My Fish Cant Swim!

[madjoker14]

Hi i have a marble that seems that it cant swim, it seems that the left side of the fish the fins are closed and its causes it to loose balance in the water,she makes up by cuving her body to swim but still bumbs into things, i also i think i saw her twitching as she was swimming,all the other fishes seem fine and my levels are the fallowing

Ph--------6.8
Amm-----0-0.15
Nitrite----0.25
nitrate----40

will she die or is there something i can do
thanks for any info

 

[waterdrop]

Water tests showing any ammonia and/or nitrite (NO2) at all should make you suspicious that her symptoms may be due to the un-cycled tank she is in. For starters, a 50% water change with dechlor & rough temp matching should not hurt and hopefully will begin helping. Other more experienced experts may be along to analyze her symptoms in more detail!

good luck,
~~waterdrop~~

 

[WILDER]

Clamped fins are a sign of stress.
Swim bladder can be fetched on bad water quality.
Immediate water change and increase aeration in the tank.

How long has the tank been set up?
How many fish and which type.

 

[madjoker14]

i have a 10 gallon with 7 fishes and 5 more baby's (really tiny)
4 molly
2 glass
1 platy

and i do a 25% water change on Saturdays,wich i add salt,liquid fertilize,is dechlorines
and the tank has about 2 months setup

when u sayd increase aeration, what does that mean?

lil background on that molly,she gave birth about 2 weeks ago (which are the 5 babys) and about 1 week ago she started showing signs of this swimming
i feed them flakes in the morning and a algy waffer at night and sometimes blood worms for the glassfish

Im i doing something wrong with them.

 

[WILDER]

Your stocking ok its not overstocked.
Your water readings are saying the tank uncycled.
If the tank been up 2 months it should of cycled by now.

How often do you maintain the tank, do you use a gravel vac for the substrate.

Livebeareres giving birth all the time takes it toll on them and shortens there live span.
Is she bloated.

 

[madjoker14]

uncycled you say, theres a post on this on the main correct if so i will start reading and this is my maintain

Sun-Fri i dont do anything but just top off the water and do 1 or 2 water test and i feed them twice a day

Sat i change 25% of the water and use the gravel vac to clean the grav. when i refill with new water i make sure the temp is equal or close to tank temp and i also add the proper amount of salt,fertilizer,and dechlorine mix it all in a bucket that i have just for the fish and pure it into the tan,

 

[WILDER]

Have you ever had an ammonia and nitrite reading of 0.
Also have you been using a med.

 

[madjoker14]

yup,before this reading or before the water change i had 0 for everything and ph was higher but now its lower because of the Co2 that im injecting, i thought it could of been the Co2 but the other fishes arent acting like her and her babys are doing fine as well

and no i havent used any med on the tank

 

[WILDER]

I can't see why you have ammonia and nitrite reading as it should be 0.
Your tanks not overstocked.
You maintain the tank.
You don't overfeed.
Maybe another member might be able to see the problem.

 

[seangee]

I can't see why you have ammonia and nitrite reading as it should be 0.
Your tanks not overstocked.
You maintain the tank.
You don't overfeed.
Maybe another member might be able to see the problem.

What are you using as your dechlorinator? I use Seachem Prime and that gives a (false) ammonia reading after use. If you test 24 hours later this should be 0. However you should not get nitrite readings from this. If you are you should do daily water changes until this is zero.

 

[madjoker14]

well im using aquasafe-waterconditioner and adding the correct ammount, now do u guys think its the Co2 that im injecting, before when i inject with the DiY yeast
i had a ph of 7.8 wich is what molly need and wen i inject i got 6.8 then when i remove the Co2 it shoots up to 7.8 with in 2 hours and this goes on and off,

maybe the co2 is too much and dropping the ph which is effecting her because all the other fishes seem fin,even her baby's seem fine with the ph drop

so ur saying i shouldnt get any amm/nitrite correct but some nitrate is acceptable around 40 as i read around the posts here

 

[waterdrop]

<...>
so ur saying i shouldnt get any amm/nitrite correct but some nitrate is acceptable around 40 as i read around the posts here

Yes, ammonia and nitrite should be 0ppm or you should perform water changes until it tests zero. NO3(nitrate) is relatively unimportant considering what we are discussing. 40ppm is fine, in fact there have been discussions that 400ppm has never been shown to harm fish, but it would be hard for you to get above 40 with the water changes you do. As far as water chemistry goes, what is strange is that the tank has been running 2 months with good maintenance and yet the bio-filter doesn't seem to be doing its job. Could the bacteria in the filter have been somehow damaged? Too much media changed out? Dechlor missed during a cleaning?

Anyway, back to the sick molly. Are your salt levels ok? Perhaps you should review these for the members who know how much of this you should be doing. (I can't remember what these should be. And also are the salt levels ok for the glass and platy?)

Perhaps also review that your liquid fertilizer dosing levels are correct (ie. not accidently too high and being toxic for the fish?)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[madjoker14]

hey whats up waterdrop, always helping me out but im sorry to say that my masterkit only test for ph/amm/nitrite and nitrate so i dont really know how to test for salt, as for the filter i only clean it when i see that waterfall (dont know the name)seems to be restricted i just remove the filter and with the same tank water i just pass it through so that anything clogging it comes off and it seems to restore the filter ability.

im kinda sad to say that this morning i found the molly at the bottom of the tank not moving or anything,i picked her up and she started moving just a tiny bit but she didnt put up a fight when i went for her, i just think its her time because all the other fishs seem to be doing fine.

 

[waterdrop]

So sorry about Mrs. Molly. My salt question was only about how much you were putting in - I figure you have read some measurement to do on the box or LFS told you or something and I was thinking you might like to tell the forum that amount so that the experts out there (not me, this is one I don't know) might have comments about how good or bad the salt (the amount you are putting in) was for your particular fish. Sometimes salt is bad, sometimes its good -- depends on the particular tank, fish and situation. (so was not about testing)

Sounds like you've got the right technique for your filter cleaning - no problem there!

ok, bye and r.i.p little molly

 

[madjoker14]

well im sorry to say that my molly died about 30 min ago (i had her separated from the other)and i was looking at her body and found this

a clear slimy coat only on the left side of her body
her left fin was very short compare to the right side
and left side of body seemed to be loosing/missing some scales

maybe she was being attacked by the other mollies? but i never seen anyone pick on her or maybe she rubbed against a rock and cut herself giving herself an infection? but either way im going to watch over her young ones and make sure they grow up good and healthy

anything could of caused this?

but thanks waterdrop,seangee,and Wilder for the advise