Fish acting strange

[vmckague]

I have had my 55 gallon tank up and running for a couple a months and so far it has been nothing but trouble. Fish dieing all the time. This is an old tank that I kept running for years before the tear down and cleaning. Everyone said it was the water but it always checked out just fine. I even had the pet store to check it and they always came up with same results. Well finally it seems to be better and am able to keep fish in it without them dieing. What changed? I don't know. Question? One of my orange molleys has started to swim in place in the discharge water from the filter. About an inch from the top.There is a pretty fast current there and he spends most of the time there just swimming in place really fast. It reminds me of those shows on TV where the salmon are swimming up stream to spawn. Now some of the other molleys are starting to do the same thing. Are my fish going to start dieing again? Thanks in advance.

 

[WILDER]

How did you clean he tank, can you post water stats in ammonia,nitrite,nitrate, and ph, how many fish and which type, do you use tap water thats has been declorinated, any heavy breathing or flicking and rubbing against objects.

 

[Snailguy101]

Post the water stats

 

[vmckague]

Nitrate below 20ppm
nitrite 0
Ammonia 0
I cleaned the tank with vinager and took it outside and rinsed and rinsed it with a garden hose. New gravel, new filter elements, old drift wood that had been in the tank for years. Tank gets a 1/4 to 1/3 water change each week with water that has been treated with Tetra Aquasafe before adding it to the tank. Water temp 78 degrees always. Lights run about 14 hours a day. I am doing nothing different, that I can think of, that I didn't do before and I didn't have trouble then. Thanks for the quick replys.

 

[WILDER]

I's usually best to let the tank dry out for a few days after cleaning,did you use the fish to cycle the tank, did you sterlise the driftwood, can you say what fish and how many you keep in the tank.

 

[vmckague]

The tank cycled for over a month with two fish in it. When it had cycled I added about 10 molleys. Everything was just fine untill about two weeks later I had all but three died off in 24 hours. Treated the tank for ick. Don't know if that was it but didn't know what else to do. Seemed to help as all new fish but one did just fine. Now the molley is swimming it place. He's not rubbing on anything and eats just fine. I did notice he likes to fight with his reflection. At this time I have 15 molleys in the tank and some live plants.

 

[WILDER]

Livebearers are not the hardiest of fish, i given up on them, most livebearers like to play in a strong flow, as long as there not heavy breathing, i would just keep an eye on them, have they darkened in colour.

 

[vmckague]

Thanks for the reply. What would you suggest as a good fish to keep? Also does anyone know of a good web site that shows pictures of different fish. The reason I got the molleys was of the different bright colors and my grandson likes them but at this time I'm about ready to get plastic fish. LOL Thanks again.

 

[WILDER]

This is a good site as it lets you no the tank size, maybe some congo tetra's, and corys, or plecs.
http/species.fishindex.com/1

 

[platyfreek]

If any of you get Aquarium fish magzine, a couple of months ago there was a reply to a question about a guy that had done a water change using a hose and the replyer seaid that in the hose on the inside there can be harmful components in the plasticy part but if you dried it out it would have been just fine. this is just an idea. and i have platies that hang out in the filter flow all the time. its just what livebearers like to do. i would suggest some zebra danios or something. they're very hardy.don't get neon tetras they're not very hardy thought they are pretty when you see a fish you want, google it and see if they are hardy and recomended for beginners. or yo could consult this forum to see if your fish is a good choice (also make sure it is compatible with your current fish)

 

[gadazobe]

You cycled a 55 gallon tank with 2 fish and then added 10 more. The biological filter couldn't cope with the added load and that's why your fish died. You should add fish slowly, 1 or 2 every couple of weeks to enable the biological filter to grow to enable it to cope with extra load.

 

[vmckague]

If that is the case why did the water always check out fine?

 

[sylvia]

How quickly after did you test and did you do so with strips or a liquid-based one? The strips are innacurate and need replacing every so often. I know you said you also got it checked by the LFS but, besides the fact that they rarely give exact numbers, it was probably quite a while after your own tests and by then the tank would have cycled. When you suddenly add a large load to your biological filtration it may only take a day or two for the bacteria to catch up and your water to test fine. Unfortunately, by then the damage is done. Of course sometimes it takes much longer but rarely the length of a normal full cycle as the bacteria are already present in good numbers.

Hardy fish you could try are zebra or leopard danios (both the same species - in a group of at least 5), black skirt/widow tetras (group of 6 minnimum - known nippers but not as bad as tiger barbs or anything), platies and variatus platies (hardy livebearers - remember to keep in a ratio of at least 2 females for every male), three-spot gouramies (either several females or a single male or a single male with several females - no mroe than 5 total - can get quite aggressive, especialy if breeding, but generaly nice with non-gourami tank-mates and, IME, indestructable) and moquito fish (another hardy livebearer that should be kept in livebearer ratios BUT it's tiny - only about 3/4" at most - so may get eaten if kept with anything larger) and, also, bronze and peppered cories are quite hardy bottom-dwellers (group of 4 at least). Oh and another one to try is the american-flag fish - a killifish - extremely hardy, as a pair is best and behaviour is similar to that of gouramies but they also remind you of platies or cichlids... Try them and you'll see what I mean . There's also the paradisefish but be careful with these as, though they stay small and are exceptionaly hardy fish, they can also be terrors and shouldn't be mixed with similar fish - either keep singly or in a group with several females to a single male or just a group of several females. Two males may fight to the death like bettas and don't keep them with gouramies or other paradisefish or anything else related. Can tolerate low temps. Lets not forget white cloud mountain minnows, as a group of 6 minnimum. These are only borderline tropicals so preffer temps on the lower side. Oh and rosy red/fathead minnows are also quite hardy - often sold as feeders. There's plenty of hardy fish out there

As for your mollies' behaviour - it could be that they are stressed due to a recent change in their environment - a fluctuation in temperature or pH for example - or they may just be bored and have discovered the current Just watch carefuly for signs of disease.

 

[vmckague]

At the time I introduced the 10 fish the water was fine and during the whole time they were in the tank and even as they were dieing it was fine. I do use the test strips but at no time did the test read high when the fish were in the tank. I went through 30 test strips in less than 2 weeks. I guess there is something I just don't understand about the cycling time.
As for as the fish being bored that sure could be it but now I notice that two more of the same kind are starting to hide out at the back of the tank and at the top. They seem to be biting at the small air bubbles that the air stone is releasings. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong but just to damn stupid to understand the problem. I am very thankfull for the help that everyone in giving me and hope to understand what I am doing wrong.
Could it be that as I am a smoker and the air pump is taking air out of the room it could be the problem? It didn't hurt my old set up , but I did have different fish then. Angels. Some where else I read that mollys don't like very much drift wood and my tank does have quite a bit of that but it was in the old set up also. Thank you.

 

[vmckague]

Well the orange molly died and now I have one of my white ones swimming with his tail up. He trys to level off but it always goes back up. I also had a black molly to die this morn and he didn't act strange at all. I'm afraid my tank is going to crash and I just don't know what to do. Water tests fine with new test kit. This is really starting to suck. I've kept fish for around ten years and never had this trouble. I even neglected my old tank and didn't have trouble. Well I guess I'll do another water change about 1/3 but it probably won't do ay good. Sorry to ramble but I'm just grasping at straws now. Maybe internal parasites but how do I check? Thanks