My fish keep getting sick

I have a 10 gallon tank with 7 fish in it (three guppies a neon , two mollies, and a swordtail). About 2 weeks ago both mollies got popeye and fin rot. I quarantined them and treated with myracyn 2. They are all better. Then I note the guppy had popeye and fuzzy stuff on her fins so I treated the may tank with myracyn 2. She stared to look better but now she's looking worse (last treatment yesterday). To make things worse the sword tail has long white stringy poop which I read was signs of internal parasites. Now another guppy has white spots! I'm not sure what to do. I have two other tanks (baby tank and my sons tank) and all fish are doing well there.

 

HI there,
Sorry to hear about the problem you are having. From my experience, some mollies are just a bit weaker than others and catch diseases more often (I recently had a molly who got ich, fin rot, pop eye and then finally the fungal infection killed him). Has your tank cycled? Do you have a test kit, if so what are your readings? If you have a quarantine tank, go ahead and put your sick fish in their if it is suitable so the disease doesn't spread to others (also it makes it easier to treat them with medicine and medicated food because your healthy fish don't get affected!) Mollies like a bit of salt so if you don't have a quarantine tank then do a concentrated salt dip to try and kill any parasites that might be on there. Check if that is ok for your sword tail because I'm not sure about them). Best of luck,
~Mudkipz
PS: probably the least of your concern right now but neons should be kept in a school of at least 5

 

Welcome to Fishlore!

Unfortunately your tank is way overstocked. The neons, mollies, and swordtails all need larger tanks. I'd rehome them.

The tank being overstocked is probably the root of your issue. Fin rot and popeye are often caused by poor water quality. What are you specific water parameters (pH, temp, ammonia, nitrites, nitrates)?

I would do daily 50% water changes until you can rehome the mollies, swordtail and neons. You should start seeing an improvement by doing these water changes.

To treat for ich, I like the heat method:
https://www.fishlore.com/aquariumfishforum/threads/ich-ick-life-cycle-and-natural-treatment.153206/

 

thanks all! There were more neons early on, but they died out. I added other fish in their place.

I do have a test kit and realize the water parameters were not good. Not sure what happened since I do 25% water changes twice per month and it should have cycled by now since it was up for several months.

I didn't see these posts until today, so I ended up doing something a bit more drastic which was setup up completely new quarantine tank and add double the dose of salt. I put all of the fish in there as a last ditch effort to save them. Not sure how it worked, but it did. They are all symptom free and looking quite happy now. No more fuzzy stuff on their bodies or fins, no more stringy poop. I sanitized the old tank and now in the process of letting it cycle. Once that's done I'll put them back in there and keep a closer eye on the water parameters.

 

Welcome to Fish Lore!

25% water changes twice per month are not sufficient, especially for your overstocked tank. I'd be doing daily 50% changes until you can rehome the fish as @TexasDomer has suggested. Once you get your stocking fixed, 50% water changes per week is considered a normal amount.

 

Isn't stocking 1 inch of fish per gallon? with the guppies at 1.5" (4.5), Mollies and sword tail at 2" (6), that's 10.5 (so 1/2 inch over). The neon died before I could change the tank.

I could increase the water changes to once per week instead. I didn't want to upset the bio filter with over cleaning and end up with a never ending cycle.

 

Isn't stocking 1 inch of fish per gallon? with the guppies at 1.5" (4.5), Mollies and sword tail at 2" (6), that's 10.5 (so 1/2 inch over). The neon died before I could change the tank.

I could increase the water changes to once per week instead. I didn't want to upset the bio filter with over cleaning and end up with a never ending cycle.

The inch per gallon rule is not an accurate way of stocking.

Mollies and swordtails are higher bioload fish and are not appropriate for a 10 gal, as mentioned earlier. You also need to include adult fish size, and mollies and swordtails can get up to 5" (some swordtails longer with their swords).

Definitely increase your water change schedule since you're so overstocked. I'd recommend 50% 2-3 times a week until you can rehome the swordtail and mollies.