Molly is sick . I'm clueless.

[Madtat211]

Ok, I am kind of new to this . A few months ago we bought 3 Molly , 2 of which were pregnant . When we got them home and in the tank we noticed a spot on one of the pregnant ones and thought it may be ich . We treated the entire tank along with the others. It didn't get better. We did the 20% water changes daily that the instructions called for for a week and treated the tank again . During this time one of the pregnant ones ( not sick) gave birth and the whole fry was stillborn. We were concerned that it was from the treatments so we stopped all but the daily water changes. The Ill Molly then gave birth and her babies ( most of them) were fine . We seperated the babies but not her. Now it has been almost 3 months since we got her and no other fish caught it , not even her fry . She stopped eating suddenly and got stuck to the side of the filter so we took her out and put her in a hospital tank alone thinking she was about to pass or that one more brush with the filter would kill her. We treated her alone again .It's been a week and she's still hanging on and started eating a little again. If she wants to fight, I want to help her any ideas? Sorry for the poor pic quality it was taken last week in the hospital tank during ich treatment. The spot looks the same now .

 

[Byron]

That is certainly not ich, but I am not sure what it may be, though fungus or an ulcer suggest themselves from the photo. For the future, it is better not to treat for disease unless you know exactly what the disease is. Any medications or substances added to the water will naturally get inside the fish, and these cause further stress, so only those absolutely essential should be used. Diagnosing fish ailments is not at all easy much of the time.

We need more data to (hopefully) diagnose this better.

What is the GH (general hardness) and pH of the water? Temperature? The GH and pH of your source water (tap) you can get from the water authority, check their website. A pH test kit is a useful tool, but GH and KH is not usually necessary once you know the source water.

Have you tested the tank water for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate?

How often are water changes performed, and how much of the tank volume is changed at each?

What substances or chemicals are added to the tank water, if any?

What is the tank size, and are there any other fish aside from the molly (and fry)?

Byron.

 

[Madtat211]

Th

That is certainly not ich, but I am not sure what it may be, though fungus or an ulcer suggest themselves from the photo. For the future, it is better not to treat for disease unless you know exactly what the disease is. Any medications or substances added to the water will naturally get inside the fish, and these cause further stress, so only those absolutely essential should be used. Diagnosing fish ailments is not at all easy much of the time.

We need more data to (hopefully) diagnose this better.

What is the GH (general hardness) and pH of the water? Temperature? The GH and pH of your source water (tap) you can get from the water authority, check their website. A pH test kit is a useful tool, but GH and KH is not usually necessary once you know the source water.

Have you tested the tank water for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate?

How often are water changes performed, and how much of the tank volume is changed at each?

What substances or chemicals are added to the tank water, if any?

What is the tank size, and are there any other fish aside from the molly (and fry)?

Byron.

The fry have been seperated. She was in a tank with 2 other adult mollies. We took her out after treating all of them for ich didn't clear her up. She is now in a tank alone but all the other fish are fine and never caught it even while they shared a tank. It is a 20 gal tank, she's now in a 2 gal tank. Water changes daily 20% as far as ph and nitrates , my husband handles that stuff and he works frequently so I don't remember but he tested yesterday and said they were fine. We fill them with well water as we live in a rural community , which may concern me except for the fact that our second , larger tank uses the same water and the rope fish snails, and gouramis as well as the other 2 mollies aren't having any issues.

 

[Madtat211]

She passed away about an hour ago suddenly she had been swimming after her normal 20% change , never gasped , panted. , swam funny or anything she was resting on the bottom when I went to cook , I came back and she was floating on her side

 

[Byron]

That is actually a good thing, as it likely means the issue was specific to the fish and not something infectious. Again, this is only my surmise, but I have seen similar. Some sort of growth, ulcer, etc. in a single fish seems the probable issue.

It is still advisable to sort out the water parameters I asked about previously, as these if not suited to the fish species will cause stress and stress is the root cause of most fish disease.

Byron.