Mollies in distress?

[hammerz15]

I have a dalmatian molly who has been in my tank for about 2 weeks now. lately he has been acting different.... instead of swimming normally with little movement, he looks like he is in a constant wobble. He is also poking (not biting) at the bottom fins of his dalmatian buddy. CAn someone please tell me what's going on!!!

 

[William]

Can you give us some more information to help us answer your questions.

How long has your tank been set up? What fish do you have in it?
Do you have test kits? If so what does the ammonia, nitrIte and nitrAte readings show?

How frequently do you do water changes, how much do you feed?

Thanks and welcome to the site (i'm moving this to the emergency forum!)

 

[hammerz15]

Thanks for your response.

We've had the tank for a few weeks, the mollies were in the first grp of fish we got for the tank. There are guppies, platies, a ropefish, a blue dragon, a pleco, and a siamese algae eater in the tank.

I haven't got a test kit yet, the pet shop guy said to wait to test untitl the tank was about a month old.

We have done one partial water change. We feed two or three times a day, eith tropical fake food and pellets. I don't putin a lot of the flake, it takes the fish a few minutes to finish. Some ends up on the bottom because of the two Aquaclears we have running, but they seem to clean it up quickly.

 

[hammerz15]

Oh yeah, I wanted to add that it is a 35 gallon shallow tank, and we have added a clearing agent and an aloe additive suggested by the pet shop.

 

[crackenhunter]

I will be interested to see what the outcome of this is as my Dalmation Mollie is showing the exact same behaviour.

It seems to constantly position itself in the current coming from the filter outlet, although it isn't showing any aggression towards the other fish in the tank.

The tank it's in is a 24x12x12 with a Fluval 1 filter, as advised by the guy at the aquatic centre 2" of water is changed every second day (feed 1 day change water the next). I use TetraAqua Aquasafe water treatment when doing the changes and SafeWater No1 once a week.

I don't have any parameters as I just take it down to the aquatic centre. The tank has been up and runing for 20 days, 30 if you include the 10 day running in period.

Other fish in the tank are 10 Neons, 2 Guppies and another Molly (Black). These oters don't seemto be showing any odd behaviour.

Hope this helps.

Thanks
James

 

[William]

Thanks for your response.

We've had the tank for a few weeks, the mollies were in the first grp of fish we got for the tank. There are guppies, platies, a ropefish, a blue dragon, a pleco, and a siamese algae eater in the tank.

I haven't got a test kit yet, the pet shop guy said to wait to test untitl the tank was about a month old.

We have done one partial water change. We feed two or three times a day, eith tropical fake food and pellets. I don't putin a lot of the flake, it takes the fish a few minutes to finish. Some ends up on the bottom because of the two Aquaclears we have running, but they seem to clean it up quickly.

Sounds like your tank could be going through the cycle. The man at your fish store is WRONG! the first month is the real crucial time for doing the tests!! I'd do a 20% water change, buy a nitrIte and an ammonia testkit, test the tank for results and do a water change again of 20% if it is above 1.0 for either, repeat the procedure on a 24 hour basis. I'd say you've got too many fish in your tank to start off with as the bacteria population needs to build up to cope with fish waste gradually!! Don't add any more fish and start feeding a lot more sparingly say 1 time a day and if food hits the ground you are feeding too much and so reduce the quantity for the next feed.

I'd say the molly is probably over eating and is suffering from the water conditions, I'd say that some of the other fish may die as the ropefish and blue dragon sound quite sensitive (not kept them myself). But if you cut back on feeding and keep an eye on the test results you'll get through this!

Let us know how you get on, best of luck and any questions just ask one of us can help