Molly fish sickness. Help!!

[imamesshelpme]

So, I have three female mollies. Two used to swim in circles and nip at each other. Soon one developed a wobble and I assumed it was due to them nipping each other. Then she began to stay at the bottom of the tank. Bearing in mind I had lost a Betta a few weeks before and this is what he did. I read up on things, assumed it was shimmies. However now she's even worse. I've had to remove her from the tank and she's in a washing up bowl with a heater. This happened last night, now 8am. She's alive, and she's moved during the night, however I know she's too weak to eat. Should she even be eating pellets while sick?? Tried giving her pea earlier. Didn't show interest at all. I've made sure temps are high end in the water she's in.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Delapool]

How is your fish?

 

[imamesshelpme]

Sadly my white molly didn't make it through that next day. Even more strange, the day after that I woke to find my perfectly healthy speckled molly dead.
Only have one molly now, but she seems very healthy. She eats fine, loves peas, swims around most of the day, and swims to opening where she is fed as soon as she see's me move in the mornings. Only concerns now are that she's all on her own, and there's a lack on hiding places for her.

 

[Delapool]

Sad news on your fish


It is a bit strange. If the fish were attacking each other then one can unfortunately get stressed or damaged to death. Possibly poor or really old food might cause wobbles although perhaps rarer these days.


Water chemistry and shimmies also possible. One to check would be ph and if really low or if nitrates are really high. Betta's are normally pretty tough. Never had troubles except fin rot really but I prefer the short fin ones as well. Checking water chemistry would I think be useful be may have just been stress from fighting.

 

[imamesshelpme]

Water was perfect. Took the remaining fish and tank water to pet store, they tested for everything, including ammonia.
I agree the fighting between the black and white molly was most likely the cause of the white Mollie's death, however that doesn't explain why my black one is absolutely fine, and the speckled was perfectly healthy the day previous to her sudden death.

 

[Delapool]

If we rule out parasites and fungus, then I'm thinking for the speckled one either fighting related stress as well, water chemistry eg a little soft or bacterial infection (or a combination). Or even a large water change may have tipped it over the edge - may not have been one event but a few combining with the fighting just being too much if equal size.

Was the black dead fish nibbled on at all? Bacterial infection will take a fish fast but if no obvious signs I'd just do a water change and look into adding hiding spots. Some thoughts.

 

[imamesshelpme]

The speckled one was very peaceful and she never fought or nipped the others, so I don't think it's stress from fighting. I don't know what else could have stressed her out. Maybe the water change. Would a 30/40% water change once every 1/2 weeks stress them out?
All dead fish are taken out as soon as I notice them, and the Betta died in a separate body of water than the others. White molly died in a makeshift pouch of a fish bag. Speckled molly died on the tank floor overnight out of the blue.
This morning I woke to find the black molly laying on the tank floor. I did a 25% water change, added a little salt, and tried feeding her some pea. She died shortly afterwards. Issue seems to be just sudden death. They fall very sick very quickly and then die shortly afterwards.
I bought two other mollies a few days ago, is there anything you could recommend to help prevent them suffering the same fate?

 

[nirbhao]

I replied to your other thread on this same topic. A fish who doesn't look like she's fighting could be on the receiving end, unable or unwilling to defend herself. Very stressful.