molly laying on it's back

[2mollies]

I have a 5 Gal tank with 2 mollies and i sucker fish. this morning one molly was laying on the bottom of the tank and breathing rapidly. I opened the lid as to feed them and she swam right to the top with no problems but she goes back to the bottom and lays on her back again. whats wrong? our other molly likes to go and bite her while she does this. i've seperated them for now till i know whats going on. i've only had them about a week and a half. i use aqua clear water treatment, added a little salt to the water, and changed the water to see if that would help her but she still does it.

 

[wuvmybetta]

Have you checked your water quality? Did you cycle the tank or has it only been up and running a week and a half? A little background can help us figure out how to help you

also...5 gallons is kind of a tight squeeze sometimes, and I believe mollies get quite big. And also, 'sucker' fish are usually some sort of catfish, and catfish cannot tolerate salt and the mollies love it. I think you may have a couple of situations on your hands Welcome to the forum!

 

[2mollies]

the fish have been in about a week and a half and have been fine until today. I had the tank running about 24 hours before i added the fish. the sucker fish dosen't seem to mind the salt, and i haven't tested the water, it looks very clean but i guess there's more to it than just looks. is there a kit you suggest?

 

[2mollies]

also why would one molly be doing this and not the other

 

[wuvmybetta]

Yes, you'll need a test kit for ammonia & nitrite most importantly. Right now your tank is going through an ammonia spike. This means the fish waste is building up and breaking down and turning into ammonia. Here's an article that explains a cycle completely http/fish.orbust.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=10099

ammonia is harmful to fish, but after a tank completes it's cycle, it becomes self maintaining with the weekly partial water changes. Meaning as soon as a fish pees or poops,the beneficial bacteria you've grown in your tank immediately feeds off of it. You can easily crash a cycled tank by adding too many fish at once, the already established bacteria can't keep up with the waste and it goes into a mini cycle, this isnt the case in your situation.

So right now, you're going to have to do near daily water changes to keep your fish alive. At least remove 20% and replace it with clean dechlorinated water. It may look very clean, it's the harmful poisons that are building up, that you can't see, that are stressing your fish.

It is odd that only one mollie is showing stress, maybe the other just has a stronger immune system. Or perhaps being picked on in addition to the water quality has stressed him even more.

 

[2mollies]

well our molly died today. she was doing a little better but when we found her her face was colored a blackish gray, she was a albino molly. why was this?