Molly hanging out vertically, whites of eyes turning grey/black??

[Jaimee169]

This is fairly urgent as my buddy is looking sadder and sadder. Yesterday morning my Dalmation Molly had a bit of a puffy, pink lip and the whites of his eyes were a grayish color. He was hanging out at the top of the tank almost all day so I tested the water and all levels were fine. nitrate/nitrite basically 0, water was a tad softer than 150, alkaline 120 and pH was about 7.6. ammonia was showing just a little bit less then .5......

I did a 25% water change thinking it would help. A couple hours passed and he seemed a bit more chipper. He didnt feed much that night though. This morning he swam around a little but has spent most of the day so far hanging out vertically on our shipwreck. He didnt eat much again this morning. The whites of his eyes are getting darker as time is passing, but his lip looks way better. I have been looking through all sorts of info in books I have and online but i cant find anything I think is the answer.
I am starting a 50% water change as soon as I am done typing this up.ANY IDEAS??!!!

Also, I switched to Prime recently. Adverse affects?

Does he have a disease? Is he "just old"?
Help me save my Pongo Boy!

 

[Jaimee169]

So at the risk of sounding like a total a(you know what)... As I was gathering equipment for the water change, I noticed Pongo was now inside our shipwreck. By the time I was starting the water change (2 min later?), Pongo came out of the shipwreck to investigate. He seems fine!! Eyes are back to white, swiming fine, mouth looks 100% beter.. Was I imagining things?? Was he maybe just a bit constipated? Can that make his eyes gray? What about the swimming vertically?

I finished the water and am going to continue monitoring his behavior. I would still like any advice if anyone has seen these behaviors.

I forgot to mention before, I read a few things about a light being too bright so I had the light turned off since last night. After the water change I decided to experiment and see if the fish react abnormally to the light being back on. May need to get a new, dimmer light, we will see!

 

[Thyra]

You didn't say what your ammonia level was which is very important and because you have no nitrate, it doesn't sound like your tank is cycled. How long has it been set up?

 

[Jaimee169]

Oops I did forget the ammonia levels. Well it was and still is at .05. And I said the nitrate is basically at 0, the stick shows much lighter than 20 but not sure exactly where above 0, possibly 5? I do believe my tank is still working on the cycling. Its been set up for a month and a half or so and we had added a new guy about 2 weeks ago. Everything was fine, then he acted ill for a day and a half, then he went back to normal as soon as i posted the thread. All of our fishies are acting fine, and he is also. I have been doing a water change every 24-36 hrs depending on the ammonia levels. I think he got an injury and he was hurtin from it and it healed, maybe? not sire what the gray eyes thing was still. iIt was just him.

 

[Andrew Castagna]

Some fish just go into shock and hide for a few days when brought home from a pet store.

 

[Jaimee169]

He wasnt new or hiding. He was at the top of the tank. And Ive had him since i started up. He is doin good these days. After daily water changes for about 3-4 days his eye got better and better. Hes fine now.