Sick molly

[Beth_obrien2424]

My tank is an 180 litre tank. It has been running for over 2 years. I have a filter and a heater. The water temperature is 76F. I have two angelfish, 6 cardinals, 4 guppies and 2 mollys in there.
I change the water one a month, in a 15% water change. I treat the water with aqua safe and I use a vacuum to suck from the substrate when I do a water change.
I did cycle the tank before adding the fish, I have a home test kit that I use to frequently test the water.
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm
pH: 7

I feed the fish a small pinch or two twice a day. I use a mix of king British tropical flakes, micro wafers and frozen blood worms.


Last night I found my male molly lying on the bottom of the tank. I moved him into a breeder box (not an actual one. A bigger homemade one with more room) so that the other fish don’t pick on him. He isn’t moving anyway so he won’t stress over lack of space, he is actually less stressed in there because of being picked on. I put some aquarium salt in the breeder box and he perked up a little and was shuffling along the floor a bit.
Today he looks worse, he is lying on his side and his gills are moving rapidly like he’s gasping.
the rest of my fish are fine. It’s just him.

Please help I don’t know what else to do

 

[Essjay]

The first thing that stands out is your water change regime. Most of us change at least 50% a week. 15% a month is just not enough.

You give your nitrate as zero - is the tank heavily planted? Unless it is, nitrate is very unlikely to be zero with the lack of water changes. What are you using to test for nitrate?


The next question is - how hard is your water? Mollies need hard water and will suffer in water which is not hard enough. You should be able to find your hardness on your water company's website.

 

[Colin_T]

Any chance of a picture and short 30 second video of the fish?
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[Beth_obrien2424]

The first thing that stands out is your water change regime. Most of us change at least 50% a week. 15% a month is just not enough.

You give your nitrate as zero - is the tank heavily planted? Unless it is, nitrate is very unlikely to be zero with the lack of water changes. What are you using to test for nitrate?


The next question is - how hard is your water? Mollies need hard water and will suffer in water which is not hard enough. You should be able to find your hardness on your water company's website.

oh really? I was told to change 25% every month (I pressed the phone button wrong, it’s not 15. I do 25) I didn’t realise you are supposed to do 50 a week.
The nitrite is not completelt 0 but it’s not dark enough to be the next one down so I just say 0. I do have live plants.
I do have hard water