whats wrong with my fish

[natedogg110582]

I started my aquarium back in November. I started with a molly and a guppy. The first guppy died in about 20 minutes so I went back and got a new one. This one lasted much longer. It started out doing fine but soon it was not eating and having trouble swimming in a normal position. After the guppy died I thought I should give guppies a rest for a while so I bought a male companion for my female molly. He too started out fine but eventually stopped eating and had difficulty swimming normal. Then I bought two more guppies who lasted quite a while. They never had problems swimming, the only strange thing was that they continually had stringy feces like the other two fish that had died. I had them for about a month and little baby guppies started showing up so I bought a net breeder. I only lost one of the babies as they grew and during this time all of my fish were acting normal so I thought my curse was over. Unfortunately, you cannot keep 13 fish in a 10 gallon aquarium so when the babies were old enough i gave the pet store 8 of them and kept two so that I now had 5 fish which I thought was a reasonable number. However, once I gave back these babies, the two little ones I kept died within a week and the larger guppies in a couple more weeks. All seemed to get really depressed because they would just sit at the bottom before they died. Now I was only down to my faithful molly who has been through it all. At this point, Im thinking I should just change the water completely and start all over. So I change all of the water and put my molly back in. I think maybe shes lonely so I buy a platy. The platy acts normal for a couple weeks besides the stringy feces (of course) so I buy a couple more platys who are acting much better than my other fish despite the stringy feces. Unfortunately, my molly has gone crazy and has been for a couple months since i gave away the babies. She stays in her house unless she wants to eat. When she does come out she swims very erratically, throwing gravel everywhere and jumping out of the water. I am afraid I may have to get rid of her because I do not want her to be the reason why my fish die. I have no idea what is happening to my fish. I check the water quality frequently and it is within the right boundaries. If anyone knows what could be happening let me know what I can do to be rid of the problem.

 

[samthefishman]

Semms like you got a disease, i dont know much on the topic i am suprised CFC hasnt posted in here, no one has for that matter. I would say its disease and u needa give everything a good scub (as i have done in the past).

 

[den]

I'd agree with SamTheFishMan.

"Tough Love" is sometimes the only way. Though....are you SURE your water quality is perfecto? Are you possibly doing water changes too quickly or too much at one time? - and not conditioning it? Check your gravel and decorations? Generally speaking (as in, I don't know for sure), fish don't actually DIE of loneliness - not within 1 month me thinks?

I recently re-did my 55 Gall tank. I really found a great thing is to leave the (same) gravel, plants and fish - and that's it. Break it down to basics and eliminate. It's usually NOT the gravel or plants! - though may be the water, or something getting into it. Wait a day, then do your water quality tests. THEN when I was sure they checked out, I carefully washed my decorations. (Wood, cork, rocks, little treasure chest that blows bubbles (JK)) and left it "bare" for about 3 weeks. (After I woke up from boredom), I was so glad I cancelled out certain problems and fixed whatever problem I had. OR - remove everything except the fish. Do your homework with the test kits, and slowly clean / check / and add stuff.

G'Luck!

PS - "A Molly and A Guppy?" Why not start with 4 or 5 things - assuming your tank is large enough. (Over 1 foot long?) 5 guppies? or 5 Neons? 4 Plattys? Mollys? - Your choice.