Help: Possibly Wounded Molly

[Róisín]

Hi there thanks for replying, the tank is 15 gallons and there is a Pearl gourami, a Honey gourami, a Bolivian ram, a Blue ram, 2 speckled coloured Mollies and 2 new black mollies. I'm really new to fish keeping and i bought 6 of the fish from the same place which seemed very well-informed but they didn't say anything about the GH. I bought the two rams from a pet supermarket store which actually told me that they were both Blue Rams but then after asking about their gender on here i found out that actually one was a Bolivian Ram. Anyway, the tank temperature is 26 Degrees Celsius, and the GH is 17.5 ppm. The pregnant black molly has only been in the tank for a couple of days and definitely seems like the boss out of the mollies.
Will I have to rehome the mollies due to the GH difference?

 

[Essjay]

That is very soft water. Mollies need it much harder - over 250 ppm - and having to cope with water that is far too soft will be weakening them.
The choice comes down to rehoming the mollies or setting up another tank, adding "hardness minerals" and keeping the mollies in that. There are a few products sold which contain these minerals.

You also have the problem that the tank is not big enough for most of the fish you have. Only the honey gourami is suitable for 15 gallons. The size of the tank will also be causing stress, and stress weakens the immune system.


So many fish shop workers don't have a clue and will make up any rubbish. Yours probably have no idea that GH is important, and if they did know and told you they would risk not making a sale. The fact that they sold you a blue ram and a Bolivian ram as the same species is indicative of their lack of knowledge, I'm afraid.

For your information, fish profiles from the best website around. Look at the type of water and tank size needed. There is a calculator in How To Tips to convert hardness and temperature where needed.
Bolivian ram http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/mikrogeophagus-altispinosus/
Blue ram http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/mikrogeophagus-ramirezi/
Pearl gourami http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/trichopodus-leerii/
Honey gourami http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/trichogaster-chuna/
Black molly http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/poecilia-sphenops/
The other mollies' requirements are the same as the black molly.

 

[Róisín]

That is very soft water. Mollies need it much harder - over 250 ppm - and having to cope with water that is far too soft will be weakening them.
The choice comes down to rehoming the mollies or setting up another tank, adding "hardness minerals" and keeping the mollies in that. There are a few products sold which contain these minerals.

You also have the problem that the tank is not big enough for most of the fish you have. Only the honey gourami is suitable for 15 gallons. The size of the tank will also be causing stress, and stress weakens the immune system.


So many fish shop workers don't have a clue and will make up any rubbish. Yours probably have no idea that GH is important, and if they did know and told you they would risk not making a sale. The fact that they sold you a blue ram and a Bolivian ram as the same species is indicative of their lack of knowledge, I'm afraid.

For your information, fish profiles from the best website around. Look at the type of water and tank size needed. There is a calculator in How To Tips to convert hardness and temperature where needed.
Bolivian ram http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/mikrogeophagus-altispinosus/
Blue ram http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/mikrogeophagus-ramirezi/
Pearl gourami http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/trichopodus-leerii/
Honey gourami http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/trichogaster-chuna/
Black molly http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/poecilia-sphenops/
The other mollies' requirements are the same as the black molly.

Thanks for all the help, I’ll be on the lookout for bigger tanks and try and get them in a more comfortable tank soon. I also have some questions about the Bolivian Ram, it is very quiet and he mainly stays in the bottom corner of the tank and doesn’t eat much, I bought cichlid pellets which he did seem quite interested in but he doesn’t go to eat them which is becoming a problem because he’s quite skinny. When I do a water change he moves around more.

Do you think he stays quite isolated because of the other fish or do you know any other reasons?

Do you know how far along the pregnancy of the black molly is and when it will give birth?