Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Oh geeze... just when you think that everything's going great you wake up one morning to a dead Dalmatian Molly, two days later a dead Hatchet Fish and then today a dead Black Molly... I have no idea what's going on. I've tested my water levels and they're good:

Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 5ppm
PH: 7.2

The Dalmatian Molly is the only one that presented symptoms before dying. He was having balance issues when he swam, kind of flopping around. But the other two were perfectly fine when we went to bed the night before. They were both eating and very active. Now I've noticed that my Cremesicle Molly has a frayed tail. I haven't seen anyone nipping at him, so could it be fin rot? Does anyone have any ideas? Also, how do you test for the presence of bad bacteria? Is there anything else that I should be doing? I would really appreciate some advice. This is our first large tank- 30gallons, established 8wks. All of the levels stay consistent. We've never even had an ammonia spike. I really appreciate any help you can give me. Thanks!

Oh my! That would be shocking. I would say that's fin rot then if you have no fin nippers. That would be caused either by bad water quality or bacterial infection, and since you've got good water quality that leaves only bacteria. This could also be a reason for your other fish dying. I would treat the fin rot with Melafix personally. Should do some damage to your bacteria (bad) population as well. There are no tests that I am aware of to test for bad bacteria. I would imagine that the good bacteria and bad bacteria would show up for a test so that's probably why there isn't one. I would say you're doing everything you can to keep a healthy tank. Are you sure there were no signs of the others dying? Because they can be very subtle hints. If there is any difference in behavior of what you've determined to be your fishes natural behavior (I say this because some people notice their fish is acting strange and it turns out there's nothing wrong with it), there could be something wrong.
As for your Molly, the only thing I could think of being wrong with it was swim bladder disorder, but that's not a bacterial infection or anything - it's a back up of food in the gut causing a build up in the intestines and the swim bladder is right next to it, so you can imagine the problems there. If there were in deed no symptoms for your fish, the only reason I can think of is natural death- you really don't know how old these fish you purchase are unless you breed them yourself or buy them from a breeder.
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Phishie

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Thanks for replying! I'm really worried. My Molly is hanging down at the bottom of the tank behind our bridge and won't come out. Now I noticed that my red platy has an eraser sized white wound behind his right fin. I have no idea what's going on.... I'm going to pick up the medicine from the store right now. Should I quarantine the Molly and Platy or treat the whole tank? I'm not sure how many of them are sick or if it will hurt the others to have medicine in the tank. Poor fish

Treat the whole tank just to be sure your other fish weren't affected. Also, you could put some stress coat in the tank as well. The fishes slime coat is a really important factor in keeping bacteria and viruses out, but if the fish is stressed it can lose some of that coat. If you don't have any on hand, it's not necessary, I'm just trying to get your little guys a little happier.
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Phishie

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Thanks a ton for all your help! I treated the whole tank and all of the fish are looking a lot more active. The platy with the missing scales still doesn't look better, but I'm hoping with a few more treatments that will change. He's just hanging around the heater right now, not doing a whole lot. But the Molly's fin rot is a ton better after just two treatments. My catfish is looking more active than I've ever seen him. He's all over the place today. So I'm pretty happy about that. Anyway, thanks again! If things change I'll post. Have a good weekend!

Your welcome. Sounds like everyone is getting better (that is with the exception of your platy). Just give your platy some time. It might take a little while to see improvement on him.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
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Phishie

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Well everything was going good until this morning. The new dalmation Molly died. He's been in the tank about a week or so now and has been really active, eating good, etc. and now he's dead. I've been treating the whole tank... could the medicine have been what killed him? Should I quarantine the Platy and keep treating him and let the others go back to normal? I'm so confused! What am I doing wrong? Any advice?

I'm sorry for your loss. The medicine should not have hurt him at all. Yeah, you could quarantine the platy and stop treating the others. I really am not sure what went wrong with your molly. Is your water quality still good?
You're not doing anything wrong, as far as I know. If you were doing something wrong your water parameters would be out of whack. Sometimes these things happen, but it shouldn't be happening this much. It's tough to say what's wrong with a fish without symptoms.
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Phishie

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Thanks... My Baloon Molly presented symptoms last night- he's lost control of his balance and is now swimming tail up. My chem levels are all good. The only thing that I noticed yesterday was that my bio filter sponge (not the carbon) has turned brown and smells awful. Any ideas? I saw it when I did my water change yesterday and put the carbon back in. I'm not sure how long its been like that, honestly... normally I just change the carbon and that's it. After the water change the fish all look a lot more active though. I wish I knew what's wrong. It's getting so frustrating.

He's swimming vertical or belly up? If it was belly up then it was more than likely swim bladder disorder. If it was vertical, I have no clue. I'm going to promote your post because we need all the help we can get here. I'm really stumped.
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Phishie

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

He's swimming nose to the gravel, tail up... Actually there's very little swimming going on. He mostly drifts with the current and he's not eating. Is the brown color and smell normal for the foam in the filter?

I'm not too sure actually. I wish I knew more about filters in general. All I know about them is you need one. And I hate to say it, but when fish don't eat they are likely to not make it.

I did promote your post so more people are likely to see it and help if they can. I'm sorry I don't know about the filters. My knowledge is exclusively fish.
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Phishie

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Oh that's fine. You've already been a huge help. I really appreciate it! He died last night btw I knew it was going to happen but it's still sad. Thanks again for promoting by post. Hopefully someone knows what's going on.

I'm sorry for all these losses you keep having. I know you're probably very frustrated. I would be. I'm going to keep the post as a hot topic so that we can get a reason of what's happening.
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Phishie

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

I too am soory for your loss.
I'm experiencing somthing similar, yesterday my albino shark died, today a dalmation mollie and now two more of my mollies are acting strange, swimming tail up and just floating on the current, one of them is just floating at the top of the tank on its side, its still feeding but will just hang around the top of the tank. I have no testing kits so dont know whatmy levels are but am going to do a water change and treat for bacteria today see if that makes a difference.

that could be swim bladder disorder. Try feeding them a whole pea, this will help the compaction in the digestive tract. As for not having a water testing kit, you could take a water sample to your local fish store, and they will run a test for you.
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Phishie

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

I have put in some bacteria cure stuff I put in more salts too and after the first dose she seems to be better, still swimming kinda weird but im hoping that after the second dose she will be back to normal, all other fish looking ok too. I'm taking a smaple to the fish shop tomorrow so we will see if that shows up anything.... a pea like a real pea as in frozen?

Yes, a real frozen pea. They work wonders... you'd be surprised.
Let me know when you get the results from your test. If you'd like you can email me the results at phishie@pethobbyist.com since I am a senior in my second to last semester in college, I'm pretty busy right about now. I may not be able to check the boards everyday for the next few weeks. I wouldn't want your fish to die if you couldn't get an answer quick enough.
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Phishie

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Wow I'm gonna try a frozen pea thanks.... do yu think they would prefer the minted kind? lol thanks for all your help I'll save your email addie thanks xx

I don't know what a minted pea is???
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Phishie

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Lol you can get frozen peas that have mint in them they are quite nice really!

Thanks for your help, my mollie died anyway... I took my sample to the local store and they wouldnt test it for me, claims they dont do that. So I'm going a little further away to a big fish store at the weekend to see if they can help. Most of my other fish have clamped fins, they rest on they bottom a lot and they do what I call waggaling. just staying still and moving their heads. I hope the water test will show up somthing cause I'm unsure of what to do next, I dont want to give the wrong medication.

I think a large part of the problem is stress as i have a large gourami that likes to bully and a large plec and catfish.

When I go to the store they will take those three as they are too big for my tank really and bully quite a bit.

Hmm. Didn't know that. For future reference, I don't see how that would hurt a fish, but then again I can't be sure. You can always try it.

I'm sorry for your loss.

Fish with clamped fins is a sign of unhealthy water quality. Usually ammonia. I would recommend a water change. You should probably also purchase some stress coat or stress zyme unless you have some on hand. These treatments just aid the slime coat production, which is their protection from the bacteria that are always present in the water column. When they get stressed, their slime coat may not be produced or not as much will be produced.

Bullies should be removed. This causes unnecessary stress and can lead to problems like fin rot or open wounds, which can lead to infections. This also could have been the reason for your molly dying. Sometimes the stress signs aren't easy to diagnose. Good idea removing them as soon as possible.
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Phishie

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Yeah they are going on saturday or tomorrow if my boyfriend can catch them. I will tell him to buy stress coat too I dont have any. I just did a 50% water change and they seemed to have perked up a bit but your right I'm almost convinced this is down to stress caused by bullies. I will remove them. I tried the peas didnt work but my plec loved them!

Sounds good. Just let me know how everything is going after you remove the bullies.
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Phishie

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."