Mollies

[Colin_T]

Don't bother with dips, they are useless and pointless.

Keep salt in the tank with them at all times.

Personally I would simply add the reef salt at 1/2 dose to the main tank and keep that level for a month. Then start adding rift lake conditioner and reduce the reef salt after it has been in there for a month.

That level of reef salt will make the tank about half strength seawater and there are very few freshwater parasites that can tolerate that level of salt for any length of time. Keeping the salt level high for a month will ensure nothing harmful survives.

-----------------------
Amazon sells rift lake salts, see following link. And if you google local petshops in your area, you might find someone local who sells it. Alternatively google "Cichlid Clubs/ societies" in your area. They are aquarium societies that specialise in cichlids, and they should be able to tell you where to get Rift Lake conditioner from in your area.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003QP4CCI/?tag=ff0d01-20

 

[Robynhoods]

So.. don't use the medicine?

Ryder has gotten worse. She's not using her tail to swim and she's tipped over a little bit, not on her side tho. She looks for really be struggling..

 

[Colin_T]

If you have Methylene Blue or some medication containing Methylene Blue, then you can isolate her in a separate tank and treat her there. Use water from the main tank to set up the hospital tank.
Make sure you aerate the hospital tank.

I would add reef salt to the main tank and the hospital tank.

Keep Ryder in the hospital tank for at least 2 weeks with the Methylene Blue.

Only feed her a little bit of food every couple of days while she is in the hospital tank.

Change the water in the hospital tank each day and replace it with water from the main tank that has reef salt in. If you have reef salt in both tanks it will prevent her suffering stress when you change her water.
After you change the water in the hospital tank, you can top up the main tank with clean water that has reef salt in.

 

[Robynhoods]

Ryder's movement has decreased considerably. Now she's just laying on her side when I take her out to clean the hospital tank. She can swim but only very little. She's breathing but very slowly.

This looks to be about it for her.

 

[Robynhoods]

She has dropsy.

We are going to euthanize her so it's more humane. She looks very very bad

 

[Colin_T]

sorry to hear that

 

[Robynhoods]

Thank you for all of your help. We are going to continue with the reef salt in the main tank. I'm hoping we took her out soon enough and she didn't infect anyone else but we won't know for awhile.

Thank you very very much.

 

[Robynhoods]

So I have had 5 fish die in less than a week. We haven't changed what we are doing, our theory is that the sickness jus Thor too strong and the poor babies couldn't handle it anymore, 3 have died from dropsy, 1 had fin rot, 1 was having buoyancy issues. We are still doing the salt and water changes and everything.

I have two left, Dart and the unnamed girl baby. Not sure what is going to happen but I expect those two to go as well. It's hard waking up every morning and finding another fish die

 

[Colin_T]

Stop doing water changes and see what happens over the next week. No point wasting reef salt or money if they are all wiping out.

Did you get any pictures of the fish that died recently, or can you post a pic of the remaining fish?

 

[Robynhoods]

I only have the pictures of Wobble.. the rest I deleted and didn't keep, it made me sad to look at .

We didn't know what those brown scales were and he was the only fish that had it. Also, the two fish I talked about died, I have two fish left + the Pleco.

Dart has fin rot right now and is missing half of one of her fins. Also the Pleco might have fin rot as well, he has a hole in his dorsal fin and one of his fins is missing a chunk out of it.

The two girls are both still live, the other one appears to be healthy-ish and Dart hasn't had any more fin loss. Expecting to lose them both. Don't think there is anything we can do at this point.

 

[Colin_T]

The yellow and black molly has excess mucous that can be caused by poor water quality or protozoan infections, most likely protozoan.

The fish with dropsy has either an internal bacterial or protozoan infection, again probably protozoan.

When did you get a pleco? I don't recall you mentioning a pleco before. Is it in the same tank as the mollies?

Did you manage to get any medication with Methylene Blue and Malachite Green in? If yes, then treat the tank with that. Check the directions for use with scaleless fish like catfish.

And if you managed to get some Rift Lake Conditioner then add that too. Use it at half strength.