Swim bladder disease?

Question
QUESTION: Hi Renee,

I have a molly in a hospital tank while waiting for his home tank to finish cycling (any day now).  It's a 1.5g tank (I know, not ideal) and he's been in there a long time with a brochis splendens.

Anyway, about a week ago he started acting oddly and frankly I thought he was just dying from being in non-ideal conditions.  I change about a gallon of their water daily with filtered water and add a tsp of aquarium salt.
He was basically staying at the bottom of the tank, flat on the bottom and his fin (he's a sailfin) would never raise.  The only thing that gave me "hope" was that he would still eat.  So a few days ago I looked up what could possibly be going on and I thought it could be constipation or swim bladder disease.  His poops, when he had them, were ghost white/thin/long.  Many places said to try a frozen pea, so for the past 3-4 days I've tried to give him a pea, but he's stopped eating.  About 3 days ago he started raising up in the water for most of the time, but he's almost like an apostrophe in the tank (with his head at the top).  I also stopped putting in aquarium salt because I read that helps him retain water and right now he needs to expel as much as he can.  Last night he made a jab at the pea when I put it in, but then stopped (I left it there for a bit so that the splendis could eat, so I'm not sure if he ate more...it's possible I guess.

I don't know what else to do for him.  Their cycling tank showed 0 amm, 0 nitrites yesterday for the first time so they are days away from a new, good home...and I'm still worried he's not going to make it out of this mess to get there.

Thanks again for your help,
Desiree

ANSWER: Hi Desiree,

I'd certainly like to know where you read that salt in the molly's water makes him retain water.  Seriously, if there is an article out there about that, we need to get it removed.  It's horrible, bad advice.

Mollies are saltwater/brackish fish.  They require saltwater to survive.

People don't know this.  Because every petstore in the USA sells the poor things as freshwater fish and even so-called experts out there claim that mollies are freshwater fish.  

It's so unfair to the poor mollies.

Well, what you are describing to me with white ghost stringy poo is a sign of a parasitic infestation.

His conditions require at least 5 gallons, and 1.5 is too small for one fish, let alone two, and I'm glad to hear you are aware of this issue.  What are you doing to get him another tank?

The pea should be ground into four pieces.  The skin is too hard for the little guy to get if you don't puncture it for him.

I feel so sad you read such bad advice.  I have an article coming out on a famous fish magazine soon about saltwater mollies.  They live in full saltwater, like mine do.  Full saltwater is half a cup of salt, per gallon.  That's a lot more than 2 teaspoons per gallon you should add.  The betta can't have salt though.  So you have to get the molly his own tank, soon.

Soon meaning soon as you get this letter, because if he has a parasite, the salt will get rid of it and save his life.  

Sailfin Mollies are even heavier saltwater mollies than regular.  They swim in full marine water in the wild.  They live in reefs and offshore estuaries where freshwater salt mix.  They require salt in their water in order not to get sick.

Fish do not have the function to retain water. :)

Happy fish-keeping.

Renee

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Renee,

His current tank mate is a emerald cory, not a betta and I have two tanks cycling right now: a 20g FW for the emerald and a 35g BW for the molly.  The BW tank is taking longer because it took me awhile to get the tank and set it up, the FW will be done cycling today or soon (I'll know in about 30 minutes when I test the water).  

The molly and emerald are in the small hospital tank because, at the time, it was all that I had.  You gave me advice when I was saving them from a dying tank, a tank that had to be completely restarted.  They have lived in that small tank since, getting 1tsp aquarium salt per gallon water change daily.  I only stopped the salt in the last couple days, so I will of course start again today when I perform the water change (as soon as I send this message to you).  The molly's symptoms came long before I stopped adding the salt.  As for the pea, I removed the skin before giving it to him.

You are the reason I am creating this BW tank, so I am well aware of how the molly's should be kept...I just have needed a month to cycle the tanks.  I will try to find the article that said to remove the salt and send it to you.

I have their old 10g tank put away, should I put him in the 10g uncycled?  Would that be better than his current place?  if the 20g FW is done cycling today I will perform a large water change this evening and plan to put him and the emerald in, with some aquarium salt.  It was always my intention to put him in there with the emerald until his BW tank was done cycling (that tank is currently in an off the chart nitrite phase).

Desiree

Answer
Hi Desiree,

Oh the memory of an old woman.  Lol.  PLEASE forgive me for not realizing you had written prior.  Do you happen to know I answer over 300 questions per month?  It's a lot.  I forget who is who.

With that said, kudos to you for starting your BW tank.  You're a good fish owner!  I'm so happy to hear they are faring well and doing better.

Yikes, nitrites.  Yes, good that you are testing and cycling properly.

Good for you, and it sounds as if you have everything under control to me...everything is going well.

If you can't get him to eat, try mincing some garlic and getting him to eat that.  It also increases his desire to eat.  Garlic is a great anti-bacterial as well.

Nitrites are awful...I have been there.  You are doing it right, in my opinion.  Keep up the good work.

Don't put anyone in a non-cycled tank. Keep him where he is til his new home's ready.

Happy fish-keeping.

Renee