Black Mollie Dies - Others to follow?

[crashhere]

OK I've had the tank now for around 4 weeks, and I am new to the whole aquarium thing........

On Friday, I noticed one of my Black Mollies sitting on the bottom with little movement. It ate fine and moved quickly when applying flake to the water so I thought nothing of it. Saturday the fish died, and while I was at work, my Wife decided to dispose of the body (A true crime ) so I could not inspect it.

Now my other 3 mollies are doing the same. Some of the other fish are starting to show signs of White spot - I'll get them treated tomorrow but the mollies look fine

Can any one please advise.

 

[The-Wolf]

we need the water parametes to help you more, like ammonia nitrate nitrite. also what temperature is the tank at?

 

[Angel Lady]

This sounds like high nitrites, That is how they do when they are high stay at the bottom of the tank. When the ammonia is high they sorta go to the top of the water and grasp for air. If I was you I would start doing small water changes every day. Can you get the water readings by any chance. It would help to know what they are before someone can tell you exactly what to do. And good luck with your new hobbie.

 

[Boggle]

I cycled my 50g with mollies, and only the black ones died. One managed to have about 20 fry, of those only 2 survive.

I also think you might be going thru a nitrite spike, but I have heard from a number of people that it's hard to get a genetically sound black molly - if this is true, then it would make sense why they died first.

 

[SnowyzMom]

Cycling with fish takes 6 weeks or so, but fishless cycling takes 10-14 days and there are links posted to excellent articles on this in the Forums. Some fish are definitely not recommended for cycling due to their sensitivity, ie. not robustly built. That said, cycling is hard on ANY fish and alot don't make it or do with weakened immune systems.

Definitely 25% water changes with something like Aqua Balance in the new water to remove heavy metals, chlorines etc plus give some immune system help would be a good idea. Can you put any live aquarium plants into the tank? They help alot to balance the tank levels of nitrates/nitrites. Something like Easy Balance might help introduce beneficial bacteria sooner as well. White spot/ich shows up due to fish stress and poor water quality usually. There are meds for it and congrats on moving to treat it.

You can now buy bottles of dip strips that one dips into the water and then compares to a chart which shows you where the different ammonia/nitrite/PH levels are at. Here I had to get them online but you should be able to find them in a good live fish store. It is easier to use those strips to see levels than use the chemicals which can be hard to use and abit dangerous. I am thinking if you could get one of those, or buy separate dip strips for ammonia and PH and let us know what they say, it would help immensely. Good luck! And welcome to the Forum!

 

[crashhere]

Thanks to you all for your responses and welcomming thoughts!

OK Responses to your Questions

I already do have live tropical plants in the aquarium.

Water Parameters.
I already have the dip strips, but I have just taken a reading and here are the results;
Nitrate - 100mg
Nitrite - 1 mg
General Hardness - 16d
Carbonates - 3d
PH - 7.2 to 7.6

Temperature of tank - 80C

Water Changes;
I did a 50% water Change on Saturday, i don't really want to do another one with the tank being new, I am afraid the bacteria in the filter may not yet be established. What do you think?

Oh and just to let you know, the mollys look far happier today, although they are still sometimes going to the bottom. Could this be down to the tank cycling? The readings I just gave you are pretty much the same as the ones I took after the water change on Saturday.

OH and just one more thing - the black mollies seem to be relatively un-effected by white spot, it just seems to be the white ones and the Guppies.

Many thanks to you all again! B)

 

[crashhere]

Another update,

I came home from work and found one of the mollys dead. It had sunk to the bottom. I cant understand it, the white ones seem fine. One of it's eyes had disappeared, but the eye socket did not seem to be damaged??? I have kept the fish incase anyone advises me to disect.

Any advice at this point will be great.... Please help!