Help! Was given more fish as a gift....

[boozybears]

Last night my well-meaning friends came over and brought me three new fish as a a belated birthday gift. He has owned many tanks over the years, and as we are fairly new to the fish-keeping process, has been quite happily giving us advice over the last 2 months. (little background... we purchased our first 25 gallon tank almost 2 months ago. It is in the final stages of cycling... with fish... amonia -0, nitrite - .1-.3, nitrate over 10). He bought me an unknown kind of pale pleco (the store told him it would only get to be 5 inches (?)... it's only about 1 1/2 now) as well as two more dalmation mollies - one male and one female.

Well... the new female molly looked horrible from the moment she entered the tank. Her tail curved down and she barely used it. She looked like she was going to die on the spot but did survive the night and is looking a bit healthier today. My orginal male molly is very large and quite aggressive so he has just been at the new male non-stop since he arrived. I'm worried that the stress will either kill him or give him ich!!

My questions/concerns.... I am worried that I now have too many fish (6 mollies, 5 platies and 1 undetermined pleco) in a 25 gallon tank) and am wondering what this will do to my tank. The fish store told my friend that I should be able to have 20 fish in my tank!!! This sounds like way too many for me! Any suggestions on what I can do with these two new mollies that I would not have chosen to buy if I had the choice? I've read about how pleco's can get to be 12-18 inches long... how long will this take?

Please help me! I've worked way too hard over the last 2 months to keep my fish happy and healthy during the cycling process to wreck it now by a misguided friend.

thanks in advance!

Valerie

 

[Cheese Specialist]

25 fish, eh?! LFSs are stupid aren't they!! Did the specify what kind of fish these could be or does that not matter

Anyways, you might be right about the fish you have but I generally go on water parameters and how the fish look in the tank. Thing is the vast mjority of your fish all occupy the same area menaing there is a good chance you will have problems with overcrowding.

How many of you livebearers are female? You will have a lot of fry on your hands soon and this will be a problem with fry being born monthly.

What kind of plec is it (you said that you have read it will get to 12"+)? Plecs take a fair time to grow but it will get big and will make a lot of mess. IMO a plec can account for the boiload of many other fish. So, having a plec means you can put way less fish in the tank.

Maybe you could try adding another filter to keep the levels in check and consider your options other than that. Is another tank an option? You coould maybe spilt the male and female livebearers.

GL

 

[tmlhaus]

This is JMO but I don't think you sound overstocked....yet. When those babies start coming though that could pose a problem. Maybe the tankmates themselves will take care of the young so you don't have to
I have had mollies in the past and yes they can be aggressive toward other new mollies. My tank DID get ick because of it and I lost most of the fish.
Just keep a very close eye on things and if it keeps up after several days return the new fish to the LFS. Sometimes it just takes time for all the fish to get used to one another. Good luck and happy belated birthday

 

[boozybears]

Ok, by tonite it looks like things have calmed down abit. The orginal male molly has stopped antagonizing the new guy so hopefully he'll be ok. The new female is hiding but now that I've looked at her closely I think she's pregant.... I'll keep an eye on her.

Oh! I found out that my pleco is a rubber-lipped pleco. Does anyone know anything about them? He's been fun to watch so far as he dances around the walls. Gosh he's fast!

thanks for all the help!
Valerie