Pleeease help my sailfins

[Arizonagrace]

I have a sailfin molly with the following symptoms: Her fins are clamped tightly and while she does swim around some, she usually stays in one place and kind of waggles, and the past 24 hours, this has been mostly on the bottom of the tank. In this tank, (30 gallon long) I have 4 sailfin mollies, 3 catfish and 2 baby sailfin mollies. Oh, and 1 clown pleco. Parameters are all good. I keep it salted at 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons of water. Temp at 78.

I fed her some anitparasite medicated food, which she did eat, and it hasn't helped. I also dosed with parasite guard, but it did not help so far either.

One of the males is starting to act a little funny like her and staying in one place. Although he does not looked as clamped, he is waggling a bit now too.

 

[fishmonkey]

oh man, i know what it is and what to do, but i cant remember. ill get back to you later today.

 

[An t-iasg]

It sounds like "molly shimmy". Mollies prefer warmer water but I would think your temperature of 78 degrees is good. What kind of thermometer do you use? The stick-on ones aren't very accurate. I use a digital thermometer. I got a good one at Target.

Salt at 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons is good too. How does the pleco do with the salt?

What are the actual water parameters? Did this molly give birth recently - you mentioned baby mollies. If she did, she may need some time to recover. I would do a few extra water changes and see if that perks her up. Shimmy is a sign of poor water quality. How big is the clown pleco? It seems like the tank is appropriately sized for him but plecos are big waste producers, so I would double-check your parameters. It may be worthwhile to bump the temperature up to 79 or 80 degrees and see how the molly does. Turn it up gradually - I know those heater knobs are difficult to turn but try for one degree every 6 hours.

 

[Arizonagrace]

The clown is doing well in that tank. He is about 3 inches at most, and won't get any bigger then that. The catfish are all on the smaller side as well.

I have done a water change once a day for the past couple of weeks, since the babies were born. I watch the parameters very closely. I have gravel cleaned twice a week. There is 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 5.0 nitrates. Salted at 1 tbl per 5 gallons.

I am not sure if she is the mother of the babies. I add freshwater vitamins to their tank once a week, as I do with all my tanks.

Just the one female is sick, but the male is starting to act a little funny too.

I added 2 blocks of shimmy block to the tank. I know it is supposed to be 1 block to 10 gallons, but the store only had one box with 2 blocks in it. I will see if this helps them. I can't see how the water can be poor with the changes I do and the parameters all good. Unless, of course, it is lacking something I can't replace with a water change.

Any other suggestions would be great.

 

[HN1]

Why are you adding salt? IMO, salt will do more harm to the other fish than it will good for the mollies. Chances are they were bred and raised in fresh.

 

[Arizonagrace]

Other then the catfish and pleco, there are no other fish in the tank. The catfish and pleco have all been in the same kind of water for many, many months now and are doing well. When I first got them, I very very slowly acclimated them to the salt in the tank before adding any fish at all to the tank.

 

[HN1]

Ok. I'm afraid I still don't understand "why" though.

 

[Arizonagrace]

According to all the information I have found on mollies, it says to add salt.