Young Molly Laying At Bottom Of Tank, Gasping, Struggling To Get To Su

balthazaur

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my baby silver lyretail molly is not doing well. after his mom died yesterday, i'm really want him to be okay.
i've had my tank for about 6 months now, and everything has been fine until yesterday.
 
 
Tank size: 15 gallons
pH: 7.2
ammonia: n/a my test stuff doesn't do ammonia. i will definitely be buying new test equipment (when i bought this set it was an emergency and this was the only testing stuff available at walmart  )
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 10
kH: 170
gH: 75
tank temp: 80.4

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior):
laying at the bottom of the tank, gasping for breath. every once in a while he'll try to swim up to the surface but it's a struggle, and more often than not he's swimming sideways

Volume and Frequency of water changes:
yesterday i did a 70% water change - one of the fish (another molly, an adult) had just died. normally i do 50% every other week, or when it starts to smell

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank:
water conditioner, stress zymes, melafix

Tank inhabitants:
three danios, a snail, and the baby molly. the danios are in perfect health as far as i can tell. 

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration):
the snail is new. adopted him two weeks ago.

Exposure to chemicals:
other than the conditioners, none

Digital photo (include if possible):
i'll try to post a picture later.
 
please help. i added an air stone to see if he needed more oxygen in the water, and after thirty minutes it doesn't seem to have done much for him, although he did start struggling for the surface after i put the stone in.
 
You really need to get your water tested for ammonia.

I can't say exactly what's wrong with your molly, but it's almost certainly water quality related.

A couple of your comments have given me cause for concern. A healthy tank should never, ever smell. apart from a very faint compost/soil type aroma, even if you haven't done a water change. Can you describe the smell?

All tanks do better with weekly water changes; the actual amount depends on the heaviness of your stocking. Is the tank filtered? How do you clean and maintain the filter, if you have one?
 
it sounds kinda like ammonia poisoning or a swimbladder condition, both of which are or can be caused by poor water quality. Amonia poisining is a definite for water quality - swimbladder conditions can be inherited etc.. I wonder if all the additives are knocking out bacteria?
 
I'm hoping that you have a filter, what model is it?
 
Molly's are poop machines, literally.
 
yes, i have a filter. it's a top fin power filter 20. i change the cartrige on the first of every month.
 
unfortunately the molly didn't survive the night. and neither did one of my danios, who appeared fine when i went to bed.
 
would you suggest i not add the stress zyme or melafix to my aquarium anymore? the stress zyme says it contains live bacteria and improves the bio filter. i don't usually add melafix to my aquarium but i did last time i cleaned it because i was told it could help sick fish.
 
the aquarium doesn't usually smell - i don't usually let it go that bad. but if i go beyond two weeks to clean it it does smell fishy.
 
balthazaur said:
yes, i have a filter. it's a top fin power filter 20. i change the cartrige on the first of every month.
 
unfortunately the molly didn't survive the night. and neither did one of my danios, who appeared fine when i went to bed.
 
would you suggest i not add the stress zyme or melafix to my aquarium anymore? the stress zyme says it contains live bacteria and improves the bio filter. i don't usually add melafix to my aquarium but i did last time i cleaned it because i was told it could help sick fish.
 
the aquarium doesn't usually smell - i don't usually let it go that bad. but if i go beyond two weeks to clean it it does smell fishy.
eeeyup, that;ll be why
 
your filter is too small for your tank for a start, also, it's a really rubbish filter - cartridges work on the principle that chemicals in them clean the water, which doesn't work all to greatly actually. When you change cartridge, you remove all bacteria that may've grown there and effectively set the tank bak to day 0
 
I diagnose ammonia poisioning from this reasoning
 
use dechlorinators but cut out the other chemicals. Not worth it. Melafix won't do anything for ammonia poisoning anyway.
 
If your tank smells "fishy" things are already going wrong. That smell is rot.
 
Please, get two 90% water changes done ASAP to flush the ammonia out of the tank and get a filter that doesn't rely on cartridges.
 
i just bought an aquarium master test kit. it'll be here on thursday. but in the mean time, if i do have an ammonia problem, what should i do? do a water change?

Blubble37 said:
 
yes, i have a filter. it's a top fin power filter 20. i change the cartrige on the first of every month.
 
unfortunately the molly didn't survive the night. and neither did one of my danios, who appeared fine when i went to bed.
 
would you suggest i not add the stress zyme or melafix to my aquarium anymore? the stress zyme says it contains live bacteria and improves the bio filter. i don't usually add melafix to my aquarium but i did last time i cleaned it because i was told it could help sick fish.
 
the aquarium doesn't usually smell - i don't usually let it go that bad. but if i go beyond two weeks to clean it it does smell fishy.
eeeyup, that;ll be why
 
your filter is too small for your tank for a start, also, it's a really rubbish filter - cartridges work on the principle that chemicals in them clean the water, which doesn't work all to greatly actually. When you change cartridge, you remove all bacteria that may've grown there and effectively set the tank bak to day 0
 
I diagnose ammonia poisioning from this reasoning
 
use dechlorinators but cut out the other chemicals. Not worth it. Melafix won't do anything for ammonia poisoning anyway.
 
If your tank smells "fishy" things are already going wrong. That smell is rot.
 
Please, get two 90% water changes done ASAP to flush the ammonia out of the tank and get a filter that doesn't rely on cartridges.
 
this is the filter the aquarium came with, though. and it's worked well for six months until now.
 
(btw, the link shows a ten gallon filter, but i DO have the 20 gallon one for my 15 gallon tank)
 
what filter would you recommend?
 
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balthazaur said:
i just bought an aquarium master test kit. it'll be here on thursday. but in the mean time, if i do have an ammonia problem, what should i do? do a water change?

 


yes, i have a filter. it's a top fin power filter 20. i change the cartrige on the first of every month.
 
unfortunately the molly didn't survive the night. and neither did one of my danios, who appeared fine when i went to bed.
 
would you suggest i not add the stress zyme or melafix to my aquarium anymore? the stress zyme says it contains live bacteria and improves the bio filter. i don't usually add melafix to my aquarium but i did last time i cleaned it because i was told it could help sick fish.
 
the aquarium doesn't usually smell - i don't usually let it go that bad. but if i go beyond two weeks to clean it it does smell fishy.
eeeyup, that;ll be why
 
your filter is too small for your tank for a start, also, it's a really rubbish filter - cartridges work on the principle that chemicals in them clean the water, which doesn't work all to greatly actually. When you change cartridge, you remove all bacteria that may've grown there and effectively set the tank bak to day 0
 
I diagnose ammonia poisioning from this reasoning
 
use dechlorinators but cut out the other chemicals. Not worth it. Melafix won't do anything for ammonia poisoning anyway.
 
If your tank smells "fishy" things are already going wrong. That smell is rot.
 
Please, get two 90% water changes done ASAP to flush the ammonia out of the tank and get a filter that doesn't rely on cartridges.
 
this is the filter the aquarium came with, though. and it's worked well for six months until now.
 
(btw, the link shows a ten gallon filter, but i DO have the 20 gallon one for my 15 gallon tank)
 
what filter would you recommend?


daily water changes of at least 50%, you don't really have any filtration in the tank, just a water pump and some chemicals
 
for a 15 gallon tank you have two options. An internal filter such as a fluval U2 or an external like a TT-EX600 or similarly rated external. Don't change the media on the new filter you get and make sure that it has no cartridges. The U2 comes with carbon and floss pads which are great but don't replace them, not worth the money. It needs only a rinse in tank-water to clean. An external will come with foams etc which again, shouldn't be thrown away. If they start to break apart, then you throw them away.
 
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