Sick Molly! Need help Identifying the problem

FuulieQ

Yesterday, I went out and stocked my first-ever aquarium. It's a ten gallon tank with a Penguin Mini filter and a heater.

I put in three mollies, two Goldfish, a Bristlenose Pleco and an African Dwarf Frog to get started with, and I've been feeding the whole lot TetraMin flakes that I had previously.

I noticed earlier today that one of my mollies has a patchy white fluff covering parts of her face, body and dorsal fin. The patches are small, but not so small as is typical of the photos of ich that I've looked at. I must not have noticed when the pet store first netted her out of the crowd. I know it can't be water quality because everything in the tank, including the water, is brand new.

I've been looking at pictures of various diseases and I can't really find anything that really looks like what she has. I'll get a photo of her up as soon as possible.

For now I'm treating the whole tank with Maracyn and aquarium salt as recommended by the store.

What does this sound like to you?
Are all the inhabitants compatible?
Am I feeding them the right stuff? Will the frog get enough to eat?

I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS!!! Please help the lost beginner. ;w;

iamntbatman

It's hard for me to help with the sick molly without pictures. Could you post your water parameters? Keeping the water quality as high as possible is a good idea for all sick fish, so knowing those parameters would be helpful. If I had to guess, though, it does sound like some sort of bacterial or fungal infection.

Unfortunately, you are going to run into some stocking problems. Mollies get a little on the big side for a 10g tank, as does the pleco, but as long as you've got plenty of filtration on the tank and you really keep up with the water changes, you should be ok. Mollies are also usually pretty voracious eaters, so you might have to feed the frog by hand to ensure that he's getting enough to eat without the mollies all stealing it first.

The Goldfish, on the other hand, need to go. For one thing, they are a coldwater species that doesn't belong in a tropical tank. Second, even the smallest of fancy Goldfish varieties grows much too large for a 10g tank (some fancy Goldfish will max out at around 6" long but others reach 10" or more and standard comet Goldfish can reach 18"). Goldfish are also huge waste producers and will completely push your filtration ability beyond its limits.

FuulieQ

Okay. I'll see what I can do with the poor Goldfish. I don't really want to give him up - he has a lot of spunk for a little fish - but I don't have much space to keep him separate from the mollies.

You wouldn't happen to know what size container is good for ADFs, would you? I'm thinking I'll probably have to move him to a different cage. I don't know that I could hand-feed him in this ten-gallon.

On the upside, after some treatments with Maracyn, the molly seems to be doing better. She's zipping around the tank like a happy fish now. I'll still try to get some pics up, though.

Oh, and also, I'm down to just the one Goldfish, because the infected molly attacked the other and killed it. :/ Little booger.

fryup

i would have to agree that it was a fungal infection and also Goldfish are coldwater fish and the others are tropical fish ....not a good mix ....but hope you make the right choices for your fish :):):)...oh and as for food that shud be ok for all but the frog ...which i guess may spend a lot of time at the bottom may not get as much food as it needs ..:)

FuulieQ

Yes, I'm returning the mollies, Goldfish and pleco, as it turns out that none are compatible and I can't afford to maintain them all in separate tanks. The only fish I'm keeping is the betta. I'm also keeping the ADF, though. Will they be okay in the same tank?

iamntbatman

Possibly. Bettas have a wide range of personalities. Some will completely ignore frogs while others will bug them like crazy and prevent them from getting anything to eat. If you're already housing the betta and frog together and haven't noticed any problems, you should be ok. If you haven't made the move yet, be ready to move the betta back to his original tank should any problems arise.

fryup

food....make sure both can eat ....or keeping them together may not be possable...:):):)

by the way fuulieq...your betta is stunning :)

FuulieQ

@Batman- Well, I've been housing them in the same container for about a day and a half now, and the frog seems to have no bite marks or missing digits, and the most the betta's done is hover around him and stare for a few seconds. So it should be okay?

@Fry- thanks! He thinks so, too. :P :) Freedy refuses to eat stuff off the bottom of the tank, so as long as I make sure some of the bloodworms sink to where the frog can get them, he'll be able to fill up (I hope). It only takes three worms to make his lil stomach bulge, he's so tiny. :)

FrogHerder

A 5 gal would be fine for a pair of ADF's and maybe one or two small non-aggressive fish. They are fairly social, so I would recommend keeping at least a M/F pair. Hand feeding is really pretty simple (our pair lives in a 20 gal). We feed thawed bloodworms and brine shrimp using a pair of tongs like this:
Zoo Med Laboratories Stainless Steel Feeding Tongs 10 Inch

One other note on ADF's - substrate should be a sufficient size that they cannot fit it into their mouths. We nearly lost our female this way, and switched to larger pebbles/stones.

iamntbatman

Sounds like it, but keep a watchful eye on them just in case.