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Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

Hi,

John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.

I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.

With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.

I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.

If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.

I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.

I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.

Thank you
Darragh Sherwin

Mollie Sick?? Help!

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10 Apr 2008 10:48 #1 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
Hi all, my orange molly isnt doing too good at the moment I think. Basically he is quite thin (but Im feeding the fish fine etc),but of more concern is that firstly one of his eyes has turned black (I think he can still see out of it however),also the tips of his back tail are beginning to go black and also on his gill fins. His top fin appears to be slightly clamped also (despite the temp being fine). He is swimming around as normal and is also eating fine but Im a little worried about the black beginning to appear on his fin.(The fins are still intact). All the other fish are fine and the water parameters are fine too. Can anyone explain whats going on here? Nothing new has been added to the tank recently.

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  • Valerie (Valerie)
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10 Apr 2008 18:08 #2 by Valerie (Valerie)
Replied by Valerie (Valerie) on topic Re:Mollie Sick?? Help!
Hi Fishowner,

Can you please remind us the size of your tank ? tell us about the other residents and whether they are doing fine. Can you also please tell us what your most water parameters readings are : ammonia, nitrite and nitrate? what is the tank temperature ? when did you do a water change last (and frequency) ?
A photo would also go a long way for people here to be able to help you.
Is your molly eating ?

Sorry for all these questions, but this would help people helping you diagnosing your issue.

Thanks and kindest regards,
Valerie

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11 Apr 2008 01:12 #3 by JohnH (John)
Replied by JohnH (John) on topic Re:Mollie Sick?? Help!
This does sound a little like a water issue here to me too.

Can you post your test kit findings as Valerie suggests, but for the immediate course of action I would suggest a 33% water change as soon as you can then - say - 20% on alternate days for the next week. I am not able to tell you the name of the affliction your Molly is suffering from but have witnessed similar symptoms and the water change regime seems to have cleared it up over the course of a couple of weeks.

If you don't have any salt-hating fish such as Corys I would suggest you add a small amount, say a teaspoonful per gallon of tank water (4.5 litres), but don't just drop the whole lot in at once, do it over a spell of an hour or so, replenishing the salt at the same percentage when you do the water changes. Mollies are renowned to benefit from a small amount of salt in their water, and they also revel in extra warmth in their water so if you could raise the temperature a little over the space of a few days to around 78deg f that could well help too.

Let us know how things progress.

John

Location:
N. Tipp

We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.


ITFS member.



It's a long way to Tipperary.

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11 Apr 2008 08:08 #4 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
Thanks for the reply folks. Adding salt is out of the question as I have 3 bronze corys..The tank is 85 litres, community tank with 7 tetras (4 cardinals & 3 neons).I have a male and female guppy,3 bronze corys (my fav!),and I have 2 male mollies (1 white,the other orange and with the blacking problem, and 1 female black mollies. I have a plant also in the tank,not sure what type but the plant was recommended by the LFS.Its fine so far. I didnt get a chance to do a test last night on the water but the results from last Sunday night were:
GH 30/40
kh 40
ph 7.0
Nitrates 0 and
Nitrites 20 (I might have my nitrate and nitrites mixed up here but basically the one that is meant to be 0 is 0, forgive me If I cant remember the difference but I know the test kit at home says it should be 0 for one of them and it is always 0 when I do the tests weekly). The tank is up and running about 2 and a half months or so and Ive had no problems with it so far. I do 20% water changes weekly.

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11 Apr 2008 08:59 #5 by Valerie (Valerie)
Replied by Valerie (Valerie) on topic Re:Mollie Sick?? Help!
Hi Fishowner,

What is 0 in your tank and should always be 0 is the nitrite. :-)
(this subject has been discussed a few times on this forum : as time goes by in your tank, some beneficial bacteria colonise your filter. There are 2 sets of these. The 1st one transforms the ammonia (food leftovers and fish waste) into nitrite. Both Nitrite and Ammonia are extremely toxic to your fish. The 2nd set of beneficial bacteria transforms Nitrite into Nitrate, the latter being plantfood. The time is takes for these bacteria to get hold in your tank is called 'cycling'.)

If your pH is 7.0, it probably is too low for the mollies. It seems they prefer a pH from 7.5 to 8.5. Could this be your problem? I am sure some people here know more about mollies ... ;-)

Maybe your temperature is on the low side? what is your tank running at ?

Thanks and Regards,
Valerie

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11 Apr 2008 09:02 #6 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
Temp is fine,its running at 26c...the other mollies are fine also so PH has been constant at 7.0 since I set up the tank.Hasnt been a problem. I know the mollies may prefer a higher PH but the others in the tank are v happy with 7.0 and also the Mollie as a fish is very adaptable so I think I am going to keep the PH at this level.

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11 Apr 2008 09:07 - 11 Apr 2008 09:10 #7 by JohnH (John)
Replied by JohnH (John) on topic Re:Mollie Sick?? Help!
OK, I see that the salt option is a non-starter!

Here comes a very long shot...
I am wondering if your Molly could have been derived from Black Molly stock or if somewhere back along the breeding history a Black male became infiltrated into the genes.

I am wondering this because many years ago Black Mollies were not always born Black but gradually became that way over a period of time. It's probably being a bit simplistic to suggest this but just possibly your male will develop into a (predominantly) Black fish.
Now don't bank on this as I am really only thinking out aloud, but it is a possibility.

In the meantime keep up the water changing regime and keep a watching brief.

Oh, and by the way, you are probably right that you have your Nitrites and Nitrates the wrong way round - at least that would be my submission.

John

Location:
N. Tipp

We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.


ITFS member.



It's a long way to Tipperary.
Last edit: 11 Apr 2008 09:10 by JohnH (John). Reason: wrong spelling (again!!!)

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11 Apr 2008 10:52 #8 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
Otherwise how are my readings for the other fish ??

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12 Apr 2008 20:24 #9 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)

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