Mollies Dying

[Badatkeepingfish]

29 gallons cycled
5 nerite snails
? Amount of amano shrimp (they keep reproducing)
3 mollies (2 Dalmatian, 1 orange)
a Couple of live plants (Amazon sword, java fern, java moss, 2 hornworts)
a lot of water lettuces

water condition
ammonia: 0 ppm
nitrite: 0 ppm
nitrate: 5-10 ppm

Hi, I am relatively new to fish keeping, but I think I have done a decent job on my first tank. I’ve had these fish for a little over 2 months. However, one of my orange mollies (not sure about species) is motionless and laying on a floating plant‘s roots. The Molly was fine yesterday and swam with the rest of the fish and ate fine. today it became motionless, lying on my floating plants’ roots. about 1 month ago, I had another orange Molly and it died after exhibiting the same symptoms, the only difference being that it was motionless at the bottom. One thing I noticed was that both cases had resulted in my mollies’ tails being somewhat drooped. The 2 Dalmatian mollies have been fine.
any help is appreciated

 

[Badatkeepingfish]

No obvious signs of fin rot, ich, or parasites.

 

[mrsjoannh13]

What temperature are you keeping the tank? Do you have a heater?

 

[Badatkeepingfish]

Yes I have a heater. the tank is at a constant~ 78 degrees

 

[mrsjoannh13]

Yes I have a heater. the tank is at a constant~ 78 degrees

Okay good. What about lighting? Do you have a light and if so how long is it on each day?

Also, any aggression from other fish in the tank?

 

[Badatkeepingfish]

Yes I have a pretty strong light, not sure about specifics but it is able to keep the Amazon sword growing at the bottom healthy and big with a cover of floating plants on top. I keep it on about 9 hours a day for the plants.
One of the big female dalmatians is aggressive to the other fish but only during feeding.

 

[mrsjoannh13]

Yes I have a pretty strong light, not sure about specifics but it is able to keep the Amazon sword growing at the bottom healthy and big with a cover of floating plants on top. I keep it on about 9 hours a day for the plants

Only other thought is that mollies are schooling fish so probably want a bigger shoal or they might get stressed. Also I believe there should be a much larger number of females than males. With a 20+ gallon tank you could definitely get more mollies.

I had a schooling fish and kept it in a tank by itself and it was incredibly stressed. Then had 2 in the tank and there were problems with stress and aggression. I didn't realize the impact of having a full group of schooling fish. It makes a huge difference. Not ruling out a disease or something that is impacting fish health that can't be seen, but I can tell you firsthand schooling fish kept in too small a group will be stressed and not do well.

How and what are they eating?

 

[Badatkeepingfish]

Thanks for the advice! They are eating imagitarium tropical pellets. I know I should try and introduce some other stuff into their diet. I just fed them a little and the Dalmatians are excited as always but the orange Molly is hiding on the ground. I’m afraid he’s not gonna make it because the other orange Molly went through the same thing

 

[Badatkeepingfish]

Oh I forgot to add that the ph is around 8.2 which is a bit high for mollies I think, but they have been adapting well. And I have no way of testing gh and k, which might be a problem.

 

[mrsjoannh13]

I'm sorry - I know it's frustrating. Do you know your other water parameters - GH, KH, pH? Maybe there is something about your water that is not suitable for them? Just trying to go through process of elimination and maybe some other more experienced folks will weigh in, too.

 

[mrsjoannh13]

I think you actually posted that above as I was asking the question. I would suggest getting test strips or a kit to figure out your hardness and alkalinity. It may or may not be an issue. Or you can take a sample in to a pet store and ask them to test it for you but you should have supplies to test on hand. I read that mollies need hard water and don't do well at all in soft water. It may be an issue so it would be good to know for sure.

 

[Badatkeepingfish]

Later today I’ll try to get some testing equipment for GH and KH and maybe a sponge filter for a hospital tank just in case any more mollies get sick or stressed. Hopefully this orange Molly can recover
thanks for the help!

 

[Naughts]

Check your water suppliers website to find the hardness. Mollies need hard alkaline water with hardness of over 15dH.
Are you sure about your shrimp species? I've not heard of hobbyists breeding amano.

 

[Colin_T]

Any chance of a picture and short 60 second video of the fish?
If the pictures are too big for the website, set the camera's resolution to its lowest setting and take some more. The lower resolution will make the images smaller and they should fit on this website. Check the pictures on your pc and find a couple that are clear and show the problem, and post them here. Make sure you turn the camera's resolution back up after you have taken the pics otherwise all your pictures will be small.

If the video is too big for this website, post it on YouTube and copy & paste the link here. We can view it at YouTube. If you are using a mobile phone to take the video, have the phone horizontal so the video takes up the entire screen. If you have the phone vertical, you get video in the middle and black on either side.

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The GH (general hardness) and KH (carbonate hardness) of your water supply can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

There is no point buying a GH/ KH test kit because it does not normally change much throughout the year. If you want to buy the kits, buy them. But most people simply get their pet shop to test the tap water's GH a couple of times a year.

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What does the fish's poop look like?
Are the fish eating properly?

Have you added anything in the 2 weeks before this started?

How often do you do water changes and how much do you change?
Do you gravel clean the substrate when you do a water change?
Do you dechlorinate the new water before adding it to the tank?

How often and how do you clean the filter?

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Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for at least a week or until we work out what is wrong. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using salt or medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Add salt, (see directions below).

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SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 2 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water.

If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate (4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will affect some plants and some snails. The lower dose rate (1-2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will not affect fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

When you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

 

[Badatkeepingfish]

sorry for the image quality.
I did some research, and found the GH of my area to be around 80-170 ppm

Two of my fish eat properly, this one does not
the orange one’s poop this morning was clear with a couple specks of brown
the other fish have normal, good-looking poop. (Sometimes a little clear but mostly brown)

I used to water change 30% every two weeks but the past month I have been doing 30% every week
water is dechlorinated
i disturb the gravel before cleaning

since this is kind of a new tank (4 months old) I have only cleaned the filter once Since adding fish. This is a problem I think
I have not added anything for 2 months (since I got these fish)
should I move the fish to a hospital tank (5 gal) for the time being?

thanks for the help