Balloon Molly Sitting on the Bottom of a Cycled Tank PLZ HELP

[Daisy Deng]

Hi everyone!
My black balloon molly is sitting on the bottom of the tank without moving.
He eats normally, swims normally.
Whenever I go check and he sees me he swims to the surface for food, and he is still swimming to me when he sees me. But when I am far away from the tank I see him sitting in the bottom looking dead... a lot...

My test numbers:
PH ~7.0
Ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate 40~80 ppm (Color is very similar on the chart I can't tell)
Temperature 78

10-gallon tank
Tank mate: 5 Neon Tetra and 2 Albino Cory (I know tetra and molly shouldn't be in the same tank but I learned it after I got the fishes)

I added aquarium salt this morning and haven't see difference yet.

This is my first tank but I had it for over half a year now. This is the first time I have seen this happen on my black molly. I was searching answers on the forum but most posts were due to tank not cycled, my tank is cycled.
I am very worried. This has been going on for 2 days.
Plz helpppppppp.

 

[JuiceBox52]

Your nitrate is VERY high.
Test the tap water to see if it is coming from the tap or the tank.
Do a 75% water change.

What is your GH? You can fin this info on your local water providers website or you can call them directly.

Balloon mollies are bred in a way that cramps all of their organs in a very small area, making them extremely prone to health issues and early death

 

[Daisy Deng]

Your nitrate is VERY high.
Test the tap water to see if it is coming from the tap or the tank.
Do a 75% water change.

What is your GH? You can fin this info on your local water providers website or you can call them directly.

Balloon mollies are bred in a way that cramps all of their organs in a very small area, making them extremely prone to health issues and early death

Hi thank you so much for replying!!!
The Local water department states that Hardness (as CaCO3) is ranged from 15 - 68 ppm and an average of 47ppm.
I will do a water change soon.
I learned balloon mollies are not a great breed also after I bought it... I would never buy them if I knew and I will not in the future. It is completely on me not doing my research before, but I still want to keep them as happy and comfortable as I can.....

 

[Colin_T]

The GH is too low and the nitrates are too high.
Livebearers need a GH of 200ppm for platies, swordtails and guppies, and 250ppm for mollies. They all need a pH above 7.0, your tank is fine for pH but the GH is way too low.

You can increase the GH by adding Rift Lake water conditioner to the tank water. This will increase the GH, KH and pH.

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Check your tap water for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. If your tap water has alow nitrate level, do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for 2 weeks to get the nitrate level down.

If your tap water has high nitrates, you will need to look into removing the nitrates before using the water in the aquarium.

You can fill a large plastic storage container with tap water and put aheap of floating plants in it. Give them lots of light and leave them to use the nitrates up. When the nitrates are 0, use that water to do water changes on the tank.

Reverse Osmosis units will remove nitrates but the R/O units waste a lot of water.

There is a Pozzani Filter and a few other nitrate removing filters available and the tap water gets filtered through them to remove the nitrates.

-------------
All balloon fish have the same problem as balloon mollies. Avoid any fish called balloon. There are balloon mollies, gouramis, rainbowfish and cichlids, and they should never be bought.

The Asian breeders need to learn not to screw up fish simply because they think it looks nice. The only way we can do this is to stop buying mutated and deformed fishes. Shops need to do their part too and not order in balloon fish.

 

[Barry Tetra]

The GH is too low and the nitrates are too high.
Livebearers need a GH of 200ppm for platies, swordtails and guppies, and 250ppm for mollies. They all need a pH above 7.0, your tank is fine for pH but the GH is way too low.

You can increase the GH by adding Rift Lake water conditioner to the tank water. This will increase the GH, KH and pH.

-------------
Check your tap water for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. If your tap water has alow nitrate level, do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for 2 weeks to get the nitrate level down.

If your tap water has high nitrates, you will need to look into removing the nitrates before using the water in the aquarium.

You can fill a large plastic storage container with tap water and put aheap of floating plants in it. Give them lots of light and leave them to use the nitrates up. When the nitrates are 0, use that water to do water changes on the tank.

Reverse Osmosis units will remove nitrates but the R/O units waste a lot of water.

There is a Pozzani Filter and a few other nitrate removing filters available and the tap water gets filtered through them to remove the nitrates.

-------------
All balloon fish have the same problem as balloon mollies. Avoid any fish called balloon. There are balloon mollies, gouramis, rainbowfish and cichlids, and they should never be bought.

The Asian breeders need to learn not to screw up fish simply because they think it looks nice. The only way we can do this is to stop buying mutated and deformed fishes. Shops need to do their part too and not order in balloon fish.

I agree, all of my balloons mollies died of pregnant.

 

[utahfish]

While i agree you can raise the GH level to help the molly doing so will be harmful to the neons and corydoras as they both need soft water. These problems tend to arise when fish are kept in water that isnt suitable for them. As soft as your water is the molly will continue to have health issues and by increasing hardness in water one is putting the other fish at risk. Best to rehome the molly in my opinion.

 

[Metalhead88]

How often do you normally do a water change?

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Your Nitrate is VERY high and deadly. It should be kept under 20ppm at all times. Anything over that, can be deadly to your fish.

You tank is not cycled, if your Nitrate is that high.

How often do you clean the filter?

 

[Colin_T]

You tank is not cycled, if your Nitrate is that high.

Did you mean nitrite?
Cycled tanks have nitrates that can keep going up, which is why you need to do regular water changes to keep them as low as possible. I have seen some tanks with 200+ppm of nitrate. The fish weren't happy.

 

[JuiceBox52]

Your Nitrate is VERY high and deadly. It should be kept under 20ppm at all times. Anything over that, can be deadly to your fish.

You tank is not cycled, if your Nitrate is that high.

How often do you clean the filter?

A non cycled tank will not have any nitrate

 

[angelcraze]

If you want to tell the difference between 40 and 80ppm nitrates, just put in half the drops of regant. If it's still red, you have closer to 80ppm, if it turns orange, you have 40ppm.

If your tap doesn't contain nitrates, a water change will bring those levels down. Ex a 50% WC will lower nitrates by 50%. So if you have 40ppm, a 50% WC will bring nitrates down to 20ppm. Do another 50% WC in a couple days and it will bring it to 10ppm. And so on and so on. Just remember nitrates build up in between WCs as well, so it would have to be close WCs to see this effect. I like to change enough water to bring nitrates within the 5ppm range. That way when i'm doing my weekly WCs, a 50% WC brings it back down to 5ppm since my tank will climb to 10ppm by the end of the week.

Plants and anaerobic bacteria will consume nitrates, and bioload varies, so every tank is different. You just have to find a good practice for your tank specifically. But basically, I follow nitrates to determine how much water needs to be changed out. In tanks where the are no detectable nitrates, I change out 50% weekly as a guide because WCs are not only to remove nitrates, there's a lot of other stuff like organics and hormones to dilute, and minerals to replenish.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

A non cycled tank will not have any nitrate

Just a typo.

I meant to say Nitrite. Yes, of course I know that a non cycled tank will have no nitrate.

@TheTenthDoctor, this is also what I was talking about...

 

[JuiceBox52]

Just a typo.

I meant to say Nitrite. Yes, of course I know that a non cycled tank will have no nitrate.

@TheTenthDoctor, this is also what I was talking about...

How was it a typo? You said " a tank with that high of nitrate is not cycled" if you meant nitrite you would not have said that, because the OPs nitrite is 0