Molly laying on bottom

Chaalbaaz · Oct 16, 2020

Novice fish owner, found our Molly at bottom of aquarium. Moved her to separate tank. Water changed 3-4 days ago.

New video by Aamer Jaleel

photos.app.goo.gl

Ianvaldius · Oct 16, 2020

Pics? More info? It could be literally anything from this description.

Chaalbaaz · Oct 16, 2020

Ianvaldius said:
Pics? More info? It could be literally anything from this description.

I posted a video, were you able to see

Chaalbaaz · Oct 16, 2020

This a zoomed in picture, and an album link

Molly

4 new items · Album by Aamer Jaleel

photos.app.goo.gl

Colin_T · Oct 16, 2020

Flared gills and open mouth indicate something poisoned the fish. This is usually poor water quality or chemicals.

What is the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH of the tank water?
How long has the tank been set up for?
How long have you had the fish for?
What other fish are in the tank?

----------------------
Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week or until we work out what is going on.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

----------------------
The following link has information about what to do if your fish get sick. It's long and boring but worth a read when you have some spare time. I recommend printing it out and reading it in bed to help fall asleep

.

What to do if your fish gets sick

If your fish ever looks sick or unwell, then the following steps might help. Test the Water and Clean the Tank. Test the water quality for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH and write the results down in numbers. Check it for general hardness (GH) and carbonate hardness (KH) too if you can, but...

www.fishforums.net

Chaalbaaz · Oct 16, 2020

Colin_T said:
Flared gills and open mouth indicate something poisoned the fish. This is usually poor water quality or chemicals.

What is the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH of the tank water?
How long has the tank been set up for?
How long have you had the fish for?
What other fish are in the tank?

----------------------
Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week or until we work out what is going on.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

----------------------
The following link has information about what to do if your fish get sick. It's long and boring but worth a read when you have some spare time. I recommend printing it out and reading it in bed to help fall asleep .

What to do if your fish gets sick

If your fish ever looks sick or unwell, then the following steps might help. Test the Water and Clean the Tank. Test the water quality for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH and write the results down in numbers. Check it for general hardness (GH) and carbonate hardness (KH) too if you can, but...

www.fishforums.net

I have a five gallon tank. Originally I had two guppy and this molly. Recently they have birth and I have four small fry in there still.

Tank and fish I've had for four months total.

Don't have kit to measure nitrate level, need to get it

AilyNC · Oct 17, 2020

Chaalbaaz said:
I have a five gallon tank. Originally I had two guppy and this molly. Recently they have birth and I have four small fry in there still.

Tank and fish I've had for four months total.

Don't have kit to measure nitrate level, need to get it

Make sure test measures Ammonia & nitrite too. API Master Test Kit is a good deal that will last about 800 tests.

If fish recovers the Molly needs a much bigger tank than a 5 gallon. They need lots of swimming room with minimum tank length of 90cm/36".

Poecilia sphenops – Short-finned Molly/Black Molly — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

The Guppies will keep reproducing and need a tank of 18"/45cm length.

Poecilia reticulata – Guppy (Lebistes poecilioides, Girardinus guppii ) — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

If possible you'd be better off getting a bigger tank or returning those fish to the store to trade for something appropriate to a 5 gallon.

Maybe others have suggestions for stock..I've not had a 5 gallon before myself.

Chaalbaaz · Oct 17, 2020

AilyNC said:
Make sure test measures Ammonia & nitrite too. API Master Test Kit is a good deal that will last about 800 tests.

If fish recovers the Molly needs a much bigger tank than a 5 gallon. They need lots of swimming room with minimum tank length of 90cm/36".

Poecilia sphenops – Short-finned Molly/Black Molly — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

The Guppies will keep reproducing and need a tank of 18"/45cm length.

Poecilia reticulata – Guppy (Lebistes poecilioides, Girardinus guppii ) — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

If possible you'd be better off getting a bigger tank or returning those fish to the store to trade for something appropriate to a 5 gallon.

Maybe others have suggestions for stock..I've not had a 5 gallon before myself.

Ph 7.6
High range ph 8.0
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0

I have well water, and the water softener salts could be yielding the higher pH

Thoughts?

Essjay · Oct 18, 2020

Do you use softened water for the tank? You mention water softener salts which implies it is the type which uses salt. This creates two problems.
Mollies are hard water fish and need hard water. It would be better to use water which has not been through the softener - do you have a bypass tap?
The salt type of softener exchanges the hardness minerals for sodium, and this is bad for fish. Mollies can cope with sodium in the water better than most fish, but there is still the possibility of it affecting your fish.

If you want to keep hard water fish such as the mollies and guppies you mention, I would use unsoftened water rather than water which has passed through the softener.
Should you ever want to keep soft water fish, you would need to use a mixture of your hard water with a form of pure water as the salt from the softener will harm soft water fish.

Chaalbaaz · Oct 18, 2020

essjay said:
Do you use softened water for the tank? You mention water softener salts which implies it is the type which uses salt. This creates two problems.
Mollies are hard water fish and need hard water. It would be better to use water which has not been through the softener - do you have a bypass tap?
The salt type of softener exchanges the hardness minerals for sodium, and this is bad for fish. Mollies can cope with sodium in the water better than most fish, but there is still the possibility of it affecting your fish.

If you want to keep hard water fish such as the mollies and guppies you mention, I would use unsoftened water rather than water which has passed through the softener.
Should you ever want to keep soft water fish, you would need to use a mixture of your hard water with a form of pure water as the salt from the softener will harm soft water fish.

Thank you for the advice. I'll start using our bypass path for water.

Also, now It looks like white spots on the Molly... Is it Ich?

Essjay · Oct 18, 2020

Start doing water changes with the bypass water so the tank water changes slowly from softened water to unsoftened.

The spots in the photo don't look like ich. But you can see the fish in the flesh - does it look as though someone has sprinkled salt all over the fish? That's what ich looks like.
The best treatment for ich is heat. Turn the heater up so the water gets to 86 deg F and leave it there for 2 weeks. If all the spots have gone by then, turn the heater down and let the temp fall to what it should be. When you do a water change, refill with water at the higher temp so it doesn't drop.

Chaalbaaz · Oct 18, 2020

Will do the suggested water changes from softened to unsoftened.

It doesn't look like there is salt sprinkled all over, I was more concerned about the two bit white spots near the middle and the other white spots right behind the eye.

Thinking it was ich, and based on reading other forums I have added a tablespoon of sea salt into my five gallon tank. I am now wondering whether I have added too much salt.

What should I be looking for in case the aquarium oversalted?

Essjay · Oct 18, 2020

It is safe to use 2 heaped tablespoon per 5 gallons for fish such as mollies which is double what you've used. Salt is also an antiseptic and could help whatever is causing the patches.

But going forward you do need a bigger tank. AilyNC gave a link in post#7 for mollies on Seriously Fish, which is widely regarded as being the best source of information on fish.

Chaalbaaz · Oct 19, 2020

Thank you all for the responses and feedback. Sad to say that our Molly didn't survive and passed away last night

Your suggestions on moving to a larger aquarium have been noted for holding Molly. For now, we just have our family of Guppies -- two adults and 4 small fry.

Molly laying on bottom

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