Molly Problems

[johnneh]

Hi all, this is my first post on here so be gentle with me

I have a general newbie aquarium setup at home, its a 60l tank with 5 guppies, 7 platies, 1 albino pleco and 2 dalmation mollies (one male one female)
Over the past few months the female molly has had various bouts of acting weird, she'll shake (shimmies as far as i can gather), and generaly sit at the top of the tank just below the surface. When i feed them, she swims about as normal and appears to eat fine, and for hours after she will scavenge around the tank and just act like fish do. She regularly recovers from this behavior after about a week and then is fine for ages.

2 days ago she developed what looked like mouth fungus and cloudy eyes with little spots of white fungus looking stuff on them. which im in the process of treating with Melafix (i hope this is correct).
Now she and the male have started acting weird, so obviously it isn't an isolated problem or just her quirky behavior, also it seems to be a little more serious this time because they kinda violently flick to the side every now and again like they are trying to throw something off.

Water params are:
Nitrite: 0
Amonia: 0
Nitrate: 30ish
PH: 7.5-7.6

The tank also has some salt added to it which i did with the initial tank setup and have kept re-adding it with every water change as per instructions from the Lfs.

Thanks for your time

One last thing, she recently gave birth to an unknown number of fry, which i managed to save a grand total of two and have them in a breeding trap

Edit:
another thing i forgot to mention is. She will do this thing where she gradualy tilts backwards untill she is kinda standing up straight or almost going flipping all the way over, then she will shake and level off again.

 

[WILDER]

Tanks overstocked.
She has a bad bacterial infection and to be honest she dosn't sound good.
Has the columnaris gone.
Need a better med then melifix for columnaris.
Whats your location.

 

[johnneh]

The columnaris appears to be getting better, the furry stuff is going anyway.
Im located in the midlands area (close to sedgley road aquatics)

im a little shocked to hear the tank is overstocked. but you guys are the experts

thanks for the lightning reply btw

 

[WILDER]

one inch of fish to a gallon usually a good guide to go by.
Anti internal bacteria med by interpet and pimafix for your molly.


http/network.bestfriends.org/friends_of_.../news/5401.html

 

[johnneh]

Thanks a lot for your help!
I'll get the meds as soon as i can and work on getting another tank to sort out the overstocking.

 

[WILDER]

Good, big tanks are best more forgiving with water quality, and have more choice in fish.
Good luck.

 

[johnneh]

I've been and got the pimafix and interpet no.9 internal bacterial treatment today.
Should i do a partial waterchange to try and get rid of the melafix before starting the pimafix and the interpet meds or shall i continue using all 3?

thanks

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Plecos are generally quite intolerant of salt and it is bad for their health, in levels too high it can easily kill them. The vast majority of albino plecos sold are either common, sailfin or bristlenose plecos, common and sailfin plecos will definately outgrow your tank.
Common pleco;

http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/speci...p?species_id=88

Sailfin pleco;

http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/speci...?species_id=148

Bristlenose pleco;

http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/speci...p?species_id=49


When mollys develop the shimmies and things fungal infections, it is almost always an indication that the lack of salt in the water is having a bad affect on their health. Mollys can inhabit a wide range of water conditions in the wild, they can technically be kept in freshwater, but most mollys which do well in freshwater only do so because they were bred and raised in freshwater and they are good freshwater varieties of mollys. Most mollys are slightly brackish fish though, there are actually many varieties of mollys which inhabit a range of conditions, and at the suppliers for the lfs they are often raised in brackish conditions, but when they are sold they are often poorly acclimatised to the petshops freshwater tanks and suffer health problems there on like repeated fungal infections, weight loss and the shimmies etc.
I have a female molly who has lived in a freshwater tank for just under 4years now with no health problems whatsoever, but i bred her myself in freshwater conditions and she has done well in them ever since because she is also a freshwater variety of molly (although admittedly a crossbreed) and was raised in freshwater conditions from the start. My tanks water quality and ph is also good for keeping mollys in, and i regularly add liquid mineral/vitamin supliments to the water as well.

I would say your mollys health problems are mostly likely related to a lack of salt in the water, you should read nmonks article on mollys and brackish water;

http/www.fishforums.net/Mollies-Need-Salt-t137887.html

You need to use the right type of salt too- there are quite a few types of salt available for aquariums, what you need is marine aquarium salt (the stuff that makes sea water salty). Pimafix may or may not cure the molly, but if the health problems are salt related in your mollys (as i suspect they are), then it will not solve the problem in the long term and you will be likely to keep on facing health problems with the mollys unless something is done about the situation.

60 litres = 15.85 US gallons, what are the dimensions of the tank (length, width, height) ?

 

[johnneh]

Thanks for the reply Tokis-Phoenix.

The pleco i have is definitely the albino sailfin variety, judging by those pics you linked

My tank dimensions are roughly 22inches(L) 12inches(H) 11inches(W)
its a tetra aqua art 60L: http/uk.tetra.de/tetra/go/F97708267E96C0...=ChangeLanguage

imo tetra really need to adjust the information that they give people on their boxes, due to the fact it suggest for a guppy and platie aquarium, you can have 15 guppies and 10 platies.

In regards to the mollies, as soon as i'm able, i'm going to get another tank for them which i can turn brackish(is it?) so they wont keep suffering these problems. then a little further down the line as soon as i can afford it, i'm going to get a large tank for the pleco to live in and build the aquarium i've always wanted

Last but not least, the salt i've been using is some mineral salt that the guy in my lfs told me i needed (3 tsp per 60L)

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

The mineral salt stuff isn't that great, while it can boast the mineral content of the water a little bit which can be good for the mollys, it doesn't make the water salty in the right way for them so you really need the marine salt stuff .

 

[johnneh]

Thanks for the info i'll get a bag of marine salt as soon as im able to.