Hello! Thank you for your time in reading my post. I have tried to answer all the questions and then I posed some of my own at the bottom of the post. I've also attached a photo of the sick Molly
1~What type of fish is afflicted? In addition, please describe what is wrong with the fish to the best of your ability (i.e. cotton like growth, bloated, etc.).
Black Molly Fish, female #2 has cloudy white eyes and today her mouth looks a little white too. The first time (Sept 11-22nd) her eyes were cloudy I didn’t think they looked fuzzy but this time (started Sept 29) they look a bit fuzzy.
Black Molly Fish, female #1 died suddenly, found her body yesterday and she had previously seemed healthy.
2~What are your tank parameters (ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, temp, pH)? Please give exact values.
I tested tank parameters yesterday: Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 10-20, pH 7.8, Temp is 78F.
I tested the ammonia alone today, and it was positive! Between 0.25 and 0.5
I use the API Freshwater Master Test Kit.
3~ How large is the tank? How long has the tank been set up?
36 gallon bowfront. Set up since approx July 17. When set up the tank seeded with used filter media from a previously established 10G tank and moved the fish from the 10G tank into the larger tank.
4~What type of filtration are you using? Please give the name and number (i.e. Fluval 304) and amount of
gph if known.
Marineland Penguin 275
5~How many fish are in the tank? What kinds of fish are they and what are their current sizes?
Rasbora heteromorpha x 7
Molly, black x 3
Molly, creamsicle lyretail x 2
Clown pleco x 1
Mystery snail x 2
All fish are 2 inches or less in length.
6~When is the last time you did a water change and vacuum the gravel? How often do you do this? How much water do you remove at a time?
Yesterday I did a PWC and vacuumed gravel, also rinsed the filter cartridge in tank water I siphoned into a bucket. Usual maintenance is partial water change and vacuum the gravel weekly (Wednesdays). I remove approx 25-30% of the water and use a water conditioner
7~How long have you had the fish? If the fish is new, how did you acclimate it/them?
The molly that is currently sick we obtained August 6th. Did a 1 week quarantine with 3 days of Melafix and 3 days of Pimafix.
The molly that died, I owned for several years.
8~Have you added anything new to the tank--decor, new dechlorinator, new substrate, etc.?
Had in issue with bacteria bloom (cloudy water) and ammonia spike August 30th. I thought the tank was established since I started it with some previous filter substrate, but obviously it went through a cycle. I treated it with daily partial water changes with water conditioner and Seachem Stability, API Ammo-lock every 2 days. After a week, the ammonia and nitrites had returned to zero and there was nitrates detected. A few days later (Sept 11) was when I first noticed that the molly was sick and had cloudy eyes. I assume that the ammonia/cycling stressed all the fish and she became sick. I treated the whole tank with API Melafix for 7 days, then did a 50% water change on day 8. After treating with Melafix, the Molly’s eyes were waxing and waning - sometimes improved, sometimes worse. Then I did 2 days of Pimafix and forgot to treat on the 3rd day, but Molly’s eyes looked better. Then I resumed weekly water changes.
9~What kind of food have you been feeding your fish, have you changed their diet recently?
Feed flake food daily and skip 1 day a week. I feed the snails and pleco small sinking algae wafers, feed them 2 wafers every other day. A new thing was I fed romaine lettuce 4 days ago. It was washed but not cooked. I left the lettuce in the tank overnight maybe about 18 hours. The pleco and snails really ate it up.
My Questions:
Do you think the slightly fuzzy cloudy eye and mouth is a fungal infection? Or bacterial?
Do you think I caused an ammonia spike by leaving the lettuce in the tank for too long?
Do you think I caused harm to the tank by not cooking the lettuce prior to putting it in the tank?
Do you think I damaged the bacteria by rinsing the filter cartridge yesterday?
I plan to resume using Pimafix for fungus, and resuming partial water changes since there is ammonia detected again today. I just added some Seachem Stability to the tank. I am thinking that I should go buy more Ammo-Lock to detoxify the ammonia until the beneficial bacteria stabilize again. I don't like adding so much stuff to the tank water but I don't want to lose any more fish.
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