Sudden Mollie Death

[Lockhaart]

Hi, I've had my tropical tank going for over a year now, and first got 5 mollies and 6 tetra. Recently some of my fish have been dying off, one at a time over a period of a few months. I've lost 2 tetra which I've had from the beginning, 2 mollies and a fish I don't actually remember the name of any more. Last night I checked on them and all were fine, I've had 3 mollies, 3 tetra and 3 orange fish i cant name, a plec sucker fish thing, a snail that's had loads of babies that are happily coming round for the last couple of months. I got up this morning and one of my original mollies, I think was a large sail, was laying on its side dying in the front corner. A few hours later he'd died, his scales were no longer black and he was all ragged, though this may have been from fish nipping him after he'd died when I hadn't seen. He was my favourite fish and showed no sign of anything wrong with him at all, no colour change and he was eating as much as the others. I'm going to check the levels of the PH etc tonight but I just wondered if there was anything anyone could think of that could be causing this? I clean them regularly and the filter is working top notch as I cleaned that only last week properly. I don't want to lose any more fish, and I don't want to add any more until they stop dying.

They all got on well. Though of the 3 mollies I had left, 2 were black and one silver with spots. The silver one is huge, he's grown to about 6cm or over, whereas the other ones haven't grown at all and I was beginning to think something may be up with them. Any ideas would be great

 

[mhancock]

Hi,

Although most fish from LFS are young, with the smaller fish that don't normally grow to more than a couple of inches you've no idea how old the fish are that you are buying. Maybe it was just old age? If your parameters are all good and the other fish are healthy then that may be an explanation, having said that I am by no means an expert!


M