Moldy fish?!?!

This is a dumb question - but to fish shed skin? My black balloon molly looks like he's growing.. blue mold I'll try to get a pic up ASAP. The white molly I have looks totally normal.

 

some times black mollies loose some color on thier scales and it look s a dark blue . for mollies to do well the need salt or they will die

 

I can tell you from experience that in a small tank like a 1.5 or a 2g that the water parameters can get out of wack very quickly, I've seen the ammonia go from 0 to off the charts within a single day.

 

I agree 100% with you I had a 5 gallon at first and I could never seem to get it stable. I got a 20 Gallon with a canister filter and everything has been perfect since. I kinda think the filters in a 2 gallon are probably going to be a little hard to maintain the good bactreria for stability.

 

I have a few :whistling: tanks 5g and under and have no problems keeping them on track...they key to them is to NOT overstock/overfeed and do proper maintenance on them ...but the larger the tank, the easier it is to keep for sure

 

Me too Shawnie....I admit to it! ;D But like you said as long as your careful there really isnt anything wrong with them....

 

I mean no disrespect, because I love all the help I've been getting from everyone here. But I know my tank is too small. I know a need a bigger one. It's just not feasible right now. My lease wont allow for a bigger tank, and my mom is already taking care of my hellion cat while I'm at school. It wouldn't be fair to her to ask if she could take on looking after an aquarium too... I just want to know how I can make do with what I have until it is possible for me to get them the right tank...

All I wanna know is what could be making my fish look moldy, and how can I make sure his (now starting) fin rot doesn't get any worse until I can get a bigger tank...

 

I've been changing the water about 40-50% every day save the one day I missed. Every other day I've been doing readings and they've been pretty consistent since I began on the 4th. As of today my readings are:

Ammonia: .25ppm
Nitrite: 5.0ppm
Nitrate: 80ppm

Im thinking about getting a ten gallon tank, or a 5gal at the very least, until I move back home. However, I'm worried the new tank won't be ready for them until it's time for me to move out (leaving in May) and then I would have to dump out the water for the move & start all over again. I feel really bad for Jim, the moldy (He legit looks like there is a fungus growing on him) looking one, he's been hanging out in his plant today. He ate this morning, although the female, Nan, always gets most of the food - I think she's part pig. As for Nan, she isn't looking moldy at all, except for a couple spots on her back fin.

Since I started using Prime, I stopped using aquarium salts for freshwater fish. It has been since then that Jim started looking a little on the rough side. Should I start using the salts again to see if it helps at all? Or is that something that I should not use while I am treating the tank with Prime?

 

i agree with everyone else on the tank size but that water test shows that the water is not so good right now which is an effect from the fish and other things. did you cycle the tank before you got the fish?

 

I didn't cycle the tank before hand - I didn't know i had to. Currently I'm doing 50% water changes daily and using Prime. I missed one day of changing the water, and somehow the heater came unplugged & it was about 60°F when I found it yesterday & plugged it back in. Right now it's about 72°F.

 

OK! I will def try this! Wasn't sure if it would shock them to do 2 changes in one day. Thanks for the tip!

 

IME your fish probably wont make it but if you keep doing water changes and treating the water you might have a chance

 

I put in a little aquarium salts for freshwater fish because the box says that it helps with stress and disease. They seemed to be doing a lot better with when I was using the freshwater slat, and didn't start looking sickly until I stopped (when I started using Prime). Maybe instead of doing a 50% water change twice a day.. would it be better to do 50% now & 25% later tonight?

It probably doesn't help that I was only adding 1/2 the Prime I should have been... I re-read the label just now and I've been 2 drops short.

& Josh11551 - I'm hoping my experience goes a little smoother!!:-\

 

With nitrite and nitrate levels of 5.0 and 80 respectively, it's amazing the fish are still alive as those levels are highly toxic. But there may still be a chance to save them. After doing two 50% water changes within 24 hours, I'd recommend switching to Amquel+ to treat your water, as you'll get more mileage out of it than Prime. Each dose of Prime is effective for only 24 hrs and then the toxins are unbound and harmful again. Conversely, each dose of Amquel+ works permanently - there is no need to dose again until new toxins are produced. I cycled a 2.5 gallon tank with 2 fish using it and they came through unharmed. I changed 50% of the water twice a week, adding Amquel+ to the new water. This method works well because Amquel+ doubles as a water conditioner that removes chlorine and other harmful elements in tap water. Further, if there are no toxins present when Amquel is added, it just sits there until there are some for it to eliminate. Thus there was always new Amquel in the water lying in wait for new toxins to emerge.

For your fin rot and fungal problems, I recommend a regimin of treatment that includes both Melafix and Pimafix used together. That should knock both ailments right out - that is if your fish survive the current toxicity of your water.

 

I was considering using some treatment. I have antibiotics left from a betta that had fin rot. A friend came by my apartment last night - he keeps fish - and told me he thought what looked like fungus was actually ich... I assume he would know better than I would... but I hesitated to use mediation on them since the levels are so toxic. As of right now, both fish are swimming around like they usually do... eating fine... So i might hold off until the nitrates and nitrites are at a level.

 

Add prime... don't use prime (use Amquel)
Add salt... Don't need salt
The temp was mid 70's dropped to 60 and now back to 72.
Now lets throw in some Melafix and Primafix.
And we all agree that the tank is too small (but what's done is done)

>>>and your goal is to stabilize a 2.5 gal tank?

You guys need to stop all of this!
Just do as many water changes as feasible and count off 4-6 weeks.
THAT'S IT