Molly swimming wobbly

[satu]

Hi,

We have a male silver molly who's started swimming a bit funnily recently. He seems to use more of his body to move forwards, but he still uses his tail as well. We cannot see anything else wrong with him.

Here are our tank details:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
PH 7.8
Temperature 25.5C
The tank is 60 liters and was set up about 8 months ago.

The filtration is Tetratec EasyCrystal Filter 250 and the EasyCrystal FilterBox 300. Unknown L/hour but the filter came with the tank.

There are 5 fish in the tank: 2 corydoras:female 5cm =2" long without the tail and male 3cm =1.25" long), 1 male molly: one 4cm = 1.75" long and 2 female balloon mollies: both about 2cm = .75" long.

The water was changed last one week ago. We change water normally every two weeks and vacuum the gravel with every water change. We usually remove about 25-30% of the water. The tank has a little bit of aquarium salt added to it.

We change the decor in the tank when cleaning every two weeks, but all the decor we use is their old ones and no new ones have been added for 7 months.

We feed our fish with frozen bloodworm, shrimp or mosquito larvae in the morning and a bit of TetraMin flakes for tropical fish (BioActive formula) in the evening (and King British Catfish pellet food for the corydoras). Their diet has been the same all the time.

The silver molly male who swims wobblily also seems to take it a bit more easy than before. He spends some of the time close to the bottom of the tank. His stomach is not touching the gravel, but the tail can be a bit. He learned to do this when he was in the tank with only the two corydoras so that he could socialize with them. When we added more mollies, he started spending most of his time near surface and therefore we're a bit worried.

I read that the wobbly swimming can be caused by parasites (to my understanding internal ones) or internal bacteria. We're not sure what we should do next. We have medication for both, but have not given any for the fish yet.

These are all the symptoms we can see.

If you have any idea what this could be, please let us know.

Thank you.

 

[Zagz]

Is he bloated at all. Does he tilt to the side as well as wobble? Have you seen him poop lately? It may be a swim bladder issue or maybe constipation. To rule out constipation, try feeding some frozen peas and see if that helps. Before treating with meds, rule out swim bladder and constipation. Is your tank planted? It is unusual to have an established tank with no nitrates.

 

[satu]

Thank you for your reply Zagz,

He's not looking bloated and I cannot see him tilting to the side. It's just wobbling. I've seen him take a very thin little poop and also a thicker brown one.

It doesn't seem like swim bladder to me. He can control the height he's in the water, swimming up or down or wherever he wants. Unless it's in the very beginning when he still can. But he's been wobbly for a week at least. I noticed it about a week ago, but then i went to a hospital myself for almost a week and when i came back, he's still like it. My boyfriend didn't have much time to look after them, apart from feeding as he was either at work or in the hospital with me.

I'll drop some frozen peas in there now and we'll see if it does something. We have lots of real plants in the tank and i saw him picking algae last yesterday from one of them.

I had couple of mistakes in the water details in my first post. The nitrates are 5 and pH 7.8.

We've had this same problem with other fish before. They started wobbling and then ended up dead. That's why i'm wondering if there's some parasites in the water or plants. Some of the plants were put in in the beginning of August.

Thank you.

 

[satu]

The molly is now trying not to use his tail even more.

The last fish that died in the tank had a similar thing, but he also got really thin. We gave him internal bacteria treatment, but he passed away.

I'm thinking of trying internal parasite treatment this time. The treatment we have is Waterlife's Sterazin treatment that controls gill and body flukes and internal worms. He does not have anything external, but might have internal which we cannot see.

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Zagz]

Is he eating at all? If so try feeding him some medicated food for parasites. What internal bacterial treatment did you use before. The symptoms are similar to bacterial. Clamped fins can be a sign of bacteria or parasites. You can try some internal parasite meds, but depending on what medication you tried before, I'm still inclined to think it is bacterial. With his poop was the thin one white and stringy? If his poop is normal colored it is more unlikely that he has a parasite.

 

[satu]

Thank you very much Zagz!!!

He's eating normally. Unfortunately they do not sell the medicated food for parasites in the UK so we cannot use this option, but it would be a good one.

With the last fish we used Mardel's Maracyn-Two as we thought it was internal bacteria. We also have Interpet's #9 Anti Internal Bacteria so we can use either one.

His fins are a bit clamped, but he does open them from time to time and especially when a female fish goes past.

Yesterday we put Waterlife's Sterazin treatment that controls gill and body flukes and internal worms in the tank, but he still looks the same and not any better. He has lost a bit of weight from his usual and this is why we thought parasite treatment would be better than internal bacteria.

I saw some days ago a poop that was very thin and white or almost see-through string, about 2.5cm (1") long. I've also seen a normal looking brown stronger string. We have not caught him pooping much, but actually just now he's doing a short poop, which is like white, thin, little lumps attached to each other.

Could you please give us your opinion on which treatment would be better. We can change the treatment for him for the internal bacteria.

And thank you for your advice.

 

[Zagz]

If the poop is white and rather stringy like you describe, parasite treatment would be what I would do. Do a water change then add the meds to the water. Keep an eye on the cories to see how they react to the meds. I like Jungle's parasite clear tank buddies or Hikari Prazi Pro myself but it all depends on what you have access to.

 

[satu]

Thank you Zagz. You've been a great help here.

We've put Waterlife's Sterazin treatment (for gill and body flukes and internal worms). It's pretty much the only one we could find for any internal worms. I don't know if there are other internal parasites, but worms, but if there are, it does not cover them - just worms. I hope this works. I ordered Jungle's Parasite Clear from the USA, but it won't make it here on time for this time.

The problem with Sterazin is that the bottle does not tell what the ingredients are. I found a conversation about this on another forum. Someone thought the ingredients are malachite green and formalin and another person said it's likely to be Fenbendazole, but a third person said it does not contain Fenbendazole. I thought just now that I'll actually email the manufacturer and ask.

Changes in the fish's behaviour today are positive. He's been chasing his favourite girl, which we have not seen him do for days. But then he stops again to wobble. I guess it's a slight improvement.

Thank you for your help.

 

[Zagz]

I wish you the best of luck. Internal parasites can be hard to treat. Take every improvement you get as a good sign. Keep us updated on how he's doing.

 

[satu]

Thank you Zagz.

I received a reply from the manufacturer of the Sterazin anti parasite treatment. The active ingredient is Piperazine. I read some things in the internet about it and hopefully it will be good enough to treat the parasites. I think the fish looks better: swimming more, chasing other fish, not staying close to the bottom anymore as much and I saw a normal looking brown poop yesterday so we'll do the course of medication and keep a very good eye. We added some medication yesterday and we will also on the 6th, 8th and 10th days of the medication.

Thank you so very much for your help!

 

[satu]

Hi,

Here's updates of our Elly-molly. He's better. It looks that he's combatted the worms. His poop is normal, he chases the girls and looks generally more happy. However, he still keeps sitting close to the bottom and wobbles a bit. He didn't do this before the worms. We were wondering if it's possible that the worms damages him somehow and therefore he wobbles a bit when staying still close to the bottom.

He swims normally and uses his tail now properly. I'm just scared that maybe the wobbling is still a sign that there might be an internal bacteria there that was maybe caused by the internal parasites. He's now about 1.5 years old, but the wobblying and this behavious only started 1.5 months ago when the internal worms came.

Any ideas?

Again Zagz, we wanted to thank you for helping us out with the parasites.

 

[Zagz]

Glad to hear he is doing better, I would keep a very close eye on him and treat with a mild medication for bacterial infection as a precaution. It may be his swim bladder has been damaged somewhat by the parasites.