Need advise with pop-eye!!

[zao]

Hey people!
I bought two molly's for my girlfriend when I got my tank running. Well the tank has been running for about 5 months now. Since then the molly's had baby's, well now the baby molly's are bigger. I am guessing that they are trying to spawn with her, but she is not letting them, and they keep picking on her. Well last night all the sudden I noticed she got pop-eye! Well the water is pretty good, the nitrates is 0ppm, the ammonia is at 0ppm. I read an article on the net and I read that if you see any red blashes on the body, then it is a bacterial. Well I saw two red blashes, one on the tail-fin and one towards the top around the head. The article also said to use Maracyn-Two. To treat it. Well my question is that is it ok to treat the hole tank with maracyn-two? Cause I don't have hospital tank. Also would the pop-eye been caused from stress by the other Molly's picking on her?

 

[TankGirl]

Ideally that fish should be removed and treated separately, so as not to risk your biofilter with the use of antibiotics, but it sounds like you know that already, lol.

If you can't set up a temporary tank for her, then you'll have to treat the whole tank. Popeye is usually a bacterial infection, brought on by stress and possibly poor water quality.

If you have more males than females, even if the female is the mama, she will stress and die from being pestered by the males. More females than males is definitely the way to go when it comes to livebearers, or separating the genders completely.

Go ahead and get started on the treatment, but maybe you'll need to get a tank divider or something to protect her so she can get better.

 

[zao]

Well I do kind of have a hospital tank. It is a 10gal tank that has been sitting in our grage for years. But I found it a couple of months ago and cleaned it up, put some gravel in it and plants and also bought a filter system for it, got a couple of air-stones in it, the only thing it does not have is a hood and lights and water. I was going to give it to my girlfriend as a presant for her. But we both got in a little money problem and we never did get around to setting it up. So I am sure she wont mind using her tank for the hospital tank. So my next question is how would you setup a hospital tank, that has never been used before? Cause doesn't the bio chemistry need to be right?

 

[Guest]

I wouldn't worry about cycling a hospital tank. I do large water changes very often when treating sick fish & sterelize (bleach) the tank after the fish is out. You don't need any gravel but I would suggest taping a black paper at the back of the tank to make the fish feel more secure. And a heater.

 

[TankGirl]

Ditto fsh - definately get a heater, but you don't really need lights and a hood, you could even just put it somewhere under a regular lamp so you can see the fish. I would not use gravel or anything, just bare bottom, and do daily water changes with your medication dosing. After this episode is over, put the 10gal filter on your other tank (if it will fit) and keep it running, and that way it will hold bacteria for you if/when you ever need to set up the q-tank again.

 

[zao]

Alright, so it is ok to condistion the water and heat it up, and then put the molly in there to treat. There needs to be no biomedia at all? She will be fine?

 

[TankGirl]

There needs to be a filter, but gravel and decorations just make it harder to keep clean. Since you will be doing daily water changes it sortof takes the place of biofiltration.

 

[zao]

All right that makes sences, Yeah that just slaped me accross the face about 2sec ago. The biomedia reduce the amount of nitrates and nitrites, for a safe level for the fish and by doing water changes about every two weeks gets rest of it out of the water that the biomedia can't get ride of! DUH! I am sure I am getting on your guys nerves with all of these little questions. So when we do a water change? Just do like a regular one, with 25%? All right well I am off to bed now! HEHE I know I am a night owl. I stay up too late!

 

[TankGirl]

For a hospital tank I would do a partial water change every day right before dosing meds.

 

[zao]

Yeah that is what I figured. Well I put her in the hospital today and add the treatment. So I hope that everything goes well. Well I am off to clean the 37gal. Will keep ya posted on what is going on. I hope that everything goes really well.

 

[zao]

Well everything is going pretty good. She is looking alot better now. But now I have another little problem. Those damn baby molly's are picking on the other one now. They are picking on him so much. He is really scared and is hidding in some plants fighting off all the baby molly's coming up and picking on me. So today I am going to the lfs and see if they will take all of them off my hands. Cause I don't have another tank to put those little shits in.