Two dead very bloated dalmation mollies

[onegirl2minds]

This morning I woke to find two of my dalmation mollies dead and very bloated. They were both fine last night with no indications of any illness. All other fish appear to be fine, but then again so did those two yesterday. I have had this tank about 9 months,
one of the fish that died has been in the tank since I started it, the other has been in for about 2 months. One was a male and the other a female, who has dropped two batches of fry.


Unfortunately I disposed of the fish before taking photos . My water parameters are fine, the tank is 25 gallons stocked with, mollies , platies, tetras, rasbora, and a few guppies. I do a water change weekly on Sundays, I have not done it yet today. I don't think it's dropsy because whatever killed them did so overnight with no symptoms. Any ideas or suggestions?

Oh I use prime and amquel. When I add new fish I add some stress coat as well, but have not added any new fish recently.

 

[onegirl2minds]

 

[onegirl2minds]

more info

A little more info the tank is a Eclipse2 which came with a filter, I also added a hob filter that is for a 20 gallon tank. I change the filters every two weeks, but not at the same time. The only thing I did different yesterday is I gave them some algae tablets, I have given them these tablets before, but it has been a while. The tablets were a new bottle I bought yesterday. I feed them flake food daily, bloodworms once a week, tubiflex worms once a month, algae sheets once a week, deshelled green pea once a week, and broccoli occasionally.

 

[Bichir Bro]

IMO mollies may get a wee bit too big for a 25 but they don't really grow at a massive rate. They also have a surprisingly high bio load. What brand flakes do you use? Also You have a very nice diet, very well rounded so good job on that! Have you noticed if the mollies got more food than the others? Like do they snort down lots more food than other fish? This is weird, I don't think it's dropsy since there's no symptoms and honestly I doubt it's bloat since you've got such a nice diet. The only other option would be internal parasites.

 

[J.Mcpeak]

How many of each fish? Create list.
Could be overstocked.
Tank dimensions, LxDxH

 

[aquandrew]

i am sorry to hear what happened. do you have a before and after pic? did it literally happen overnight? i have read a couple articles about drospy happening over night, but it is extremely, extremely rare. dropsy is rare, in itself, so you can only imagine how rare odd occurrences with dropsy are. were going to need to know more to give you more info

 

[onegirl2minds]

First let me say thanks to all of you that have responded. I am happy to report, no new casualties this morning, yaay! But something I did not notice, until later in the evening, is that the boyfriend snuck in three new fish into the tank. They seem ok, but normally I like to quarantine all new fish for at least a week or more prior to adding them to my tank, saved myself from introducing a case of ich to my tank a couple of months back by using this method. I am normally the one in charge of all things fish related, so I am not sure why he decided to make such a crazy move, lol. He add two red wag platies and a mickey mouse platy, not sure if they contributed to the strange occurrence, but I don't think so.

The tank is actually 27 gallons. Not sure about the number of fish but will try to guesstimate. 2 zebra Danios, 2 red wag platies, 4 Black skirt teras, 4 panda mollies, 5 baby guppies, 3 Whites skirt tetras, 3 cherry barbs, 4 dalmation mollies, 3 rasboras, 2 neon tetras, 4 gold tetras, 2 mickey mouse platies. Some of these fish have been with me since day one, some are rescues, some are babies that actually made it and the guppies were free babies given to me by the pet store. Not sure of tank dimensions but it is a tall rather than long tank. Some of the fish will be rehomed in a couple of weeks or so to a friends tank that is cycling now.

The brand of flake food I use is Aqueon, I have been trying different brands and types of foods because I wanted to give my fish a varried diet

Yes the bloating thing happend literally overnight. I went to bed, they were fine woke up and both dead and very bloated. Nothing else seemed wrong with them other than the extreme bloating, they were so bloated it looked as though they would burst. First time this has ever happened.

 

[pip walters]

Can I just say, the bloating may not be what killed them, it could just be the build up of gases in the abdomen after death. The only thing I can suggest, given that it has happened to only two fish and both of them the same species, is that they have eaten something that has, possibly, caused a blockage in the intestine.... that would possibly cause a build up of gas just before death.

A tricky one this

 

[Bichir Bro]

First let me say thanks to all of you that have responded. I am happy to report, no new casualties this morning, yaay! But something I did not notice, until later in the evening, is that the boyfriend snuck in three new fish into the tank. They seem ok, but normally I like to quarantine all new fish for at least a week or more prior to adding them to my tank, saved myself from introducing a case of ich to my tank a couple of months back by using this method. I am normally the one in charge of all things fish related, so I am not sure why he decided to make such a crazy move, lol. He add two red wag platies and a mickey mouse platy, not sure if they contributed to the strange occurrence, but I don't think so. The tank is actually 27 gallons. Not sure about the number of fish but will try to guesstimate. 2 zebra Danios, 2 red wag platies, 4 Black skirt teras, 4 panda mollies, 5 baby guppies, 3 Whites skirt tetras, 3 cherry barbs, 4 dalmation mollies, 3 rasboras, 2 neon tetras, 4 gold tetras, 2 mickey mouse platies. Some of these fish have been with me since day one, some are rescues, some are babies that actually made it and the guppies were free babies given to me by the pet store. Not sure of tank dimensions but it is a tall rather than long tank. Some of the fish will be rehomed in a couple of weeks or so to a friends tank that is cycling now. The brand of flake food I use is Aqueon, I have been trying different brands and types of foods because I wanted to give my fish a varried diet Yes the bloating thing happend literally overnight. I went to bed, they were fine woke up and both dead and very bloated. Nothing else seemed wrong with them other than the extreme bloating, they were so bloated it looked as though they would burst. First time this has ever happened.

ok first find a better brand of flake. Aqueon, tetra and Wardley are just crap, omega one, Hikari and new life spectrum are the best. So I suggest switching to one of those and you'r fish will thank you! While aqueon isn't good it * shouldn't* cause that severe of bloat like you're describing over night. This is a very confusing case but still my only guess would be parasites.

 

[J.Mcpeak]

Use a tape measure, measure the opening on top, length width, sounds like overstocking. Asphyxia.

Do you have an air stone? Are there any plants?

Mollies prefer salt, given that, they will be the weakest stock in a freshwater aquarium.

 

[onegirl2minds]

Will do on the food. I once tried to make my own food, fished loved it, but made a horrible mess in my tanks, so moved on from that idea. My kids call me the crazy fish lady now because I am always looking for new things to feed them, decorate their tanks or I am on forums like this, gathering information.

 

[Bichir Bro]

Use a tape measure, measure the opening on top, length width, sounds like overstocking. Asphyxia. Do you have an air stone?

even if it's overstocked {and I do believe it is} that doesn't explain the bloat or why it happened to only two fish, and at that of the same species. If that's the reason it should've happened to every other fish, correct?

 

[J.Mcpeak]

I've edited my previous post, no. The weakest go first, natures way, the oxygen budget is finite, once you reach the limit things start dying. See post by pip, gases in intestines cause bloating in a wide variety of dead animals, cows, humans, cats etc.

If the fish can draw oxygen from the surface they will survive long after other inhabitants have ceased to be.

 

[onegirl2minds]

I have a bubble curtain and the tank does contain salt.

It would seem it should have happened, if it were a species specific thing, to all the dalmation mollies or all the mollies in general, I would guess. Not sure why these two. The female was one of my fave as she started the tank with me, she was a very active a pretty fish and she may have been pregnant again. The male was fairly new, being in the tank about two months. Can't imagine anything they would have eaten that the other fish did not eat. It is a mystery for sure.

 

[J.Mcpeak]

Measure the tank, length width, are there any plants?

The weakest of the most susceptible fish go first.

I'm not sure then, salt and tetra, platies etc is not ideal. The only fish that are truely salt tolerant long term are molly sp. what is tank SG?

Edit- Is it marine salt or tonic salt?

The pregnant female is already weakened, she needs oxygen for all the fry. Only enough fish need to die to allow the oxygen uptake in the water to rise back to safe levels. Bigger fish require more oxygen.

 

[Skylyrylee]

I too seem to have problems with mollies. Same thing. One right now is upside down head down tail vertical. A month ago lost all six mollies, some suddenly, some became paralyzed etc. I don't have an answer for you but interested to hear what is said.

Thinking I am over feeding? I will be doing the peas hing and switching flakes as well.

Good luck

 

[onegirl2minds]

I only added salt after reading is was good for the fish. In fact, I add aquarium salt to all my tanks and have not seen any issues. Most of the fish deaths I have incurred have been mollies, with a few neons, but I attributed that to them coming to me ill from the pet store as they die within hours of my getting them, heck some of them did not survive the ride home.


I have not had a huge issue with mollies, it is just this sudden bloating thing cropped up out of the blue and I had no idea why. I feed my fish once in the morning and once before bed, I also fast them once a week. I have a tank with fancy goldfish and fasting them seems to help with swim bladder issues, along with the peas, so I decided to include the other fish as well. I also add prime, and amquel to the tank. I add stress coat when adding new fish and will only add new fish after quarantining (sp?) them for a week or more and then will only add them the day before a water change. I know a weird schedule and I really don't know why I chose it, it just seemed like something to do.

Oh, I forgot , I also add Fluval Biological enchancer and Fluval Biological cleaner, and feed them tank nibblers. So perhaps the plot thickens.
I have only started using the Fluval products about 3 months ago.

 

[J.Mcpeak]

Please try to answer my questions in previous posts. Salt will harden the water.

Do you test the water?

What are your levels, ammonia nitrite nitrate pH and temperature.

Precisely how many of what kind of fish, are There any plants? What time or

when is the bubble wall switched on/off?

What type of salt do you use?

Tank dimensions? Measure length and width, these are important.

The more info you provide the easier it will be to find a solution. All things have an answer, even if it's bad. The more I have to go on the better my answer will be.

 

[onegirl2minds]

Yes, I test the water and last test everything was in normal range.

I keep the temperture between 75 and 82 degrees

I do not turn off the bubble curtain and do not have any plants.

Will have to get a tape measure, I do not own one.

I use Jungle aquarium salt.

I did a 25% water change on Sunday and did a 50% water change today.

No new deaths today, but have a three mollies that appear to be bloated but they are female so they could just be pregnant. All three have dropped fry before and based on the time frame since their last drop pregnancy is plausible.