Odd Behaviour

[Trillian]

I posted this a few days ago but no one replied so I am posting here as well:

I have three baloon mollies in my tank and two of them are "normal" but one has me confused. During the day she swims around like the other two, eats happily, poops normally, and there are no obvious signs of illness. At night though she sits on the bottom of the tank leaning up against her log, barely moving. If I put food in the tank she will usually snap out of it and swim around normally again but the last 2 nights I thought she was dying as she just woudn't respond to anything. By morning though she was completely normal again and swimming around with her friends. What the heck?? I'm thrilled she is still around but I'd don't understand her behviour. She's been doing this for over a week now. Is this indication of some sort if illness and if so is ther anything I can do for her?

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

It could be sleeping. Do you turn the lights off at night? Give us the size of tank, and water stats. Mollies do need some salt as they tend to like Brackish better.

 

[WILDER]

They can lay on things when a sleep.
Does she look bloated and has she darkened in colour.

 

[Trillian]

The tank is 30 gallons and we do turn the lights off before we go to bed. I tested the water and all the stats were normal (I don't remeber the actual numbers though). We just cleaned the tank a week ago and there is salt in it. It's hard to tell if she's bloated since the balloon mollies are kind of round already. She looks the same as she always has though (shape and colour).

One of the other mollies just passed away (she was swimming on her head for a day or two) but this little one is still doing well....at least during the day. I had no idea they slept as I never see any of the other fish do this.

 

[WILDER]

Headstanding is a sign of swim bladder, I would feed some shelled peas.

 

[Trillian]

I've tried shelled peas but none of my fish will touch them and then they go all mouldy on the bottom of the tank (I just put 1 or 2 in at a time and smushed them a little)

 

[WILDER]

Are you cooking them for a few minutes, then you pop them out of the shell and mush between fingers.

 

[Trillian]

Yep and they think I'm crazy.

 

[WILDER]

They can turn there nose up at new foods keep trying.