Molly Flicking Itself Against Leaves

[RBurkett]

Can anyone help? My Male molly occasionally flicks itself against the plants in my tank. It is eating and swimming ok. Doesn't seem to be ill so why would it be doing this? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to our forum RBurkett.
A molly has a few common reasons for flicking itself like that. In a new tank, it is possible that the filter has not yet been cycled properly so any fish would become uncomfortable with the water quality and act in a strange fashion. Another possibility is limited to mostly just mollies and that is if the tank has very soft water in it. Things like tetras or angels would do great in soft water but mollies would be stressed by soft water. A final fairly common problem would be if you have managed to bring home a fish with an ich infestation. If you could post a picture here it would help us diagnose it for you.
To post a picture here, you would need an account in one of the picture storage locations like photobucket. Once your picture is stored there, you simply copy the link they call an IMG code and paste it in here as if it were simple text. The result is that the picture looks like it is right here on TFF. This is a young harbor seal that I ran across while on the beach during a recent vacation (on holiday if you are in the UK).

 

[RBurkett]

Welcome to our forum RBurkett.
A molly has a few common reasons for flicking itself like that. In a new tank, it is possible that the filter has not yet been cycled properly so any fish would become uncomfortable with the water quality and act in a strange fashion. Another possibility is limited to mostly just mollies and that is if the tank has very soft water in it. Things like tetras or angels would do great in soft water but mollies would be stressed by soft water. A final fairly common problem would be if you have managed to bring home a fish with an ich infestation. If you could post a picture here it would help us diagnose it for you.
To post a picture here, you would need an account in one of the picture storage locations like photobucket. Once your picture is stored there, you simply copy the link they call an IMG code and paste it in here as if it were simple text. The result is that the picture looks like it is right here on TFF. This is a young harbor seal that I ran across while on the beach during a recent vacation (on holiday if you are in the UK).

 

[RBurkett]

Many thanks for your reply. I will try and get a photo and download it tomorrow. Any help would be appreciated. Really dont know a great deal yet about keeping fish, although I do take regular water tests and do weekly water changes. Fish were only added to tank when Ammonia was 0 Nitrite was 0 Nitrate was 40 and PH was 7.5. However added 10 more fish at weekend. 5 Neon Tetra and 5 Mollies. One of which has had 24 fry.

 

[OldMan47]

It sounds like you are getting into the population explosion world already.