while the babies were in utero, there's a chance they don't have it yet. Then again, some of the fry might have it and others not yet. The world is very imperfect, and epidemiology is a complex subject. My father was a medical student in the 1950's, and his epidemiology professor failed the entire class, and they had to retake it. Then by the 1970's, my father told me everything he had learned from his professor and textbooks ended up being disproven.

 

Who knows? She may be a stronger individual who is now a carrier of the bacteria but hasn't succumbed to it, or she may not have it yet. If she didn't have it while the babies were in utero, there's a chance they don't have it yet. Then again, some of the fry might have it and others not yet. The world is very imperfect, and epidemiology is a complex subject. My father was a medical student in the 1950's, and his epidemiology professor failed the entire class, and they had to retake it. Then by the 1970's, my father told me everything he had learned from his professor and textbooks ended up being disproven.

From what I read this bacteria is pretty much opportunistic, maybe I'm being too optimistic here, but it's gonna be a little while before I can get a quarantine tank up and running

 

From what I read this bacteria is pretty much opportunistic, maybe I'm being too optimistic here, but it's gonna be a little while before I can get a quarantine tank up and running

Do what you can and try not to beat yourself up if you lose them all. We can only do our best with the limiting factors at any given time.