Disease?

[Jham9980]

My balloon molly has started swimming head down and is struggling a bit...I read something about being swim bladder disease. Anyone know info about this and how I can treat it? Or if it can be treated?


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[SuomiBetta]

My balloon molly has started swimming head down and is struggling a bit...I read something about being swim bladder disease. Anyone know info about this and how I can treat it? Or if it can be treated?


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It certainly sounds like it. Swim Bladder disease is a bacterial infection of the swim bladder that affects the fish's ability to swim. Best course of action: Separate the sick fish ASAP. Once the fish is separated into a hospital tank you can use a combination of Melafix and Pimafix to start treating the infection. If the fish is still getting worse you can buy a broad-spectrum antibiotic for the sick fish. As a precaution I'd also dose the other fish (assuming you have a community tank) with Melafix, Pimafix and aquarium salt to boost their immune systems and prevent spread of infection. It would help to have more information on your tank like size, number and species of other fish with your ill balloon molly. This would help others give you more specific advice. Pictures are also useful. Hopefully your molly gets better soon!

 

[Brookster123]

I'll bet you a dollar it's got something to do with the water in your tank.. testing? Tank age? Size? Tell us everything... wc routine?

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[Jham9980]

I have a 20 gallon long with 4 gold barbs, 2 black mollies, 2 balloon belly mollies, 1 black redtail platy and 1 swordtail. I just upgraded from a 10 gallon tank on Monday because I felt overstocked to this 20g long. My ammonia have been reading between .5 and 1 ppm since the upgrade and have done two 30% water changes to get it down to 0....nitrites and nitrates are 0 respectively.

But I noticed a couple of white spots on my molly and thought it may be ich and I didn't have any ich meds at the time so I use non iodized salt to treat until I was able to go to my LFS later that night (didn't have a way to to my LFS at the time) and that's when he started swimming funny later that day. So did the salt have any thing to do with it maybe???


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[SuomiBetta]

I have a 20 gallon long with 4 gold barbs, 2 black mollies, 2 balloon belly mollies, 1 black redtail platy and 1 swordtail. I just upgraded from a 10 gallon tank on Monday because I felt overstocked to this 20g long. My ammonia have been reading between .5 and 1 ppm since the upgrade and have done two 30% water changes to get it down to 0....nitrites and nitrates are 0 respectively.

But I noticed a couple of white spots on my molly and thought it may be ich and I didn't have any ich meds at the time so I use non iodized salt to treat until I was able to go to my LFS later that night (didn't have a way to to my LFS at the time) and that's when he started swimming funny later that day. So did the salt have any thing to do with it maybe???

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How much salt did you add? If it was the salt then all of your fish would be sick. Mollies are brackish water fishes (meaning they like water that is more salty than most fresh water but not oceanic levels of salt so basically a middle ground) so I highly doubt it. Is the ill molly a fish that has been bullied a lot? Swordtails (especially males) can be aggressive. I had a Red Wag platy that was an absolute terror.

 

[Jham9980]

I read online to add a cup of salt to a gallon of water to treat ich...I isolated the fish from the others in my 10 gallon tank and in about 5 min he started to jerk around the water and began to swim slowly so I put him back in the aquarium and he was fine a little after that and later on last night he began to swim head down and been like that ever since...


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[Jham9980]

Is that too much salt???


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[Brookster123]

You added 20 cups of salt to your tank?

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[Jham9980]

No...I put 1 cup in 1 gallon of water for a few minutes, that's all it said to do

Actually it was like 1/2 cup of salt because I felt like it was too much


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[Angela1108]

If you did a cup for a gallon yes that is waaaaay too much!!



Also if your ammonia was at 1 doing a 30% water change would only bring it down to .7 at .5 doing a 30% would leave it at .35 (ish) which is both still too high. My guess is actually ammonia poisoning


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[SuomiBetta]

Is that too much salt???


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That's WAY too much. You've made your tank a saltwater tank at that rate. I suggest you try changing the water and add in fresh water no more than 50% and try to do it as slowly as possible. You can up the temperature of the tank to 81 F to help kill Ich if that is your suspicion. After that I would try to get yourself some Melafix and Pimafix to start with. And I would definitely keep the sick fish away from the others as you don't want a community tank failure. A reasonable rate for salt in an aquarium is one tablespoon for every 5 gallons. Also your filter doesn't filter out salt so your best bet is a water change and isolation. And test the water to see if your water is doing fine.

 

[44Paps44]

1 teaspoon of salt per gallon...

 

[Angela1108]

It is supposed to be like 1 teaspoon of salt for a couple of gallons.


Did you try feeding peas? Sometimes swim bladder is from constipation and peas often help relieve this


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[Jham9980]

No haven't tried peas...but will get some


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[Angela1108]

Yeah just make sure to take the skin off of them though! If you google how to feed fish peas I am sure instructions for prep will come up.


Of you had added all that salt to the actual tank and not a quarantine/temporary tank def do a water change ASAP. (Sorry can't remember if you said you had removed the fish for the salt or not)


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[Jham9980]

Ok and yes the sick fish was in quarantine tank with the salt....


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[Angela1108]

Ok good


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