# Fish swimming wobbly. Need advice



## seyz

Here's a video of my fish and the way its swimming. Over the last week or so its been kind of wobbly like this and it looks a bit imbalanced. I am not sure what it could be? The pH, ammonia levels, temperature is all normal, I am not really sure what it can be. Heres a video:

MVI_2466.AVI - YouTube

Thanks everyone!


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## katiesoup50

have you checked the nitrite and nitrate levals, the same thing happened to my fish and a big water change helped


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## susankat

need numbers for ph, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.


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## navigator black

Is it a molly? It's moving like a hardwater fish kept in soft water. Back in the day, what it's doing was called "the shimmies". See what you can find online for dealing with it.
I'd normally treat it with salt, but I see a softwater tetra there, so that's not good. 
In the meantime, what's a normal pH to you, and how hard is the water?


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## seyz

pH is 7, Nitrate/Nitrite, Ammonia 0ppm. I just preformed a big water change. What exactly do you mean by hard or soft water?


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## navigator black

Aquarists seem obsessed with nitrates and ammonia, but an even more important longterm measurement is hardness - the amount of dissolved minerals in the water. It can be measured as carbonate or general hardness, or with a meter as TDS. 
A fish has to balance liquids, since they are internal and external to it. Depending on where they come from, they will have evolved different tolerances to and needs for dissolved minerals. Cardinal tetras come from mineral poor Amazon water - soft. Mollies come from Mexico from limestone water - mineral rich and very hard.
You can have perfect ammonia readings and kill a fish by trying to keep it in water that its body can't handle. I have 60-80ppm GH tapwater, which means I can breed discus or Apistogramma without difficulties. In my last house, with 140ppm water, those fish were really difficult. If I put mollies in my 80ppm tapwater, they will shimmy, then develop serious skin conditions prior to dying. I'm a molly keeper, so I harden my water by adding minerals to my livebearer tanks.
Water hardness is a reason you have to read up on each fish species individually before purchasing them, once you know what your tap is like. It's easy to harden water, and expensive and time consuming to soften it.
At a pH of 7, your water is probably on the soft side, as minerals usually increase alkalinity. I've tested water wild mollies were thriving in in Mexico, and it was pH 7.8, with a hardness off the scale of the kit I had.


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## seyz

I see. Well along with the tank change I got my tap water from the same place and this fish was doing fine with the old water. Now he's just wobbling like this. This fish is quite old(probably about 2+ years).

So what do you suggest I do to test the hard or soft water? Or should I possibly be doing a different form of test or something like that? He's still swimming like this and I really want to know what can be done!


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## navigator black

When they'time out' from old age, they wobble in the water. It could be as simple as that, sadly. I've had mollies for 5 years, but 2-3 can be old, depending also on how old it was when you got it.


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## seyz

Yeah, I had another mollie, just like that one, who died a few weeks back and was swimming the exact same way! I got them both around the same time, a few years ago. That fish was swimming this way for about a few months, just wobbling around in one section of the water in one spot, occasionally going to others for food or swimming. 

Is there anything at all I could do to help this fishes situation out?


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## navigator black

If the fish has done well for a long time in your water prior to this, then it isn't the conditions. it's from within the fish. There isn't much you can do, other than tio euthanize it if it seems to really be suffering. If the other fish don't beat it up, it will decline fairly quickly.
Depending on what else you have, you could try some salt. But his/her tankmates might not like that.


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## Elen

navigator black said:


> When they'time out' from old age, they wobble in the water. It could be as simple as that, sadly. I've had mollies for 5 years, but 2-3 can be old, depending also on how old it was when you got it.


Hi I have the same problem. I have female platy and she had babies like 2-3 weeks ago. Ever since, she doesn't eat, keeps swimming or resting at the bottom of the tank. I did big water change and have her swim bladder medicine as proffesional told me it might be bladder problem. Ever since I gave her the medicine she got worse. Now she just wobbles while swimming or just rest at the bottom of tank. What should I do?


seyz said:


> I see. Well along with the tank change I got my tap water from the same place and this fish was doing fine with the old water. Now he's just wobbling like this. This fish is quite old(probably about 2+ years).
> 
> So what do you suggest I do to test the hard or soft water? Or should I possibly be doing a different form of test or something like that? He's still swimming like this and I really want to know what can be done!


Hi, I have the same problem. I have female platy. She gave birth to live fry about 2 weeks ago and ever since she is either swimming too little or rests at the bottom of the tank or she ignored the food. I did big water change and gave her swim bladder medicine. She got worse. She tries to swim up to eat but she wobbles a lot or she like "falls backwards". What should I do with her?


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