newbie needs advice - sick mollies/pleco (internal parasites & fungus?)

[Sapphire]

Hi all. I've had a 30 gallon tall running for about a month after a full cycle.

Air - Long bubble bar. Filtration - sponge filter. Heat - aqueon submersible. Water testing is done using the API liquid test kit (although I'm waiting on a replacement ammonia test bottle).

Unfortunately my inexperience with fish led to me overfeeding my tank and causing a small spike complete with cloudy water...leading of course to stressed fish. My fish were sourced from the local Pet*****.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*****NOTE: Now I know a lot of people are yelling at me for having adult livebearers with young, but the fry have been in there for 1-2 weeks (a few spaced litters) with lots of hides, and I've been keeping the adults well fed and have had absolutely zero issues with them eating the fry. I also separate the about-to-drop fems into a home-made bearing setup to protect her and the fry ****
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Water changes have just about cleared up the molly that was suffering from the shimmies (yaaay!) but after quite a bit of research into fish ailments, I now see that one of my mollies has fin rot (hurt it somehow and now has a fuzzy white ball on the injury, didint' see it right away as they are silver mollies), my pleco seems to have fuzzy discolored balls on its face, and yet another molly has white clear poo and likely has internal parasites.

My tank is my very first tank with fish in it (had an axolotl for a few years who lives with a friend now), and while I just set up a 10 gallon 2 days ago, its obviously not cycled what so ever, the only cycled tank I have is the 30 for now.

My tank contains:
5 adult guppies, 4 adult mollies, 1 young pleco (3") and about 60 guppy & molly fry (females were pregnant when I got them).

*My issues are: can i use medications with all the fish in the tank (pleco, livebearers, and fry), what medications do i need, do I need to throw out my sponge filter now, and how to keep a massive crash from happening during treatments.

Sorry I know this is a lot. I recently did a water change so will be doing the nitrate/nitrite/ph levels when I get home.

THANKS!!!

 

[jessipanda]

I'm still new to the hobby, but the white fuzz on an injury as well as around the mouth could possibly be either ich or columnaris (cotton mouth) or even both. Can you get pics of the fish to post? Treatment for both are completely different. Ich requires you to treat at higher temps, while columnaris treatment includes lower temps as well as different medications. It's best to figure out which is the most likely culprit...however, IF it is columnaris, you would want to start treatment ASAP! Get some pics on here if at all possible. We have a great community with some very skilled enthusiasts that can help.

As far as the treatments affecting the fry, I'd have no clue but I'm sure it wouldn't be good for them...

 

[Matt68005]

Treatment for finrot would involve kanamycin antibiotic and furan-2.
What makes you say they have internal parasites? The only internal parasites guppies and mollies get are callamunus worms....

 

[Matt68005]

pregnant when I got them).

*My issues are: can i use medications with all the fish in the tank (pleco, livebearers, and fry), what medications do i need, do I need to throw out my sponge filter now, and how to keep a massive crash from happening during treatments.

THANKS!!!

Yes you can use any medicine with a pleco and fry.
Nobody is gonna yell at you for keeping fry with the adults. After about a week or ten days their big enough to not be eaten anyways.

 

[Sapphire]

The only camera I currently have is my ipad, which hates the tank.

It is white and fuzzy,and in the case of the pleco, grey and fuzzy. both are on injuries (the pleco is crazy and rams into things at high speeds), the bully apparently damaged the silver mollies fin. From all the photos, it doesn't look like the Ich (Ick?).

I don't know about fish parasites but my female molly has been having long stringy white waste, which i read as a possible symptom, and I'm always paranoid with animals that have unusual poop. (I feed sinking spirulina and tropical flakes that are pink if that helps). I also always assume pet store animals have parasites, so please advise if this is not so with fish

I have not seen the "flower" from the vent that was in the pictures, so I may be over worrying at this point. As its just odd poops (to my newbie eyes)

@Matt, thanks for the understanding, been getting yelled at IRL for having fry with adults despite having zero issues, plenty of hides, and a 30 gallon X_X The oldest fry are about .5 inches and the youngest are growing like weeds. <3

 

[Sapphire]

after reading pages of the forum, those are the 2 medications I feel would be a good fit as well, is there a preferred brand or seller to get them from? Seeing a variety of options on amazon, and some seem to be powder, and some seem to be food?

 

[Sapphire]

home now and readings are:

ph - my reader in tank says 7.8, will confirm with my api high ph as my intial test just came back 7.6 +
ammonia - 0ppm
nitrite - 0ppm
nitrate - 0-5ppm (was in between colors)

so it looks like despite the lingering cloudiness, my cycle is back to health after the spike at least. thoughts on what causes ph spikes? my tap is 7.0 - 7.2

 

[Matt68005]

You can get furan 2 at walmart "fungus cure" or at petco/petsmart Nitrofurazone
You can get kanamycin from some FISH only stores, but if their still eating, its best to administer thru feed (not to mention you get a much better deal)
Its up to you of course....
You could run to petsmart and get some maracyn-2 and they would probs be okay, or you could count your losess, and wait 3 or 4 days and get a large amount of medicated antibiotic feed that will go straight into them and last you years, for 1/3 the price that the powder would run you. Ill give you a couple links
as for the stringy white poo, its not necessarily a sign of internal parasites, likely just from the bacterial infection, (or hopefully not vise versa)
Like i said, guppies and mollies ONLY get calamanus worms internally. Certain fish are prone to certain diseases, and they are tough to get rid of !!
Antibiotic Antibiotic Fish Flake Food
Dewormer DeWorming Fish Flake Food
in case ^
Go with the kanamycin and for worms levimasole.
The 3 oz pouches are actually very big and last til they expire years from now!
If they get bloated and stop eating and passing waste, then you worry. For now you can only work with what you got, you can deworm them right after the antibiotic regimine.
Heat and high water quality as well, salt would help!