Urgent: Dying Molly

I had this balloon molly for 1.5 years. Recently I moved her to a new bigger aquarium, and 3 weeks ago added 2 new female balloon mollies and 4 cardinal tetras.

As soon as the new fish were added she started having a bit of fin rot, but it didn't seem very bad and she was acting social and hungry.

The past week she seemed like she had some trouble swimming, kinda like she was too heavy to swim but she still did. Yesterday she spent most of her time resting on the substrate but was still responsive and still came to eat.

Today I woke up and she's in a dark corner of the tank, head in the ground and barely moving or responding. She's still alive though.

What can I do??

 

Info:
29 gallon planted, cycled

3 balloon mollies
4 cardinals
1 pleco
Cherry shrimp

0 ammonia
0 Nitrites
Up to 10 nitrates
Ph 7
Temperature 26°

 

Is she breathing fast? Can you get a pic?

Did you QT the new fishes or add them straight to the tank? Are any of them showing any signs or symptoms?

 

The fish were quarantined for 2 weeks. Most of the cardinals died (there were 6) but none of them is or was showing any weird behavior.

She seemed to he breathing, I don't think it was very fast, but I couldn't really see later because of the angle she was in. The rest of the fish are acting normal.

 

Okay, head to the ground isn't easy to recover from. Having lost most of the cardinals is a bad sign especially since she's having symptoms.

This isn't easy to hear, but she may already be at the point she can't be saved.

If you feel that you must do something, we will have to have more information to help you narrow down to a treatment.

So far we have
- 4 prior deaths unknown if they had any symptoms
- minor fin rot that appeared 3 wks ago
- trouble swimming starting 1 wk ago
- resting on substrate starting yesterday
- head down, not eating, in back corner today

I'm not the best at guessing with so little outward physical signs, but maybe internal bacterial infection? What do you think, MacZ DoubleDutch ?

Part of QT that most people skip is adding an occupant from the existing tank to the QT tank prior to introduction of the new fishes to the existing tank. This helps to determine your existing fishes will not transmit something to the new ones and vice versa. Sometimes there are things we can't see that some fish can live with and others can't. I know that you only had one Molly so adding your one fish to the QT isn't as necessary as if you had a tank full - but my point is that even though the new fishes can make it through QT with no visible signs or symptoms, it can still cause issues. And, when there are deaths during QT, we really should extend the QT time a bit to do our best make sure all others aren't affected.

 

I have little experience with livebearers and none at all with balloon breeds. Sorry. The described symptoms could be anything.

 

I have little experience with livebearers and none at all with balloon breeds. Sorry. The described symptoms could be anything.

Thanks MacZ. I'm with you, the described symptoms could be quite a few different things.

 

I never thought about adding her to the attention tank, especially as she and my pleco were the only fish in the existing tank prior to adding the new ones...

Also after checking online it seemed like the cardinals were just generally sensitive, lots of people reported them dying without much reason, which seemed likely because they were quarantined with the mollies in the same tank and the mollies didn't show any signs of discomfort at all.
To clarify, I initially bought 10 cardinals, 6 of which died during qt. The remaining 4 are still alive and ok.

I wanted to qt for more than 2 weeks but I was in a pinch because the filter was faulty and I wanted them in the big & clean tank asap.

Is there any possible treatment for this? Any general cure that the store might have? It's a long shot but I'm just heading home and maybe my lfs might have something...

 

I'm not big on just throwing meds when I don't know what it is. But, I have before. I know that I find it hard not to do something.

Are you going to move her to the QT or are you wanting to treat the main tank?

 

I don't really want to move her- the other fish aren't picking on her or showing any symptoms, also it might stress her out to death... Only if someone suggests a good med I'll prepare the old 10g tank (where I actually quarantined the other fish earlier).

 

My thoughts, if you don't plan to move her and no other fish is showing symptoms, don't treat with any meds in the main tank.

It's your aquarium, you are there seeing everything going on, it's your decision. If you treat the main tank, do some looking into sensitivity with the pleco and the med you choose.

If you want to treat her but not the tank, baths are an option. It will be stressful on her to catch her, but you could do methelyne blue baths. It can help with fin rot. There are other meds that can be given as a bath, too. My guess, though, is that you'll pick a med that needs to go in the tank. If that's the case, you really might consider setting up the QT to administer.

 

Hey everyone, thanks for the help. Unfortunately when I got home she was already dead. I'm really devastated. Hopefully the others will be okay...

 

Hey everyone, thanks for the help. Unfortunately when I got home she was already dead. I'm really devastated. Hopefully the others will be okay...

I'm sorry you lost her. It's never easy losing a pet.

Yes, do keep an eye on everyone else. I hope you won't have any more issues.