Molly Internal Parasite?

I have a 55 gallon tank with 1 adult Molly, about 18 juvenile mollys, and 5 neon tetras(I know they need to be in schools of 6 and will be getting another soon, they all seem fine and don't appear to be stressed). I do water changes once every two weeks and the parameters are at 0 ammonia 0 nitrite and 15 nitrate. The temperature is about 76 degrees.
I just realized the one adult Molly had a sunken in stomach and is having a hard time eating food, but when she does manage to get a flake in her mouth she just spits it up a little later. Her gills seem a little "puffy" not discolored or anything, I don't know if that's just how they look or if I'm imagining things. She is acting lethargic and isn't as active and playful as all her little babies.
Is she starving to death? I've been feeding a pinch or two of flakes once a day. Is this an internal parasite, and if it is how would I treat it?
Thanks.

Here are some pictures of her:

 

There are a lot of medications out there. PraziPro for example. There are other meds from Jungle Labs which are good. You just follow the instructions they come with.
He does look in bad condition, have you seen his poop?

 

There are a lot of medications out there. PraziPro for example. There are other meds from Jungle Labs which are good. You just follow the instructions they come with.
He does look in bad condition, have you seen his poop?

No, I haven't. I'm not around this tank much. I'll watch though. What should it look like?

 

Depends on what you feed but generally it should be compact and fall right off the fish, stringy/white/weird looking poops that hang around and don't fall off could mean internal parasites.
The fish looks bad so I would medicate now. You will probably have to medicate the whole tank but putting the fish in a hospital tank may heal him faster.

 

I don't have a hospital tank ready, and cycling it in time would be a problem as well. Would it be safe to treat the entire tank? I have live plants and a lot of snails. The last picture I posted isn't what she looks like. I don't know why she looks so bad in the last picture, but the other two are what she looks like.


Edit*
It's going to be a while before I'm able to get Prazipro. How long can she make it and how likely is it that she will survive?

 

You don't have to cycle it, just grab a case filter and put a little bit of cycled media and you can use a plastic tub as a hospital tank but it isn't a complete necessity so don't worry.
Yes, you would have to treat the main tank anyways as parasites are good at spreading, but I find that separating really sick fish helps them recover faster.
The meds should say whether it is safe to or not to use with invertebrates, I did a little bit of research and it is most likely that PrazI won't damage invertebrates nor plants.
You could take the snails out but I'm not sure if they can carry the parasite or not (snails can indeed carry some fish parasites that don't affect them but do affect the fish), I would personally treat them too.

I don't know how long she will be able to make it, fish can survive at least a week without eating, but she isn't eating and has some sort of infection so the number should be reduced. I don't know really, but I do know that you can improve the likeliness of her surviving by trying to soak her food in garlic (garlic improves apettite and improves inmune system) and doing a lot of water changes to keep your water even cleaner.

 

I have two empty tanks I can set up. A 10 gallon and a 29. But I only have a 10 gallon hob filter and a 40 gallon sponge filter. The only media I have are the two bio wheels from the 55 or some little ceramic type pellets from a 40 breeder that has like 10 guppies in it xP. How many would be enough if I put it in the back of the hob with some polyester? And how would I soak fish flakes in what type of garlic? She does manage to get some food down when eating, but spits some of it back up. I don't know how much she is getting. Thanks so much for your help!

 

I think a 10 gal would be better and easier to setup. I would use the hob filter as you can add media to it. I recently bought a Duke Molly and he is on quarantine, I grabbed like 4-5 bioballs (not really bioloads but PVC cuttings and some marine shells, be careful with the marine shells as they can leak calcium into the water and raise the pH...) and a little sponge that was inside and it worked great.
So I would say like 4-5 bioballs (more the better but this would the minimum, also be careful with not taking much bioballs from your main tank) would be fine. You are gonna be doing frequent water changes too so I would not worry that much about having extreme filtration. You could also add some unfiltered media too so the cycled media colonizes it.
I used to chop fresh garlic pretty finely, crush it and mix it with the flakes, the bare smell of the garlic will make her go nuts.
Putting her in a tank by herself will tell you how much she is eating and it will be easier to monitor, if there is any uneaten food don't forget to take it out, and also, don't forget to do a big water change before adding the medications!
Good luck with your fish.

 

So I will be setting up the hospital tank and getting the medicine today. We called our fish store and they said prazipro was good but also recommended metroplex. Would that be better or should I just stick with the prazipro? I saw one of the other mollys poop and was a long pink tube and it came of easily.

 

MetroPlex is basically metronidazole which is a great med and while it treats some internal parasites it does nothing for worms, so I would go with PraziPro first.
Long pink tube? Was the thing alive? Red stuff hanging out of a fish anus could mean callamanus worms, in that case prazipro would be needed as you would be dealing with internal parasites, more specifically worms, and as I said, metronidazole does nothing for worms while PraziPro does.

 

I don't believe it was alive. What would it look like if it was? I'll get the prazipro pro. Thanks!

 

I don't believe it was alive. What would it look like if it was? I'll get the prazipro pro. Thanks!

Google "callamanus worm" on google s to get an idea of how they look like. I don't think posting pics here would be smart because some (personally I don't mind, it is biology)may consider it graphic.

 

Ok. The color is about the same but just one tube not a bunch of little nasty worm like things. So that's good xP.

 

I've gotten PraziPro and am about to dose the main tank and set up the hospital tank. She is eating more than she was yesterday, and isn't spitting as much back up. I have fed a little more than usual and tried to let her get as much as possible. Could that be helping? She still looks as skinny as before though. Is it necessary to set up a hospital tank if she is getting food in her?

 

Not necessary to set a hospital tank, but in my experience if the fish looks bad hospital tanks make them heal faster because there are no lights and no other fish around that could potentially stress her. It is also easier to monitor her.
It is up to you, I would go with the hospital tank to be able to have a closer look on her.

 

Ok. I'm going to leave her in the main tank and just treat the entire thing. I think it might be more stressful to move her than it would be to leave her in the main tank. And on the instructions for prazipro it says to use as a bath. Does that mean not to do it in the main tank? It also says to treat it with a water conditioner, would prime work? And it also says to do a large water change before use. If the nitrate is between 15 and 20ppm would it be safe to dose without a water change because it will be really hard to get one in tonight.

 

She is still alive. She isn't looking any better, if anything she is looking worse, but seems to be more active. 1 of her babies died. I have no idea why, but I guess those things just happen some times.
I did a water change before I dosed the main tank and will put carbon in the filter when I went to take the medicine out. Should I wait to take it out until she is back to looking healthy? Should I redose it? She is eating a lot better than she was but I haven't seen any improvement in her skinniness. Does that mean she's not healing?
Thanks again for all your help!

 

Well, fish don't get fat in a day. The fact that she is eating is already great!
And fry... sometimes they die, not all of them are "compatible with life", that is the strategy with Mollys, give birth to a ton and someone should make it to adulthood.
I don't know the exact intructions but I think you are supposed to redose if needed as medication will lose its strenght with time.
According to HikarI Usa:
"A single treatment lasting 5-7 days is normally sufficient. Repeat as necessary, but no more than once every 3 to 5 days. May be used as a preventative, at the standard dosage, when disease is likely. Do not use with other drugs or disease treatments. May cause temporary foaming."
This leads me to believe that you do the treatment 5-7 days, do a 50% water change, add the carbon and let the fish rest for 3-5 days w and then do another water change and dose again.
Just to be sure I think I will summon CindiL

 

Ok. Just went to feed them and she looks very bad. I think it might be that curved spine disease (forgot what is was called) but I'm not sure. Here is a picture.

 

She does look weird, in fact, I would say most Mollys look weird to me. Curved spines can mean a lot of stuff, but since you said she looked normal she either got the curved spine because of age, or maybe, Tuberculosis (which would suck pretty bad)

 

I hope it's not Tuberculosis. Isn't that transferable to humans? (I have a ton of cuts on my hands.) It could be age I've had her for about a year, and I don't know how old she was when I got her. How likely is it that's it tuberculosis? And why would she just get it randomly like this?

 

It is a different strain of tuberculosis. If you develop rashes in your skin, or ulcers, go see your doctor and immediately tell him you have been managing fish. Most of the time it isn't bad as the bacteria prefers 30 degrees Celsius rather than our 37.
Curved spines don't always mean tuberculosis, and tuberculosis usually comes from dirty tanks, which doesn't seem to be your case.
I don't know, tuberculosis is quite rare, it was just a thought, the only way to know if it is tuberculosis would be to do some testings on the fish. I can't think of any other reason why the spine went like that out of nowhere... Maybe it just looks like that because it is so skinny and wasn't eating well.

 

Hopefully. I just found a picture of her a while ago before she got sick. Here's a before and after

 

Yeah, probably she just looks weird because she is super skinny. The pic is not so clear tho, is she bent in an "S" form?
Just to be sure I would move her to another tank. Tuberculosis can wipe out your whole tank and force you to sterilize everything, but from what I have red, some fish will get it and some dont, it is not that contagiable. If the fish dies and the others eat it or pick at him then the fish that did will probably contract it (if it has tuberculosis in the first place).
I have never dealt with tuberculosis and hopefully I never will, that is just what I have red about it so maybe some scientist will be mindblown at this post lol.

 

Ok, sorry about that. It looks a tiny bit like a S shape. From looking at her head on her spine is straight but from the side it looks curved. So I should set up a hospital tank?

 

If you can, I personally would, your tank is big so you can probably fill your 5 gal or 10 gal hospital with the tank water that you already have to make it easier on the fish and keep the meds.

 

Ok I will set up a quarantine. I don't believe she has tuberculosis because she doesn't have sores on her or looks like she's rotting. What other diseases have these symptoms?(curved back and skinniness).

Edit*

I just realized I don't have a heater for the quarantine tank. I really don't want my other fish to get whatever she has. What would be the best thing to do?

 

Leave it in the tank.
I don't know of another illness that can cause a curved back, but again, she may just look like that because she is just super skinny. A heavy parasitosis can make the fish super skinny.
I don't know, without a heater you can't move the fish out because you would probably just stress her out with cold temperatures. If it is internal parasites then all your other fish already have it, but had a stronger inmune system which allowed them to not show symptoms, like in nature.

 

Sorry I haven't posted lately. She died a couple of days ago. The a baby the next day. Then another and another. I've lost 4 so far. About 1 a day. The ones I've found dead have had curved spines and sunken in stomach. Pretty sure it's tuberculosis now xP. Just worried I'm going to get it my hands are still pretty cut up and I have my hands in their often. I'm just going to let it go and hope there will be survivors. Thanks for your help.