Molly Illness? Stress?

Tank

What is the water volume of the tank? 40 gal
How long has the tank been running? 2 weeks
Does it have a filter? Yes, HOB w/pre-filter and a sponge filter/bubbler
Does it have a heater? Yes, digital pre set
What is the water temperature? 77F
What is the entire stocking of this tank? 4 panda mollies lyretail (one juvenile 2 female adults breeding, and 1 Male dad) 1 dalmatian female lyretail and 1 oto catfish/sucker (Please list all fish and inverts.)

Maintenance
How often do you change the water? About once a week, just newly set this up and have done 2 25% water changes since adding fish
How much of the water do you change? About 25%
What do you use to treat your water? Prime and stability (both seachem)
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water? Substrate, may do an only water change due to just adding sand to the tank, still a bit cloudy

*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? Yes, also transferred bio filter from already established tank when I moved fish over
What do you use to test the water? Tetra test strips 6 in 1 as well as an ammonia one, no I'm not purchasing an API master kit, that has been debunked tetra test strips are just as accurate as the master kit.
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0 with little pink under 20
pH: 6.8
Hardness: 25
(I added hardness because I want to know if this could possibly be the cause)

Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? Twice a day
How much do you feed your fish? Hard to say I use flake food so I feed a bit and crunch it up for them to eat easier, and I give about 3 to 4 algae tabs
What brand of food do you feed your fish? Omega one
Do you feed frozen or freeze-dried foods? No, I would love to I just haven't gotten it yet.

Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish? 6 months
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms? A few weeks, just hasnt gotten better
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms? Gulping/chomping at the water column with a twitch (NOT shimmy), red orange gills/cheeks (has gotten a bit better) new symptom is starting to swim with tail down has a bit of clamped fins again.
Have you started any treatment for the illness? Not sure what treatment other then a water change
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase? No
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all? Symptoms have been listed above

Explain your emergency situation in detail. (Please give a clear explanation of what is going on, include details from the beginning of the illness leading up to now)
I had her and the other panda mollies including the juvenile in my established 10 gal tank with 2 new baby arrivals unsure which momma they belong to. She was hanging out at the bottom for a few days then I did a water change as it was suspected she could be very sensitive to ammonia. So I changed their water 25% and she seemed a bit better swimming around but still doing that weird twitch and chomping thing at the water column like she was trying to swallow something really big. Well a week after that I moved them all into the new main tank that is 40 goals, been keeping a close eye on parameters and she is swimming a lot more but hiding in the plants from her mate as he is well you know aggressive to say the least. Otherwise not chomping or twitching as much, eating just fine have seen her eat and still goes to town on their algae tabs. Now she seems to be swimming with her nose more upright and tail down, her poop that I have seen is more clear then normal. She has a big belly which I can only assume is her being pregnant so I'm unsure if she has bloat

Pic of molly in question. Couldnt attach a video of movement but as you can see how she is in the water, that's how she is swimming unless she is swimming fast then she looks normal.

 

Can you get closer to the tank and just take a clear picture of the fish in question? It's hard to tell anything at all from that far away. What kind of filter is that on your tank? It doesn't look like there's much water surface movement-no ripples on surface. You might want to add an airstone and get the surface water moving more. That would help get more dissolved oxygen into the water.

 

Can you get closer to the tank and just take a clear picture of the fish in question? It's hard to tell anything at all from that far away. What kind of filter is that on your tank? It doesn't look like there's much water surface movement-no ripples on surface. You might want to add an airstone and get the surface water moving more. That would help get more dissolved oxygen into the water.

Ok I took a full pic of my tank, I do have an air stone/sponge, I also have a pre filter on my HOB so my babies don't get sucked up when the girls shoot em out. I will be doing a water change tomorrow (ran out of time today). I did check my parameters today and I have 0 ammonia, 0-20 nitrate and 1.0 nitrite so there is stress in there. I'm thinking maybe because I don't have tall enough plants for the girls to hide in midlevel?

 

Ok I took a full pic of my tank, I do have an air stone/sponge, I also have a pre filter on my HOB so my babies don't get sucked up when the girls shoot em out. I will be doing a water change tomorrow (ran out of time today). I did check my parameters today and I have 0 ammonia, 0-20 nitrate and 1.0 nitrite so there is stress in there. I'm thinking maybe because I don't have tall enough plants for the girls to hide in midlevel?View attachment 579436View attachment 579437View attachment 579438

Okay, you have very good water movement and filtration. The fact that you have any nitrites is troubling though. Nitrites are toxic at any level in a tank and their presence indicates that your tank isn't fully cycled.
Do at least a 50-75% water change tomorrow and another 50% change Sunday. Those two water changes should bring your nitrites down to around .25 ppm. You'll need to get some Seachem Prime (my recommendation) or API Ammolock and start dosing the tank per the product instructions to detoxify the remainder of the nitrites until your tank is finished cycling and your nitrites drop to 0ppm. She does look rather bloated, more and a little differently than I would expect with pregnancy but it's difficult to say at this point. Her other symptoms may just be a reaction to the toxic water rather than symptoms of illness. Keep doing big enough and frequent enough water changes to keep nitrites at or below .5ppm and keep dosing the tank with Prime and see how she responds to that. If she continues to act unusual or you feel the bloating is excessive or that she's getting sicker, let us know Keep us posted. Good luck!

 

I do have and been using Prime with this tank so I'm good there! I will do a wc today and check again in 12 hrs or tomorrow just to see how things are then do as you suggested another wc Sun. So should I add Prime everyday or just when the nitrites are spiked? I'm a bit confused on that part of what you are saying or if you are just saying use prime with every wc (which I do because well I have to ) I appreciate your help and knowledge and thank you for commenting! I was also curious if she was getting bloat as well, it's hard to tell with these livebearers as they all look the same to me lol. She also hasn't been spitting out babies either and being that big I would think she would start spitting em out by now. She may have bloat and aborted?

 

I do have and been using Prime with this tank so I'm good there! I will do a wc today and check again in 12 hrs or tomorrow just to see how things are then do as you suggested another wc Sun. So should I add Prime everyday or just when the nitrites are spiked? I'm a bit confused on that part of what you are saying or if you are just saying use prime with every wc (which I do because well I have to ) I appreciate your help and knowledge and thank you for commenting! I was also curious if she was getting bloat as well, it's hard to tell with these livebearers as they all look the same to me lol. She also hasn't been spitting out babies either and being that big I would think she would start spitting em out by now. She may have bloat and aborted?

You treat the whole tank with the appropriate dose every other day and treat all replacement water with it. Do water changes to keep ammonia plus nitrites to less than 1 ppm. Watch your Mollys behavior. If she continues to act sick over the next few days, you may need to treat her. She may abort if she's sick.

 

She also hasn't been spitting out babies either and being that big I would think she would start spitting em out by now. She may have bloat and aborted?

How long have you had that particular molly and how long has she been that big?

edit: nevermind, re-read original post. Has she been that big the whole time you've been concerned about her health? Has she always been that big since you've gotten her? Has she increased in size or stayed the same?

 

How long have you had that particular molly and how long has she been that big?

edit: nevermind, re-read original post. Has she been that big the whole time you've been concerned about her health? Has she always been that big since you've gotten her? Has she increased in size or stayed the same?

She has grown in healthy size since I've had her, about 6 months now maybe longer. She has had babies but neither one of the girls would ever drop more then like 5 at a time. Shes been big like that for a week or two now I think her belly has gotten bigger somewhere in between the last weeks. From now on I really am going to try and keep a better record of when things seem off so I can better answer these questions lol. She has been swimming around more it's kind of off and on but he will not leave her side the second shes around he swims over her and she moves to great me he's all over her. He is seriously just over the top with it. I know it's their nature and this is the first livebearers I have had but dang he is aggressive with her. Not with my other females, just her.

Update: did about a 50% wc yesterday, this morning my big momma stressed fish was swimming around a lot more then she has in a while. Tested water and nitrites haven't gone down yet, will do another 50% or more wc today and of course treat with a full dose of Prime instead of just treating the new water and will check parameters tomorrow to see where we are. Based on the color I would say I'm a bit lower then 1ppm on nitrites so I see a tiny bit of improvement but I still don't like the color I see. Let you all know tomorrow!

 

Well I have been treating with Prime still, probably need to do another water change. It doesn't seem my nitrites are lowering the strip still shows pink ugh!! I'm so frustrated and my poor molly is still bloated badly, she will swim and still eats but I just feel so bad because the second she comes out of her bush the dang boy will not leave her alone he barely let's her eat. He isn't luje that with any of my other girls just her! I wonder if I should stick the fry in the main tank and out her in the cycled 10 gal (only other tank I have) and treat her with salt and get some erythromycin?

 

Well I have been treating with Prime still, probably need to do another water change. It doesn't seem my nitrites are lowering the strip still shows pink ugh!! I'm so frustrated and my poor molly is still bloated badly, she will swim and still eats but I just feel so bad because the second she comes out of her bush the dang boy will not leave her alone he barely let's her eat. He isn't luje that with any of my other girls just her! I wonder if I should stick the fry in the main tank and out her in the cycled 10 gal (only other tank I have) and treat her with salt and get some erythromycin?

What nitrite level is "pink"? What number? If 50% changes once a day isn't lowering your nitrites do bigger water changes. Do a 75% change and immediately follow it with another 50% water change. If she's eating and acting fine there's no need to worry. If you're really tired of the male Molly trying to do what male Molly's do, rehome him and just keep females. Problem solved!

 

What nitrite level is "pink"? What number? If 50% changes once a day isn't lowering your nitrites do bigger water changes. Do a 75% change and immediately follow it with another 50% water change. If she's eating and acting fine there's no need to worry. If you're really tired of the male Molly trying to do what male Molly's do, rehome him and just keep females. Problem solved!

Between .5 and 1.0, well I know what males do I just don't understand why it's only to her and was worried that him doing that could be stressing her out which would cause this. I wasn't sure.

 

Between .5 and 1.0, well I know what males do I just don't understand why it's only to her and was worried that him doing that could be stressing her out which would cause this. I wasn't sure.

Have the other two had any babies? I think he's stressing you out more than her lol!

 

Have the other two had any babies? I think he's stressing you out more than her lol!

None of my girls have had babies since the big one has had this problem. I think she may be constipated as well from this, I will try feeding some peas.

 

None of my girls have had babies since the big one has had this problem. I think she may be constipated as well from this, I will try feeding some peas.

If she's eating, swimming normally, and otherwise acting okay she's probably just pregnant not sick or bloated.

 

If she's eating, swimming normally, and otherwise acting okay she's probably just pregnant not sick or bloated.

She spends a lot of time on the floor of the tank like shes tired. The way she swims seems like shes exhausted. I suppose I will just keep watch.