Mollie Fish Mystery

Question
QUESTION: Hello,
 I have a couple questions and I really don't know where to start. My husband and I moved into a house a little over a week ago and since we were upgrading we wanted to upgrade our babies too.  So about 3 days before we moved we were able to set up a new tank at the house. We had a 29 gallon tank with  4 silver Mollies (2 were babies that were born in the tank) 4 neon tetras, and 2 snails.  We upgraded to a 55 gallon tank. I noticed about a couple days after we moved them into the 55 gallon tank that one of our tetras seemed to be showing signs of swim bladder disease and we have had a lot of tetras die from that, and even though a lot of people I have talked to said there is nothing an owner can really do I was determined to try to save him.  So I went to a lot of aquarium expert sites and found some things I could try.  So I stopped feeding them for a couple days, put in 1 tablespoon of Epsom salt for ever 5 gallons, and even tried the pea trick.  Well happily it has been over a week now and they all seem fine!  But to my sorrow the very next day after I did these things for the tetras, I came home from work and our 2 baby Mollies were dead! My husband and I were stunned, they had showed no signs of stress or disease.  My only guess was that they are the only ones that had never been in another environment since they were born in our 29 gallon tank (but that was just a guess).  Do you have any idea what might have happened?  We did a 25% water change right after that to help if it was a disease.
   I also had another question: our 2 remaining Mollies we have had almost a year now, and ever since we moved them into the new tank they have just stayed at the very top of the tank not really doing very much, is this a sign that something is wrong?
   Also, I just noticed this morning that one of our 2 remaining Mollies has a red sore that sticks out a little bit right under her top fin. I am very worried because I do not want to lose another fish. Do you know what this could be a sign of and what I can do??  I don't know if this helps but it turns out that she is a "painted" Mollie, which my husband and I unfortunately found out after we got her that this is not natural. I don't know if that has anything to do with it or not because our other Mollie is also a "painted Mollie" and seems to be fine, besides only staying at the top of the tank not really swimming that much.
 Please help me I am worried about my Mollie fish!
Thank you,
Cassandra

ANSWER: Hi Cassandra;

The redness on the one fish could be a bacterial infection, injury, irritation or possibly even a cancerous growth. Just keeping the water clean is your best weapon against diseases and many kinds of stresses. Isn't fish painting just awful? Just like you, most people don't know it isn't their natural color. Very sad. It definitely makes the fish more prone to disease and can indeed shorten their life. Hopefully with the excellent care you are providing for them it will get better. You can help all of them through good diet too. Mollies really like veggies and it is actually needed for continued long-term health. Fresh or frozen are good. Canned is okay but often contains a lot of salt. Peeled peas (cooked), cucumber slices, squash slices, shredded cooked carrots, romaine lettuce pieces, cooked green beans, even spirulina algae are all good ones. Spirulina algae is found in many fish stores as dried pieces in the fish food department. Some stores have it frozen too. I like to give my fish veggies at least 3 times a week in place of a regular meal. It helps their digestion and improves their color and vitality.

I think it's possible that most of the trouble your fish are having is coming from the tank being so new. It has to break in and waste toxins can rise pretty high until it finishes. Even with a low population it can get pretty toxic. Monitor the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels to be sure they stay at safe levels. Make 25% water changes as needed to lower them. Even every day isn't too much if it helps the fish feel better. Once the crisis is over you can just do a weekly 25% change with gravel vacuuming.

Let me know how it's going....

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins

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

QUESTION: Chris,
 Thank you for your advice! My husband made an observation yesterday that the infection on our Mollie actually looks like two balls in her skin, pushing her skin out, it looks like it is on the inside. It is odd, it actually looks like she would be pregnant, but it is in the wrong area for that and it is a red color not black. I don't know if this helps on what it might be or not?? Last night I did a 25% water change and put Aquarium Salt and MelaFix in the tank to help our Mollie out. I'm going to continue with the MelaFix for 7 days and hopefully that will help her.

I actually just found out that Mollies need veggies in their diet so I bought a veggie clip a couple days ago and tried it out last night. I put a romaine lettuce piece on the clip. The Mollie with the infection nibbled a little on it, but I don't know if they were that interested or even knew that they were supposed to eat it. Will they just get used to it? Is there a trick to get them to eat it?

I'm going to monitor our Mollie and see if I need to do another water change tonight. They did seem to like the water change, the MelaFix, or the Aquarium Salt though and started swimming more, so hopefully that is a good sign.

I've been reading that Mollies thrive in brackish water. Is this true? The only problem with this is that I have neon tetras and snails and also I was wanting to add some new fish in a couple weeks when everything has settled down in the tank. Is it necessary to have Mollies live in brackish water? Would this harm my other fish if I added salt?

I have been doing some research and was thinking of adding a school of Zebra Danio, a school of Cherry Barbs, and a couple Dwarf Gourami. Do you think this would be a good idea? Would my 55 gallon tank be able to accomodate them well? Stupid question: do I use the "1 inch/1 gallon" rule for snails too? Because one of our snails is huge! So huge it scared my uncle! :)

Thank you again!
Cassandra

Answer
Hi Cassandra;

The molly may have an infection under the skin or something. It may come through the surface eventually. Hopefully the Melafix and Salt will help. The water changes will definitely help too.

Since veggies are so new to them it will take several tries to get them used to the idea. There's no real trick to it. Just keep putting it in.

Salt for mollies is a commonly held old practice. The truth is, we are finding out now that it is fresh clean water they need, not salt. Mollies thrive with frequent water changes and no salt at all. The old way, hobbyists often did not change water very often. The salt helped keep the fish in better health between changes because it adds trace elements and electrolytes, but is no substitute for clean water. Clean fresh water provides those things and much more. It also removes old dissolved organic material. Once the fish feels better and the bumps hopefully go away, don't add more salt with your water changes. It will eventually go away slowly as you keep changing water weekly. Just to clarify, in order to keep the concentration of salt consistent you should add salt to only new water, not to the whole tank. For instance, if you are trying to maintain a concentration of 1/2 teaspoon of salt per gallon of tank water and you are replacing 6 gallons during a water change, put in only 3 teaspoons of salt.

A dose of salt at 1/2 teaspoon per gallon is fine for most fish. Danios, Barbs and Dwarf Gouramis seem to tolerate it just fine in my experience. It will probably be lower than that anyway after your molly is better and you add more fish because you will be doing water changes with no more added salt by that time. I wouldn't worry.

The "one inch per gallon" rule is applied to small types of fish, frogs, crabs and shrimps. Snails actually can't follow this rule and should be counted twice. They do help keep algae and excess food eaten up, but they are very messy little fellas. They are "eating and pooping machines". Cool critters, but often credited for more than they can deliver. That's pretty funny that he scared your uncle! Lol! I guess if you've never seen one, especially a large one, it can be pretty startling. Looks like a rock at first and then....WHOA! It moves! Here is a web page about those big snails that's pretty interesting...

http://www.applesnail.net/

Have fun with your fish. Sounds like it's going to be a very nice mix of fish...

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins