Sick mollie

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Matty24

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I'm no fish expert but I have just noticed one of my ballon mollies swimming upside down and round and around but looks like something to do with the swim bladder? I've tested both ammonia and nitrite and they are reading 0 all the other fish are swimming around as normal is there anything I can do to help the little fella?

Cheers
Matty
 
Video of the fish?
You can upload the video to YouTube, then copy & paste the link here.

When fish start to spin/ spiral through the water, it is usually caused by a bacterial, protozoan or viral infection in the brain. There's not normally nay cure for fish that start doing it but sometimes big daily water changes and salt can help.

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Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

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SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt) or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres and if there is no improvement after 48 hours, then increase it so there is a total of 4 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate (4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will affect some plants and some snails. The lower dose rate (1-2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will not affect fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.
 
She is just upside down in the breeder box now hasn't moved for hours just breathing extremely slowly

Will the salt effect the other fish within the tank, mollies platys and 6 otocinclus mariae's.

 
If you are feeding lots of dry food, stop using it for a week and feed frozen or live food instead. The fish might have air trapped in its intestine and this could be causing it to float upside down.

If the fish continues to float upside down after a couple of days without food, I would euthanise it. I would probably do that now but if you want to try and keep it alive, drop dry food for a week and see if it improves on frozen and live food.

Try to avoid buying balloon mollies or any other type of balloon fish because their insides are squished up due to their shorter body. This means they have more health issues and are more likely to suffer from internal problems.

Put some plants in the breeding trap so the fish doesn't feel so stressed out.
 
Back again with another ballon mollie not looking well an few hours ago I noticed him just near the stop of the water just still not really moving just keeping himself in 1 position, few mins ago I thought where is he I can see all the other mollies and platys as normal went looking for him he was laying on the bottom, ive caught him and put him in a breeder box to keep an eye on, he was in the breeder box on top as he was before he disappeared, now he's on the bottom of the breeder box on his side, few now and then we will put up a fit upright himself, breathing very heavily 2 ballon mollies in a matter of days I've tested my parameters ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are all 0 ph is lower than normal normally around 7 but tested q few mins ago and it was 6.5 maybe someone with some more experience can enlighten me if maybe that's why I've lost a ballon mollie and the other one looks to be going the same way.


Thanks guys
 
A slightly low pH doesn't cause this.

It's more likely to be an internal problem caused by inbreeding or a disease that affects the internal organs.
 
OK thanks for that's I won't be buying no more balloons 🙄
 
A lot of fish that are shaped with a balloon shape (this includes the socalled short bodied guppies and platies) have the same problem as the veil tail goldfish. They can develop a swim bladder problem. This makes them swim upside down, vertically or even erratically. Some die of it in the end but some also live on.
 

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