Some sick Disease!!

[vinci]

Yikes! :eek:
Someone please tell me what to do. 2 days ago, I saw
some arrow like white things on my fish. All are
mollies. I added some medicine(dont ask me the chemical composition, I discarded the wrapper :( ).
No improvement, the next day. All the 8 fish I have,
have developed it .

There is a white thing. Its shape is like this " -------< ."
Its firmly embeded into the skin of all the fish.
One balloon has about 5 of them all over the fins. Its
become weak . I have a 21/2 inch pregnant mollie with
2-3 of them. Can someone tell me what to do . I
also added someextra salt. But its hopeless. Nothing
has changed! Please help ?i dont want my fish to die .
I have never had mollies , so i know nothing about
its diseases!

[lotsopigs]

sounds like anchor worm...here's some info
http://www.texaskoi.com/Articles/fish_parasites_101.htm
http://www.fishdeals.com/fish_diseases/anchor_worms/

[mr gerbil]

Ditto- it sounds like anchor worm.
What meds have you got?
Also, it would help to know tank size/fish type/water conditions/maintenance schedule.

[vinci]

Ok, I use a med called "rid-all".AS i said I dont remember the chemical comp. I asked my LFS for
"dimlin", he said he did'nt have it. I will try the tweezer method. Can someone tell me what a salt-dip means?

[mr gerbil]

Bathing the fish in a concentrated salt solution for a short length of time. A google search should come up with the exact amounts of salt to use.

[vinci]

oh I just salt bathed it. :) . I am off to the chemist
to get some K2mno4 & a tweezr. Thanks for the help.

[mr gerbil]

Hopefully it'll go ok- keep us posted.

[vinci]

:(:(:(
Everything went horribly BAD!
I referred to mny sites, Many of them suggested the
KMno4 (potassium permanganate) treatment. A few suggested dimlin treatment. Dimlin is quite hard to find. I could'nt find it anywhere. So, I opted for the Kmno4
treatment.
It was suggested that I give a Kmno4 bath for 15 min.
I prepared a solution accordingly. It was deep purple
in colour in colour. Hesitantly I added only a single molly. It dissapeared into the "darkness". Exactly 14 min. later I put in a net & tried to find RaeRay(molly) .
All my net picked up was a purpled opaque mass.
It was Raeray!!. She was clearly suffocated due to
the kmno4. I decided that I would never put the remaining 7 into the soln. I also realised that many
stuff we get on the net are simply rubbish & dangerous!

Anyway, I could'nt help but follow the instructions.
I was instructed by a web-page to pluck the
anchor worms out of the body. I did so & to the remaining 6 or should I say 5. Crow(a black molly)
never allowed me to touch it. It kept jumping. Only
4 survived. Crow and another(sol) that was very intensely infected died today morning.

Again, out of the 4 , only one molly has again developed some anchor worms. Its turned weak.
I am thinking of euthanising it. :(

I shall not allow the survivors into the main tank. I
have put them in a tub with a sponge filtre & air-stone.

I cleaned my tank with bleaching powder(as suggested) . I thoroughly cleaned it with water.
I have left it to dry. I also cleaned the filter.
I soaked the artificial plants in diluted bleaching powder. Phew! everthings over .....
I have decided to bring two comparitively big Goldfish(my favourites)- Bob & tinkle , into the tank. I have had a terrible time with the livebearers.

I have a question, Should I cycle my tank again?

[mr gerbil]

Your tank will have to be cycled again, as it isn't cycled.

What concentration of potassium permanganate did you use? 1/4 hour seems a long time.

[vinci]

5 g in 10 gallons.

[mr gerbil]

Erm...that's enough for the fish to be stuck in a display case and put on show Damien Hurst style. Who told you to do this?

[vinci]

I read it somewhere on the net, I guess ....

[mr gerbil]

I don't know the actual specifications, but I'd imagine it would be around 0.5 grams for a minute or so.

[vinci]

Anyway, I cant do anything 'bout it now. Besides
to think optimistically I lost just 1 sick fish in the solution. But hey, looks like the preg fish is completely
cured. No more buggers sticking out :) It even gave birth to some 25 odd fry!. But, I 've decided to
give it all away to LFS. I cant concentrate on livebearers anymore, I 've my exams coming up . Maybe after my exams I can give livebearers another
shot :).
I am on my way to LFS to get some fresh gravel .I
wanted to know which fish is best suited for cycling?

[mr gerbil]

No fish are suitable for cycling. If you've got access to pure ammonia, you can fishless cycle with this.
Bio-spira is an instant tank cycle that you can add.
"Cycle" also works well when used alongside a matured filter.

[Cheryl92]

I had the same problem with my fish! But as soon as I say it on my gold fish I put him in another tank thank goodness I had another!!!! It ended up becoming tail Rott and truned white and fluffy !!! My fish started to flip upside down and lost controll of its body!!! and died !!!! :cry: I was very upset after that!!!:cry: My friend had it to on her fish so thats how I found out!!! I am not sure what to do though.... If I were you I would go to the vet!!!!