What's wrong with my mollies???

[Izabela]

I have a 50 G tank which now contains 4 guppies, 2 male sailfin mollies, 2 silver lyretail females, 1 cremesicle lyretail, and 2 black mollies, plus about 30 4-week old molly fry behind a divider. Not realizing what a bad idea it is, I added 3 cory cats to this tank. A week later one of them was dead with one eye bulging out. About 5 days later, an orange molly who had been acting strange for 3 days died (no eyes popping out this time). Now, a week later my silver lyretail is basically sitting still in a secluded spot in the tank, not at the surface, about halfway down, but she does this ALL day, except when she feeds. She displayed some shimmying behavior, which I also noticed the other lyretails doing.  She is still eating very well, and does not seem to have any other symptoms, no marks that I can see, etc. Of course with her being silver it is not easy to spot white marks.

Someone said it could be livebearer/molly disease and to add more salt and quick cure, as well as "Shim Stop" by Aquatronics, which I did. I moved my 2 cory cats, algea eater and dwarf gourami to a 10 G tank before doing this treatment. All water tests are perfect, no ammonia, no nitrites, nitrates at 10.  Temp was at 80, now I increased up to 82.  These new conditions have been in place for 2 days. This did not change her behavior at all. I am out of ideas what the next step is. It terrifies me to think that it is some internal parasite or bacterial infection that can spread to all tank inhabitants....interestingly the fry are all acting perfectly well. Please help! I know many of you have experience with mollies. Thanks in advance.

Izabela

 

[Manicivy]

Just a question about the "shimmying" bhvr. Are they rubbing themselves against plants or rocks. Usually when fish have ick they do this. If it is Ick you should see the small white dots on the fish's body and/or fins. To treat this you raise the water temperature. This is just first step help, someone with more experience will answer soon i'm sure. Good luck.

 

[kerryve]

If it is ICH, you will see the white spots like manicivy said, ICH is a cool water parasite, it has a life cycle of about 2 weeks, raise your temp to 29"celcicus, keep it there for 14 days, the ICK dies. The temp kills them in their swimmer stage, most parasites are self limiting anyway so keep your water clean temp up and lights low.

Keep us posted

 

[Izabela]

Well, after close examination and observation I concluded that there is no sign of ich on my mollies. They were still getting worse with more and more of them displaying this lethargic behavior. I decided to get some "Parasite Clear"by Jungle Labs, keeping any antibacterial in mind as a last resort only so as not to destroy my good bacteria. . I did a 25% water change and used the stuff. The fish looked really bad, but then towards the end of the day started to look better...and this morning they look MUCH better (they are even mating,). So now my questions are:

1. Is it normal for fish to feel worse after this medication (Parasite Clear) is given to them

2. The box says that treatment may be repeated in 48 hrs with a 25% water change. Or it says for anchor worms and fish lice to repeat once a week for up to 3 weeks. So since I don't know what was wrong with them and they feel better should I repeat this treatment or no?

3. Will repeating the treatment be safe for the fry?

Thank you for any responses.

Izabela