Molly Not Acting Right, Think She Might Die :(

[Nytae]

Past two days or so she's been in the bottom of the tank, not venturing out at all. Staying behind the same plant. There are two male mollies in the tank also and they've been swimming around as normal. Since she started hiding and I noticed it, I've had the aquarium light turned off to help not to stress her out. She stays in one spot, moves a bit from side to side, sometimes has her anal fin and top fin contracted to her body (sorry don't know how else to put it, you can see in one of the pictres). She's eating okay, only time she comes out of that space is to eat, and she's pooping as well. Neither of the male mollies are really bothering her, just swim past her and ''nudge'' her every now and again but they don't chase her around, they chase each other around but so far no seirous foul play is going on.

Please can someone advise me on what to do, I do not have another tank I can set her into, I'm just about to get one and some gravel and things plants and stuff to put in.

Water is fine just tested it and nitrate is at 0ppm

I think these are new spots coming out

Her fins 'contracted'

Please help, I don't want Perdy to die

 

[mtbdean]

How long has the tank been setup, and how often do you do water changes?

 

[Nytae]

She's been in for a week, I cycled the water for 8 weeks then added 5 danios. Week and a half later I added those three mollies.


As I have an open top tank, the water evapourates so I end up topping about 10% up twice a week, but then I do a 20% full water change every sunday.

 

[fluttermoth]

How long has the tank been setup, and how often do you do water changes?

Yes, we could do with that info if we're to help. Also, size of tank, filtration and other tankmates.

It would be very, very unusual to have zero nitrates in a tank. What tests are you using and what were the other results (pH, ammonia, nitrite)?

Incidentally, that green and white striped plant is not aquatic and you should take it out as it'll just rot in your tank; make a lovely houseplant though.

 

[Nytae]

How long has the tank been setup, and how often do you do water changes?

Yes, we could do with that info if we're to help. Also, size of tank, filtration and other tankmates.

It would be very, very unusual to have zero nitrates in a tank. What tests are you using and what were the other results (pH, ammonia, nitrite)?

Incidentally, that green and white striped plant is not aquatic and you should take it out as it'll just rot in your tank; make a lovely houseplant though.

Sorry. 100 litres, I have an AquaOne underwater Filter/Pump doo dahh

Was also looking at the chlorine results, d'oh!
ph 7.2
ammonia 0
nitrite 0.25



I'm not having much luck with plants. First three I got from pets at home, I wanted three specific plants which they said they ran out of, so they bundled me up three that will go well in my tank. All rotted. So I did more research and went to my LFS to ask for these, I wanted a big Java Fern, they didn't have any but assured me this one will go fine in the tank... And only to find out now that it's not an aquatic plant.

Might as well just get some fake ones!

 

[fluttermoth]

Nitrite should really be zero, so you'll want to do a large water change to get that down; could be the source of your problem.

Keep a close eye on those levels (test every day) as they probably indicate that your tank's not properly cycled; how did you cycle it? Were you adding ammonia?

 

[Nytae]

Nitrite should really be zero, so you'll want to do a large water change to get that down; could be the source of your problem.

Keep a close eye on those levels (test every day) as they probably indicate that your tank's not properly cycled; how did you cycle it? Were you adding ammonia?

Will do a big water change, would 50% be good enough?

Oh tankmates are: 2 other dalmation mollies, 2 silver sharks, 5 zebra and spotted danios.

I used household ammonia, fish flakes and mature filter from another well established healthy tank.

 

[fluttermoth]

Yes, it should be, but test again afterwards to make sure the nitrite is gone.

I ought to warn you that you need to either re-home the sliver sharks or look at getting a much larger tank (something like a 5x2x2' minimum) as they can grow to a foot long and need to be kept in shoals of 6+.

 

[Nytae]

Yes, it should be, but test again afterwards to make sure the nitrite is gone.

I ought to warn you that you need to either re-home the sliver sharks or look at getting a much larger tank (something like a 5x2x2' minimum) as they can grow to a foot long and need to be kept in shoals of 6+.

I swear, I'm going to have to find a better fish shop. I remember the conversation vividly.

"Will they be okay being house in a 100litre community tank"
"Oh yes of course you are best off getting two not one, they only grow about 8cm the most"
"Thought they'd have been bigger than that from what I read on the internet"
"You might've been reading about different sharks as these won't grow much bigger than 8cm."


One has doubled in size already, the other one isn't growing as much. The big one is called Shrek and the other Fiona.

The only problem I have is that there's only one aquarium centre near me, the next one is over an hour away and I don't fancy taking fish on an hour long journey in a car. There's another store closer, Pets at Home, but the less said about them the better.

Thank you for telling me, feel a bit stupid now. You must get it all the time people getting fish with having no clue what they need, I did do a lot of reading though and still got it wrong

 

[Hermithall]

Don't worry, any fishkeeper who says they've never made mistakes is a liar! I never had much luck with mollies as a beginner in my first tank until I started adding a bit of salt to the water then lo and behold they thrived. A teaspoon of sodium chloride (table salt) per gallon worked wonders for me. Salting water might be contentious issue on here, but just saying what worked for me and here's an article to explain the whole mollie/salinity issue better than I ever could http/www.wetwebmedia.com/fwsubwebindex/mollies.htm

 

[Nytae]

I was actually looking at the salt with mollies, but as I'm not totally sure how much it'll affect my other fish I haven't added any in.

 

[Nytae]

Okay done a 50% water change, nitrite is zero. I'll keep testing it everyday, and I'll keep the light off. Thanks for your replies guys

 

[colleen0309]

If you are going to use salt for your mollies, don't use table salt. It contains iodine. Use aquarium salt. At the very least, use canning salt. Not the best idea, but better than table salt. IMO mollies do better in brackish water.