Another unwell balloon molly

I've got four small white balloon mollies in a ten-gallon planted tank
at 79 degrees F which has been running for a few weeks now. I used a
good percentage of water from our main tank to start this one up, which
I think may have helped me so far avoid an ammonia or nitrite spike.
Both ammonia and nitrite levels are virtually zero, and I've done a
weekly 10% water change this afternoon. But one of the mollies is quite
lethargic- spending a lot of time near the bottom in one corner or
another. She (he?) becomes briefly active at feeding time but then goes
down to the bottom to rest again. There is no visible sign of disease
that I can see- bright white colour, no signs of ich or injury. The
other three are fine.

So what can I do to help this molly?

Many thanks,
Ian.

Ionizer wrote:
I've got four small white balloon mollies in a ten-gallon planted tank
at 79 degrees F which has been running for a few weeks now. I used a
good percentage of water from our main tank to start this one up, which
I think may have helped me so far avoid an ammonia or nitrite spike.
Both ammonia and nitrite levels are virtually zero, and I've done a
weekly 10% water change this afternoon. But one of the mollies is quite
lethargic- spending a lot of time near the bottom in one corner or
another. She (he?) becomes briefly active at feeding time but then goes
down to the bottom to rest again. There is no visible sign of disease
that I can see- bright white colour, no signs of ich or injury. The
other three are fine.

So what can I do to help this molly?

Many thanks,
Ian.


First, add 1 tsp/5 gal salt if you have none in the tank. That
shouldn't hurt your plants and other fish and a bit of salt helps
mollies tremendously. The other thing you could try is feeding an
antiparasitic food (guessing parasitic over antibacterial because
mollies tend to get parasites). I saw one made by Jungle today at
PetSmart that looked pretty good.

Maybe NetMax will have some better ideas.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com

"Elaine T" wrote in message
om...
Ionizer wrote:
I've got four small white balloon mollies in a ten-gallon planted tank
at 79 degrees F which has been running for a few weeks now. I used a
good percentage of water from our main tank to start this one up,
which I think may have helped me so far avoid an ammonia or nitrite
spike. Both ammonia and nitrite levels are virtually zero, and I've
done a weekly 10% water change this afternoon. But one of the mollies
is quite lethargic- spending a lot of time near the bottom in one
corner or another. She (he?) becomes briefly active at feeding time
but then goes down to the bottom to rest again. There is no visible
sign of disease that I can see- bright white colour, no signs of ich
or injury. The other three are fine.

So what can I do to help this molly?

Many thanks,
Ian.
First, add 1 tsp/5 gal salt if you have none in the tank. That
shouldn't hurt your plants and other fish and a bit of salt helps
mollies tremendously. The other thing you could try is feeding an
antiparasitic food (guessing parasitic over antibacterial because
mollies tend to get parasites). I saw one made by Jungle today at
PetSmart that looked pretty good.

Maybe NetMax will have some better ideas.

--
Elaine T


Not really. I sometimes raise the water temperature to see if it makes
any difference, but otherwise I think you've covered all the bases (as
usual ;~).

Balloon mollies are at such a physical line-bred extreme of organ
compression, that there is a high(er) level of mortality. This means
ailments are more often mutagenesis-related rather than pathogenic, which
really dampens my efforts and energy at devising treatments, and if
anything, it pushes me more towards 'homeopathic' remedies such as
isolating the fish in an Epson salt mix (unconstipate them), sea salts
and changes in temperature.
--
www.NetMax.tk

"Ionizer" wrote in message
...
I've got four small white balloon mollies in a ten-gallon planted tank

Many thanks, Elaine and NetMax. I did another partial water change
yesterday, adding a bit of salt as Elaine recommended. Twenty-four
hours later as I write this, all four balloons are in the air. The
lethargic one isn't 100%, but seems noticeably more active than when I
first posted. Tomorrow, I'll head over to the local SuperPet and have a
look for the antiparasitic food Elaine mentioned. It couldn't hurt,
right? I think I'll also see what other food they have available-
perhaps all of our fish would benefit from something other than the
flakes we've been giving them since we first set up our main tank at the
beginning of April. Many of our fish, according to my Googling,
appreciate freeze-dried bloodworm, tubifex and brine shrimp in their
diet. If nothing else, they've all been through a lot and deserve a
treat.

Regards,
Ian.

Ionizer wrote:
"Ionizer" wrote in message
...

I've got four small white balloon mollies in a ten-gallon planted tank


Many thanks, Elaine and NetMax. I did another partial water change
yesterday, adding a bit of salt as Elaine recommended. Twenty-four
hours later as I write this, all four balloons are in the air. The
lethargic one isn't 100%, but seems noticeably more active than when I
first posted. Tomorrow, I'll head over to the local SuperPet and have a
look for the antiparasitic food Elaine mentioned. It couldn't hurt,
right? I think I'll also see what other food they have available-
perhaps all of our fish would benefit from something other than the
flakes we've been giving them since we first set up our main tank at the
beginning of April. Many of our fish, according to my Googling,
appreciate freeze-dried bloodworm, tubifex and brine shrimp in their
diet. If nothing else, they've all been through a lot and deserve a
treat.

Regards,
Ian.


Treat foods are great to vary your fish's diets. If you want to treat
mollies, try algae flakes or maybe some cucumber. They love veggies.

I'm glad to hear they've perked up.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com