Male Balloon Molly Hiding

[EricTheEngstrom]

Hey I have a 55 gallon tank with about 9 various tropical fishi. Including two balloon mollies. I have seemed to get the female pregnant. She is acting fine and doing everything that she should be doing when pregnant except hiding. INSTEAD my male balloon molly is acting weird. He is hiding a lot and willnot come out until food is present. Then after he eats he stays in corner of the tank for awhile. He was there before female. He now seems to flare up his top fin more often. He sometimes gets knudged by the female molly sorta like he did to her when they first met. But is he sick? Or what is going on? He never has hidden before. He has always been the most active.

Thanks
Eric

 

[fluttermoth]

How long has your tank been set up? Have you tested the water at all? Exactly what fish are the current occupants?

 

[the_lock_man]

I have seemed to get the female pregnant.

Are you sure it wasn't the male molly that did that?

 

[Animal Lover 2000]

lol ya ^

 

[EricTheEngstrom]

Well I have now figured out the reason. He has ick on him. I have now treated my water and followed all the right procedures. I will let you know how it goes. But poor guy was such an active swimmer.

nice catch the_lock_man ha. Its going to be a new hybrid haha

 

[the_lock_man]

Glad you've figured out the cause - ich, or whitespot, is easy to sort, the main reason it goes wrong is that people stop treating too early. Ensure you continue the treatment after the spots have disappeared, to prevent a re-infection.

 

[EricTheEngstrom]

Okay the_lock_man your right about stopping treatment but i havent really stopped. The ick has come back to my Balloon molly. He does seemed to get bullied now because he is so stressed or not moving much which probably doesnt help to the ick. but i now see it on one of my other mollies and my goldfish (yes I know i have a goldfish in a tropical tank, but i love him, he eats my left over food on the bottom of tank). Anyways I used tera ick guard. Seemed to help for a couple days but now has come back. Some say use a QT and then some say dont. Some say use copper and then some say dont. Some say use garlic and then some say dont haha. WHAT SHOULD I DO!!

I have a 55 gallon tank. with 12 fish. all community.

By the way dont use Tetra Ick Guard...it sorta worked but caused all my clear things, like tubing and my glue/cocking on sides of tank, to be dyed blue from the blue in the tablets. I have email Tetra with a mean email and we will see what they say.

 

[the_lock_man]

My small tank has had 2/3 outbreaks of whitespot (ich). I use Protozin by Waterlife to treat it, which it has done without problem, by treating on days 1, 2, 3 & 6. Whilst the bugs are protected by the white spots, they are impervious to the treatment. When they fall off the fish, and hide in the substrate, they are also impervious to the treatment. It is only while they are in their third life-stage, which is free swimming, looking for another host fish to infect, that they can be killed by the treatment. Many people assume that when the spots are gone, that there is no infection left, and then sto0p treating - but there are still the protozoa in the substrate, ready to reinfect - so they think the illness has come back. But it hasn't it was never eradicated completely in the first place.

Don't use a QT, because the whole infected tank must be treated.

I would assume that a company like Tetra would ensure that there treatment worked, providing you follow the instructions correctly.

 

[EricTheEngstrom]

does the protozin by waterlife also have a blue dye?

 

[the_lock_man]

Yes, but it's not stained anything in my tank,

 

[EricTheEngstrom]

My bad for all the questions. but where did you buy it from. its preatty expensive where ive looked. since its from the UK

 

[the_lock_man]

Not "Your bad" at all, if you don't ask questions, you don't learn - you ask as many questions as you like.

I got the Protozin from my local fish shop, it's pretty common in the UK.