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Post by fishfever on May 8, 2009 0:36:19 GMT -5
Tank Size: 26g, HOB 190gpm+sponge prefilter, UV sterilizer Age of the tank: 3 mos pH: 7.0 Ammonia: 0 NitrAtes: 30ppm nitrites: 0.125 ppm GH/KH: 300/80 ppm Temperature: 79 Fish: 2 adult platys
many baby platys
1 adult molly
2 juvenile mollies
3 cory catfish
9 tetras Symptoms: One of the juvenile mollies has developed a bulge in the left eye which I just happened to notice before heading to bed. It looks just like the pop eye picture (even the same eye is infected!) on Carl's Aeromonas & Vibrio page
www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Vibrio_Aeromonas.html
So I pulled the affected molly out and have her isolated now in a spare 10g tank with a 30g HOB filter and medium Wonder shell (plus gravel). I did not observe any other fish with this problem.
Now I have to decide what to do next (tomorrow). Like most fish diseases it seems there are several, sometimes many probable causes and thus treatment varies. I do have a low but non-zero nitrite level. It seems that this tank, although cycled, barely has enough of the nitrite->nitrate bacteria so with a large fish load the nitrite is sometimes is slightly higher than 0 (it's half-way between 0 and the lowest color indicator on my test kit). I'm using a little bit of Prime during water changes and in between water changes to help with this. I've also not been able to vacuum the gravel as often because we seem to keep finding small fry in the tank and they like to hide in either the plants or gravel so there is definitely more organic material than there should be. Finally I have been tinkering a bit with the pH lately trying to get to low-mid 7's. But my test tube kit tops out right at 7.6 and anything above 7.6 reads 7.6 (and the pH test strips are hard to get a good reading from IMHO). So during my tinkering I think the pH has varied anywhere from 6.6 to possibly higher than 7.6 for more than just a little while. So I probably have several factors that might be contributing to a lower water quality.
Should I consider medicating or possibly a bath (MB plus salt?). Or would it be better to wait and see how the fish does in isolation?
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Post by Carl on May 8, 2009 8:53:22 GMT -5
First I want agree with this observation you already made: "Like most fish diseases it seems there are several, sometimes many probable causes and thus treatment varies."This is especially true with Pop Eye since it can be a symptom of Aeromonas (as per the cited article), water conditions can play a role, injury, and simple fluid build up behind the eye. I think you have done well in moving the affected Molly out of the main tank. As for your water conditions, although they may not be perfect, they are far from bad. However I would try and find a procedure to maintain a more stable pH, as chasing pH can be harsh on fish osmoregulation and this alone can bring on fluid buildup behind the eye. One suggestion is to determine an amount of Buffer to add with each water change that keeps your pH /KH at a desired range and stick with this amount ( Cichlid Salts can also be part of this equation, but not too much since you have Cories). I would recommend the MB/Salt Bath (not cichlid salt) as a start, but I would hold short for a day or two before adding any tank medications to see if the eye either stabilizes, recedes, or increases Carl |
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Post by fishfever on May 8, 2009 22:14:29 GMT -5
This morning the pop eye seemed to be better so I didn't do anything. This evening it's hard to tell the left eye from the right unless you look real closely so it's gotten even better. I didn't really do anything except isolate the fish to a tank by itself. I did do a water change and increased the salt (which the molly can take), but that's about it. I'm going to keep it under observation for a few days and if continues to improve I'll do nothing and eventually return it to the main tank. In the mean time I did a fairly massive cleaning of the main tank; taking apart the filters and cleaning the gunk out of each small part so I feel alot better about the prospect of better water quality now.
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Post by goldenpuon on May 9, 2009 9:36:21 GMT -5
It's great that your fish is recovering. I had a male betta get popeye and his whole face swelled up. I increased the salt in the water and treated him with Kanaplex (if I remember correctly) and he now fully recovered. Congrats with your fish. And with the cleaning and improving water quality, it sounds like you're on the right track.
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Post by Carl on May 9, 2009 10:20:30 GMT -5
Glad to read of your Molly's rapid improvement. I think you took an excellent coarse of action (which also including a wait and see approach) & it paid off for you.  Often stress and water conditions can play a role in many problems, including eye problems (that are often simply fluid behind the eye) Carl |
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Post by fishfever on May 10, 2009 23:10:11 GMT -5
The pop eye molly looks completely well now and seems happy and playful with a good appetite. However I was surprised today when I discovered 40 new baby fry in the tank with her (had to take a picture so I could count):  So she lost her pop eye but popped out a bunch of young ones. I caught the 40 and moved them to the fry tank and later caught another one for a total of 41 so far. Very timely and for a Mother's Day gift, I moved her back to the main tank! |
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Post by eve on May 10, 2009 23:15:30 GMT -5
absolutely awesome congrats  |
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Post by bikeguy33 on May 10, 2009 23:30:43 GMT -5
nice mom`s day surprise
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Post by Carl on May 11, 2009 8:45:50 GMT -5
Congrats on your new Mother's Day baby Mollies! ;D
Carl
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Post by babygeige on May 11, 2009 14:02:33 GMT -5
That's so cute!
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Post by goldenpuon on May 11, 2009 17:38:18 GMT -5
Congrats! Very cute fry.
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Post by fishfever on May 11, 2009 18:51:12 GMT -5
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Post by goldenpuon on May 12, 2009 16:13:00 GMT -5
Wow. Very crowded (unless they are all in 1 area in the tank). Great video. As it goes on, I see more and more fish. I hope you can find someone to give them to so they don't keep eat you out of house and home. lol
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Post by fishfever on May 12, 2009 20:59:41 GMT -5
Haha, actually this is only the corner of the tank where a small piece of frozen baby brine shrimp fell. The tank is only 10g though, and now there are well over 100 fry with the 41 newest additions:  This view is from way back so you only see the larger fry (a lot of the small fry either hide in the gravel or the floating plastic plant mats). The largest ones here are the fast growing white mollies (about 3 weeks old) and some slow growing red/orange platies that are actually a few months old. Once they are big enough they get moved to the main tank and once they reach sexual maturity or get too big in the main tank we give them away (we keep a few). The water parameters in this tank are always perfect I think in large part due to that sponge filter on the right side of the tank (I've got another sponge being seasoned just above it). The old sponge hasn't be squeezed out in dechlorinated water in months since it's very hard to do anything in the tank without disturbing/hurting the fry; many of them come up to your hand whenever you stick your hand in the water! |
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Post by eve on May 12, 2009 21:14:52 GMT -5
how about starting a new thread in the breeding section or fish picture section |
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Post by Carl on May 13, 2009 9:14:23 GMT -5
Your tank is certainly healthy, you are doing well; Congrats  I am also glad your Sponge Filters are working well for you, these are really under rated filters, especially the larger models which can actually out perform the largest HOBs in terms of bio filtration. Carl |
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Post by goldenpuon on May 13, 2009 16:35:44 GMT -5
Very nice. They do look healthy and it sounds like you take very good care of them. Sorry for saying it was so overcrowded. Since it is just a grow-out tank, it probably isn't too bad.
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Post by fishfever on May 13, 2009 22:15:04 GMT -5
Carl, I'm very pleased with the sponge filter I bought from you. Because it's now in the fry tank and we feed often the HOB filter started getting real clogged - when I finally noticed the clog only a trickle of water was coming through; yet the sponge filter was keeping the tank going with perfect water parameters despite having over 100 fry in the 10g tank. I've got the HOB filter cleaned out now so I kind of look at that as my backup filter rather than the sponge!
goldenpuon, you are actually right as there are now close to 150 fry in this tank but most are quite small and not ready for life in the big tank! And Eve I don't know how this thread turned into breeding; the pop eye problem really only lasted about a day (thankfully). And we actually didn't try to breed any fish but as you know with livebearers it just seems to happen!
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Post by eve on May 14, 2009 1:53:18 GMT -5
we can move it and rename the thread without any probs, let me know |
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Post by fishfever on May 15, 2009 6:28:18 GMT -5
That's okay Eve, this is the last of the pop eye turned fry thread. If anything I need a section for "planned parenthood" or "birth control" for livebearers! We removed all the adult males from the tank months ago yet the fry keep coming. I'll probably try to breed tetras in the future though so I'll be in the breeding section from time to time.
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