Bad Mum!

[lildavpot]

oo.k im going to seem like a really bad mum, seen as i lost a few fish a month back, however i need help yet agian! i moved my fish into a new and cycled 70 ltr tank having been told my previous tank was overcrowded. my levels were tested this morning prior to doing a 25% water change with gravel cleaner the levels were
ph 7.3
nitrate 0
nitrite
gh 130
temp is 27
kh is 120

today i noticed one of the mollies struggling to swim however he didnt appear to be hanging at the top or bottom, and when i went to
check an hour ago he was lay on his side with his head and tail on the gravel but his body arched upwards, and he appeared to be gasping for breath, he then later attempted to swim but only managed to thrash about spinning. i hve had problems with my other male molly attacking him alot as its quite aggressive, could this be the cause? or is it more likely to be a swim bladder problem?
im still pretty new to this so am useless when they get ill.

 

[lildavpot]

ok so my clever dad just decided to catch it in a net and walk up the stairs and dump it in my smaller tank... not the way id have tranferred a sick fish but hey, thats dads for you! ill stick a treatment in for swimbladder, better than nothing im guessing!

 

[*Fishkies*]

Do you have a nitrite and ammonia reading?
Those could be contributing to your problem.

Also does your fish look bloated?
How are his eating habits?
Have you seen him poo?

Unfortunatly he does not sound to be in good condition.

 

[lildavpot]

he doesnt look it either! and yeah sory my nitrite and ammonia are both 0, read on another post that swim bladder problems can be caused by floating foods? becuase other than my gh and kh being high i cant see any problems with my water. dont think hes going to survive but at least if i knew exactly where i was going wrong i could prevent it from happening agian.

 

[*Fishkies*]

Swim Bladder has been said to be contributed from pellet foods, however I have yet to see that proved.
Take a look here! That article has some information on swimbladder. Usually when a fish has swim bladder disease it is bloated.

You could try feeding peas and a try a bacterial medication.

 

[lildavpot]

ooo ok, its the first id heard of it too, but ive been feeding flakes anyway, i tried a pea and it couldnt eat it, and been using melafix (after i somehow managed to drop half the bottle over my bedroom floor) and interpet swim bladder treatment, which worked wonders on one of my fish that got it a few months back, sadly the fish in question looks like hes just died, might go bury him (cant face throwing them in the bin) im just really confused as to why im havng so many problems when my water tests are coming back ok. the only thing that has been a problem in that tank is the fact that one fish is bullying any other mollies i put in there.

 

[*Fishkies*]

Well lets see what we can figure out why your having problems....

What type of fish and how many do you have in your tanks?
How often do you perform water changes?

 

[lildavpot]

it came out of my 70ltre jewel tank which wasnt that well stocked had 2 male mollies a male and female platty and 4 tetra in it, it was a fairly new tank but it had been through its cycle, and the fish had been added over 2 weeks, transferred from my smaller 28 litr tank, which i had had problems with my nitrate levels being stupidly high. im guessing it could have been a delayed reaction to the problems that there had been in my old tank. i do water changes weekly normally however i had only done one on that tank as it had only just finished cycling and was told by somebody not to do water changes until its finished becuase your taking out the bacteria?

 

[*Fishkies*]

Bacteria are not in the water. Bacteria are in the stones and filter areas. So there is no harm in doing water changes, in fact that is how you get your levels of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate to change.

 

[lildavpot]

sounds like i need to stop taking advice off this guy!

 

[*Fishkies*]

The only thing you do not want to do to much is vaccumings of the gravel. As hence this is where bacteria will grow a little.

 

[lildavpot]

The only thing you do not want to do to much is vaccumings of the gravel. As hence this is where bacteria will grow a little.

so i shouldnt use my gravel cleaner every week? i thought that i need to get up all fish waste to stop the ammonia going up?

 

[*Fishkies*]

Doing that once a week is fine, just not everyday. Some people think that in order to keep a tank clean you need to literally clean it everyday. What your doing once a week is fine! I do the same thing!

 

[lildavpot]

thanks well the rest of them seem happy and healthy, apart from the bully thats now attacking his reflection because theirs no other mollies to bully!