I am so mad!!

[lovleeko]

Now two of my molly's have swim bladder problems. I'm so mad. Apparently it's something I'm doing I don't know. Does anybody get super mad when something like this happens? Okay I know it is like a four dollar fish but I am livid. I don't want them to die and I'm just aggravated. I thought that the female was being a little weird because she had been getting stuck in plants and I've had to help her out of them a few times in the past few days and never has that happened before. But once I help her out she would act fine. Swimming was fine and everything. But the last time that happened she started swimming crazy. I guess I'm gonna buy some peas today and try that, though I don't know what to do to prevent it from happening again. Anyway thanks for letting me vent :) Nice to have other fish people who maybe care a bit. No one else cares. LOL

[Pamela_S.]

I'm so sorry about your mollies. Hopefully they become better soon!

[funnyfish]

Its really hard when somethings going on and you just cant figure out what it is. I am sorry to hear that you are having problems and hope things settle fast for you... I know I had issues and never got an answer to why but I do know things have got much better now. I hope the same for you.

[lovleeko]

Thanks guys. I'm sorry to report that my male molly died and my female is probably not far behind him. It is so sad to watch them try to swim. I feel awful for them.

[funnyfish]

we watched as one of my platys died a few weeks ago its very hard and I feel very bad for you going through this. The only thing I can say is I am ver sorry for your loss and I hope everything gets better for you. Its very hard when you can see something happening and not do anything to help. But they know you care for them.

[Ryuu]

There shouldnt be two of them dying of swim bladder. It is not a disease, and isnt contagions. Still as far as we do not know what it is, still do the swim bladder treatment. Hold on ill try to come up with a differnt diognosis.

The only other thing that I can think of is ick, however dont quote me on it.

Ichthyosporidium is as the name suggests a fungus. It will as most other funguses only infect already weakened fish and will normally not be able to infect healthy fish in good condition. Making sure to keep good water quality, with the right water parameters for your fish and giving them a good varied diet will therefore prevent this disease from ever being a problem. Disease prevention is always preferable to disease treatment and this is true for Ichthyosporidium as well.

The Ichthyosporidium fungi attacks the fish internally and can because of this be harder to treat than many other fungus diseases. You can find more info about treating the disease later on in this article, but I want to start by looking at the symptoms of Ichthyosporidium. The disease does as earlier mention attack the fish internally and primarily attacks the liver and kidneys even though it will eventually engulf the entire body of the fish. This can cause a wide variety of symptoms in different fish but the symptoms usually includes the fish becoming slower, their bellies sinking in, the fish loosing balance and eventually the production of cysts and soars on the body. If the fish develops cysts or soars, it is very difficult to save it.

Ichthyosporidium is as earlier mentioned hard to treat as it is internal and the available treatments can cause damages to the fish and potentially even kill a fish that has already been weakened by Ichthyosporidium. These treatments include adding Chloromycetin or Phenoxethol to the food given the infected fish. Add about 1% of these substances to the food. 1% equals mixing one 250 mg pill with 25g food. The medicine can be mixed in most types of food. It is good to skip a feeding or two before starting to feed the medicated food to the fish to make sure that the sick fish eats the food. There is no guarantee that the treatment will work.

Diagnosed fish should be removed from the community aquarium as soon as possible to prevent the disease from spreading since it can be hard to cure. Some recommend destroying any fish diagnosed with this disease immediately but that can be a bit drastic as it might be possible to save your beloved fish. I do however recommend killing fish displaying cysts and soars as it is unlikely that those will recover regardless of treatment and you should always kill infected fish rather than letting the disease spread if you are unable to move sick fish to a treatment tank.

[lovleeko]

Thanks for trying to help me and thanks for the condolences. It does suck to watch them die. Especially watching them trying to swim. I'm sorry about your platy. I dont think it could be ich. There are no external signs and it is only the mollies. I'm wondering if maybe they swallowed air while eating because their mouths are so big. I don't know if that sounds crazy or not but I read that they can get swim bladder problems from that. And they were totally fine. I hate that my mollies are dying and so far it's just them and I hope it stays that way. The mollies aren't showing any other symptoms besides the swim bladder stuff so here's hoping it isn't something else. I dont think there is much hope for the female. She wont eat and she just lays upside down or nose down on the gravel or in plants.

[Lady Hobbs]

Could be too rapid changes in water temps or not enough oxygen. Then you will have problems with more than one fish.

[Gemini]

If you think it might be caused by them swallowing air, try sinking the flakes a bit. All you need to do is grab your pinch of flake (if this is what your feeding) and just put it under the water and let it go. It will float slowly down but I bet your mollies eat it before it gets more than a few centimetres under the water level. If they are floating pellets your feeding then I don't know maybe try to sink them.
Hope you solve the problem - it does suck when your fish die. Irregardless of how much they cost you, you still love them :)

[lovleeko]

Yeah I guess I'll have to try that (sinking the food) if I get more mollies. Once I loose her which I'm sure will happen I probably wont get anymore mollies. I think I'm just going to fill my live bearer tank with guppies. I'm trying to get my fifty five gallon going. It cost so much money! Anyway, thanks for the support guys :)