clear stringy feces and mysterious deaths!!

[lily.345]

Hi guys!
I have a 10 gal tank with a 2 mollies, lyre-tail, platy and 2 fancy guppies as well as a Chinese algae eater. 2 weeks ago one of my mollies died. I noticed some of my fish were flashing. I purchased some aquarium salt and copper sulfate because I thought it was ich or velvet.
A week ago the platy died. Since the molly and the platy were doing really well up until the day they died I thought that it could have been my Chinese algae eater since he showed a lot of aggression towards the platy and molly.
My fancy guppies and lyre-tail responded well to the treatment. No one is flashing and no spots developed on anyone except for the balloon molly. She has the white spots indicative of ich but also has clear stringy poo (as of 2 days now) is very lethargic and seems to lose her balance. She tips backwards when she stops moving her fins. This has been going on for about 4 days now.

I'm really worried! This is my first aquarium and am feeling really discouraged.
Thanks so much!!

 

[lily.345]

oh yeah I purchased a divider to keep the chinese algae eater away just in case he was the cause.

 

[Zagz]

Hi, welcome to AA! How long has the tank been set up? How often do you do water changes and how much each time?

It could be the medications that you treated with for starters that caused the problems initially.

What I would do is change the water (50%) or more, and slowly turn the heat up to over 86 F. That will help with the ich. Get a medicated food, such as geltek for internal parasites and do not add anything further to the tank.

Chinese algae eaters can be aggressive, but not when they are small usually.

 

[rive1404]

Did you introduce any of the LFS's water when you put in your algae eater? White spots sounds like ich to me. The clear, stringy feces is indicative of a parasitic infection attacking the internal walls of the stomach. But I'm just a SW fish guy. Don't know much about FW.

 

[lily.345]

The tank has been set up for about 3 months, I do water changes every two weeks about 25 percent. (I check my parameters often and they are all zero)
My molly died before any medications were put in.

 

[Zagz]

You have no nitrates? In a cycled tank you should have nitrates? What kind of test kit are you using, strips or liquid?

 

[lily.345]

I have the API master test kit for freshwater aquariums.

 

[Zagz]

The temp increase will kill any ich in the tank, add extra aeration while temps are up. The geltek food is a safe way to treat internal parasites.

Keep an eye on your parameters and do extra water changes if necessary.