Do I Need To Worry?

[jpedersen024]

My silver molly looked rather like it had been bitten by another fish yesterday (during feeding frenzy?). Slight red patch between eye and mouth on one side. Looked a little bit rough too. Kept an eye on it, tried a salt water bath last night (didn't have appropriate meds on hand). Water tests came back all within range - nothing different. It quickly progressed to a swollen eye late last night, and she was swimming this morning when I left to get meds. She was dead on the bottom (with affected eye cloudy) by the time I returned a few hours later.

I had picked up some Melafix. It was the quickest thing I could find close by. Now I am wondering if it was an injury, or popeye (quick progression though??)... or what. Should I treat the rest of the tank with the Melafix? Is it ok for plants?

I added a long awaited pair of blue rams last week, but everyone seems healthy and happy... Also added a bunch of new plants on the weekend. Other than that, nothing out of the ordinary.

Thoughts appreciated..

 

[BettaBum873]

hmmmm, does sound like popeye with some sort of secondary infection, since popeye doesn't kill, the infections that it brings with it do. The red marks could possibly have been septecemia. I would start your tank on a course of maracyn and maracyn 2. Should be fine for the plants and keep a close eye on the other fish, if any start acting funny isolate them immediatly

 

[tttnjfttt]

Based off of what you described, it sounds like the fish started out with septcemia, which is an internal bacterial infection, and then progressed to pop-eye.

When you said your stats are "within range", exactly what are they? I have had too many people insist their stats are fine, but once they give in and post numbers, they are really not fine (don't take it personally, just something i do from experience). As for treating your tank, I personally am not a big fan of melafix. It seems rather weak, especially for handling internal bacterial infections. If I were you, i would get a broad spectrum antibiotic to keep on hand (my current favorite is kanacyn, aka k-myacin, aka kanamyacin) in case something else begins to develop. Also, investing in a hospital tank if you don't already own one would be a good idea. If other fish begin to get sick, i would isolate the infected ones AND treat the entire tank.

 

[jpedersen024]

Fair enough.

Stats are as follows:

Nitrates: 20 ppm
Nitrites: 0
Total hardness: 120 ppm
Total alkalinity: 100 ppm
ph: 7

I did do quite a bit of planting/ cleaning during my usual water change. I gravel vac each week, and change out about 15% water. Did that on the weekend. Maybe stressed the fish?

I do need a hospital tank. I'm thinking something small. Would I add tank water to fill it, or start with fresh?

 

[tttnjfttt]

For the hospital tank, i would go no smaller than 10 gallons. Usually you can find a kit fairly cheaply. The bare minimum you will need is a tank, heater, filter, hood, and some directions that can be boiled to provide hiding places for a stressed out fish. If possible, I would fill it atleast partially with tank water, to avoid stressing the fish out.

The planting could have stressed out the fish, however, i doubt it would be enough to cause this unless the fish was already weak. Your water stats look good, but i didn't see ammonia results. Do you have a test kit for that? If not, that would be a good one to invest in. Also, the liquid based test kits tend to be more accurate than the dip stick ones for future purchases.

Other than that, just keep a very close watch on your fish at this point.