Sick mollies

[vo1umeone]

Hi again everyone! I'm back once again with more problems!

So my mollies are dying off and I don't know how to make them better. Here's what happens. One will start swimming weird- kind of like a snake I guess, then it'll start sitting on the bottom and sit there all day and swim strangely in place. When it sits on the bottom, it's tipped over/on its side a little. I notice that breathing is laborous (slower, heavier gill movements) and it seems to lose its appetite. So far, I've lost 2 mollies (male and female). Now, two more males are acting the same way before the other two died. One of the males that is sick now also has (I think) hexamita? It seems like the hole-in-head disease. There is a soft-looking hole in the shape of a circle on the side of his head right in front of his gill.

So they're pretty messed up...I'm not sure what to treat the hole-in-head disease with and I don't know why they are slowly dying off. Please help?

 

[bassbonediva]

What are your parameters in the tank they're in? It sounds like when my male VT betta, Edward, got dropsy (especially the laying on the side with labored breathing part). Do they seem fatter than usual, especially in their front section?

 

[vo1umeone]

Their tank parameters...well just look at my signature. They're in the 20 gal with other fish that are all relatively pretty small but the pleco is at about 5 inches), and I only have 4 mollies now.
They could be a little heavier in the front.... the male with hole-in-head, though, I thought it looked like he was getting skinnier. They don't have raised scales (although, this might be different with mollies). Dropsy is caused by bad water conditions, right? I could start doing some 20% water changes every other day, if that would help. I think you might be right about the dropsy, though. Are there any helpful meds for this?

 

[bassbonediva]

If you catch it early, I've heard of people having success with Jungle Labs Fungus Clear tabs that you can get at Walmart (if you can find them...I know only one of the Walmarts in my area carries them). My Edward didn't "pinecone" (what the raised scales are called), but I'm 99.9% sure he had dropsy.

This isn't my betta, but this is almost exactly the way Edward looked before he died:
http://www.petfish.net/articles/pix/arts3/dropsy.jpg

This is a helpful link about dropsy. Aquarium Fish - Dropsy - Disease Identification, Diagnosis & Treatment Dropsy isn't always caused by poor water conditions, but it is usually a contributing factor. Do you know what your water parameters are right now?

 

[OrangeCones]

The 20 gallon tank is overstocked with what you have listed in your signature (as is the goldfish tank), so its likely a water quality issue that has caused the disease the fish are dying of.

You don't say what kind of pleco it is, but if its a common pleco, they can grow to 2ft, far too large for a 20 gallon tank.

Is the ghost fish a ghost knife fish? If so, they can get to be 1 foot and a half and will eventually eat the mollies and tetras.

Water parameters are the levels of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, and are not listed in your signature.