leopard moly lying on its site/resting against

[oakwood49]

hi

i have a bio orb, with 9 small tropical fish in it, approx 9 moths old

temperature in the green on the thermometer - approx 23 deg

recently cleaned

new filter, stones etc

fish
2 female platys (1 the daughter)
2 neon tetras
2 danios
2 female gouramies
1 male leopard moly

the male leopard moly is resting on the central filter and leaning itself up
on the air pipe

when food is added it comes to life, swims to the top, feeds well
the returns back the resting on the bottom
sometimes on its side

any ideas what is wrong ?

anything i should look for, symptoms, problems etc

all the other 8 fish look very healthy and are lively

ive had the moly and female platy from the very start an have
become very attached to them
and dont want to wave goodbye to the moly

help please

cheers

 

[WILDER]

Can you post test results in ammonia,nitrite,nitrate,and ph, how many gallon is it, and also did you use the poorly fish to cycle your tank.

 

[oakwood49]

bio-orb holds 30litres

no testing facilities sorry

poorly fish to cycle your tank ?

no idea what this means sorry

 

[jkun17]

Could it be ich? My guppies did that when they first got ich.

 

[oakwood49]

now he's in the middle of the tank
not swimming
just hovering there
WRIGGLING

any ideas what this means ?

 

[jkun17]

If his feces are white or light in color, it could be internal parasites.

One remedy I keep hearing is a pea. Take the pea out of the pod, remove the seed out of the pea and drop the seed into the water for your fish to eat. It's supposed to act as a laxative. It might help.

Otherwise try doing a saltbath.

 

[WILDER]

Try a water change as you are overstocked for a 6 gallon.

 

[oakwood49]

just done one 2 weeks ago matey

bio-orbs say they can hold upto 18

i have 9 (soon to be 8 )

 

[WILDER]

You are meant to do a gravel vack and water change weekly, big tanks can get away with two weeks but not small ones, I suggest you do a water change because the problems looks like it is a water quality issue, and I would suggest you take a sample of your water to the lfs, and tell them to write the results down.

 

[Angel Lady]

Why dont you try a salt bath on your molly. Salt does wonders for them sometimes.

 

[a1wonder]

Here is what I can see being a problem, first you should always do a 10% water changes weekly your tank is roughly a 7.5 gal aquarium and you are over stocked. Your tank is most likely going through a high amounia spike. When you changed the water 2 weeks ago did you change all the water or just a bit? I'd recomind doing a 25% water change with a good vacume of the gravel of the tank to get all that fish waste out of there and do a 10% water change daily. Just looking over your list I'm pretty sure the amonia spike is the problem and perhapes stress from being in such a small enviroment with alot of other fish. In the long run I'd buy a bigger than as neons need to be in schools at a min. of 5 mollies grow a min. of 2inchs so the problem is only going to get worse with time. Best of luck

 

[oakwood49]

how do you do a salt bath then people ?

regarding only 2 tetras, they seem 100% fine and happy

they bomb round the tank chasing each other
not just sitting there like lemons in schools of 5 or more

surely it must be better for them to be active ?

 

[oakwood49]

when i changed the water i added all the chemicals it told me to do

i replaced ALL of the gravel
i replaced the plastic plant

gave the Bio-Orb a good old scrub top to bottom without chemicals

and yes rinsed it well

 

[maestro]

i think you may have som ereading to do,

stripping down ur tank and scrubbign it is the worst thing you can do,

Basically ill try and explain

Fish cant live in their own waste, it it highly toxic and makes them get ill, bacteria in the water break down the waste products and produce ammonia (deadly to fish) then that gets turned into nitrIte (harmfull but less deadly) and then NitrAte (harmfull in large amounts)

when you scrubbed your tank you stripped away the bacteria which takes along time to re populate and in teh mean time the levels of toxic wastes in your tank will be very high.

You need to take drastic action in my opinion, you just have to have a test kit, Ammonia and Nitrite, its such a worthwhile investment, in the mean time untill you make sure everything is fine id personally id do a 30% water change EVERYDAY for 2 weeks with dechlorinated tap water and feed only one small feed a day to cut the wastes down , rinse the filter medium gently once a week in tank water you've syphoned out.

one change every 2 weeks is not nearly enough for a smaller tank, i think twice a week maintenance is optimal.

 

[maestro]

Opps for got about the molly

I would raise the temp to 80f atleast, and add aquarium tonic salt that you can purchase from your local fish store at a rate of 1 teaspoonfull per gallon, mix it in water before hand to disolve it and pour it in.

Symptoms to look out for are scales sticking out, white poop, white growth or spots on fish or misiing or ragged fins etc