NorthPoleFish
New Member
Tank
What is the water volume of the tank? 20 gals
How long has the tank been running? Over 2 years
Does it have a filter? Yes
Does it have a heater? Yes
What is the water temperature? 76 F
What is the entire stocking of this tank? (Please list all fish and inverts.)
This tank only has 3 adult mollies: 1 female Panda Molly, 1 male Dalmatian Molly, 1 female Molly
Maintenance
How often do you change the water? Twice a month
How much of the water do you change? 50 - 70% of the water
What do you use to treat your water? I only add biological filter regenerate and plant food after water changes, I have well water so I don't have to worry about chlorine or anything else that has been added to my water source
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water? Vacuum the gravel and top layer of sand
*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? Yes
What do you use to test the water? API Master Freshwater Test Kit and API GH & KH Test Kit
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
pH: 7.8
GH: 11
KH: 13
Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? Once a day in the morning, used to be twice daily
How much do you feed your fish? A pinch of food
What brand of food do you feed your fish? Some brand of high quality fish pellets and granules
Do you feed frozen? Yes, occasional frozen blood worms
Do you feed freeze-dried foods? No
Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish? For at least 8 months or so, I believe we got her sometime before the holidays last year
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms? I noticed the symptoms a few days ago
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms? Not swimming right, swimming with tail down, like tail won't work for swimming
Have you started any treatment for the illness? I have tried an Epsom salt bath, added API Melafix to tank, fasting for 3 days, gave shelled peas for 2 days
We were gone on a trip for 10 days and when we came back, there was lots of algae that had bloomed. I have been having a fight with brown algae on the glass and the stringy green algae on all the decorations and plants for a couple months now. We had a friend who was checking on the fish for us and feeding them. We had set out small containers with the right amount of food for the fish to eat so they wouldn't get over feed. My son and I had cleaned the tank before we left for our trip and all the parameters before we left were 0 except Nitrate which was around 5. Upon our return, I noticed that I had forgotten to plug the tank heater back in, so the temperature of the tank was 69 F and the filter was unplugged as well. Oops. The only good thing was the air bubble wand was still plugged in, so the fish did get fresh oxygen. So, my son and I did a deep clean of the tank, gravel vacuumed, removed all plants (they were covered in the green algae and I had planned to do this anyways to hopefully eliminate the algae in the tank), and removed all the decorations. I didn't notice anything wrong with the golden panda molly the first couple days of being back, but then I noticed one morning, probably 2 days after the deep tank cleaning, that she wasn't swimming normally. She was swimming with her head up, towards the surface, and tail down. I also noticed that her tail, which used to be all black in color, was no longer all black. The black coloring has faded. The only symptom has been the swimming vertical. She uses her pectoral fins to get around, and she gets around pretty good, and she was eating and pooping just fine. Two days ago, I couldn't find her in the tank, she found a nice hiding hole under a decoration and I thought that she wouldn't last the night and I'd wake up to a dead fish the next morning. I could see that she was still breathing, but didn't really move. That was 2 days ago. Both yesterday and today, she was at the surface asking for food and actual ate.
At first, I thought that maybe it was a swim bladder issue, since I've experienced that before with my fish, but now I don't know. She is not bloated at all, and she hasn't shown any other symptoms other than the swim vertical. My other fish that had swim bladder problems died within a couple days of me noticing despite what treatments I tried. Any help, suggestions, or ideas as to what might be going on and treatments would be great. There is only 1 pet store where I live that sells anything fish related, PetCo, so my options for treatments are home remedies or Amazon.
What is the water volume of the tank? 20 gals
How long has the tank been running? Over 2 years
Does it have a filter? Yes
Does it have a heater? Yes
What is the water temperature? 76 F
What is the entire stocking of this tank? (Please list all fish and inverts.)
This tank only has 3 adult mollies: 1 female Panda Molly, 1 male Dalmatian Molly, 1 female Molly
Maintenance
How often do you change the water? Twice a month
How much of the water do you change? 50 - 70% of the water
What do you use to treat your water? I only add biological filter regenerate and plant food after water changes, I have well water so I don't have to worry about chlorine or anything else that has been added to my water source
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water? Vacuum the gravel and top layer of sand
*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? Yes
What do you use to test the water? API Master Freshwater Test Kit and API GH & KH Test Kit
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
pH: 7.8
GH: 11
KH: 13
Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? Once a day in the morning, used to be twice daily
How much do you feed your fish? A pinch of food
What brand of food do you feed your fish? Some brand of high quality fish pellets and granules
Do you feed frozen? Yes, occasional frozen blood worms
Do you feed freeze-dried foods? No
Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish? For at least 8 months or so, I believe we got her sometime before the holidays last year
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms? I noticed the symptoms a few days ago
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms? Not swimming right, swimming with tail down, like tail won't work for swimming
Have you started any treatment for the illness? I have tried an Epsom salt bath, added API Melafix to tank, fasting for 3 days, gave shelled peas for 2 days
We were gone on a trip for 10 days and when we came back, there was lots of algae that had bloomed. I have been having a fight with brown algae on the glass and the stringy green algae on all the decorations and plants for a couple months now. We had a friend who was checking on the fish for us and feeding them. We had set out small containers with the right amount of food for the fish to eat so they wouldn't get over feed. My son and I had cleaned the tank before we left for our trip and all the parameters before we left were 0 except Nitrate which was around 5. Upon our return, I noticed that I had forgotten to plug the tank heater back in, so the temperature of the tank was 69 F and the filter was unplugged as well. Oops. The only good thing was the air bubble wand was still plugged in, so the fish did get fresh oxygen. So, my son and I did a deep clean of the tank, gravel vacuumed, removed all plants (they were covered in the green algae and I had planned to do this anyways to hopefully eliminate the algae in the tank), and removed all the decorations. I didn't notice anything wrong with the golden panda molly the first couple days of being back, but then I noticed one morning, probably 2 days after the deep tank cleaning, that she wasn't swimming normally. She was swimming with her head up, towards the surface, and tail down. I also noticed that her tail, which used to be all black in color, was no longer all black. The black coloring has faded. The only symptom has been the swimming vertical. She uses her pectoral fins to get around, and she gets around pretty good, and she was eating and pooping just fine. Two days ago, I couldn't find her in the tank, she found a nice hiding hole under a decoration and I thought that she wouldn't last the night and I'd wake up to a dead fish the next morning. I could see that she was still breathing, but didn't really move. That was 2 days ago. Both yesterday and today, she was at the surface asking for food and actual ate.
At first, I thought that maybe it was a swim bladder issue, since I've experienced that before with my fish, but now I don't know. She is not bloated at all, and she hasn't shown any other symptoms other than the swim vertical. My other fish that had swim bladder problems died within a couple days of me noticing despite what treatments I tried. Any help, suggestions, or ideas as to what might be going on and treatments would be great. There is only 1 pet store where I live that sells anything fish related, PetCo, so my options for treatments are home remedies or Amazon.
