Dead Mollies

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JimTurntable

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Mar 25, 2009
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I've had a 29 gallon for about a month and after the first week I bloodfin tetras in it (didn't know about fishless cylcing at the time). Then the following week I put four gold tetras in. Everything was fine until last week I put in 2 mollies. Now seven days later both are dead. All the other fish are fine though! What did I do wrong?

Nitrates, ph and amonina levels are all fine. The temp is about 78. I've been doing weekly water changes as well. Help?
 

mel_20_20

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Sep 1, 2008
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Could you give the readings please: ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph, type of filtration, type of water conditioner, amount of water removed and replaced on your weekly water changes.

Also, very importantly, what type of test kit do you use? Strips or a liquid test kit?

That will help us start to figure things out. There may have been something wrong with the mollies already, and tank conditions may have been a factor, but if you could give us the info above it will help.
 

JimTurntable

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Mar 25, 2009
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Ammonia is near zero, as is nitrates. ph was around 6.5, hardness was around 0-80. I don't use a water conditioner, water removed was around 10 percent a change. I use test strips.

Regardless of the reasons I'm going to stick with tetras for a while, as they seem to be a bit more durable.
 

mcgrady7761

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Aug 29, 2007
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conditioner is a necessity after every water change. then again i usually do a 30% water change every week. and every other week i do a full cleaning
 

OldMan47

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Jan 1, 2008
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My mollies actually do OK with water that is only about 250 ppm hardness but the pH is 7.8 and the tanks are well established.

Stop adding fish to an uncycled tank. You cannot reasonably expect any of them to survive when you have no test kit available and do not do enough water changes to do without one. Your nitrate reading doesn't make any sense with the situation that you have the fish in. My first inclination is to ignore the test strip readings as meaningless.
 

KarlTh

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Feb 15, 2008
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Generally the higher GH the better with mollies. 250ppm usually OK; somewhere less than 80 no way.
 

JimTurntable

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Mar 25, 2009
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Dead Mollies and more

I posted a few days ago about my mollies dying. A quick update:

Since then I've lost three bloodfin tetras as well. Now I have four gold tetras and two Highfin...somethings (the store owner called them Variatas I think - they're bright yellow/gold and about the size of large tetras).

It's a 29 gallon tank that's a month old now, and I've been doing water changes, first every other day and lately every five days, 10-30 percent. Nitrates are at zero and so is ammonia. pH reads around 6.5 to 7.0, alkaline is near zero and hardness close to zero as well according to the test strips. Temperature is around 78-80. There were no signs of ich or worms on the fish when I netting them out. Water is clear and the remaining fish seem to be healthy and moving about fine.

I know I put the fish in the tank to early, I didn't know about fishless cylcing at the time and I'm new to all this. I got the bloofins first and they seemed to be fine during what would have been the worst of the cylcing and I got the mollies last week, nearly 30 days nto the tank's life.

What am I doing wrong? Help!
 

NeonFlux

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Oct 16, 2005
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William
What of nitrite? Your fish may be getting nitrite poisoning due to the fact that the nitrogen cycle has not fully established in your tank to convert

ammonia
-nitrite- into nitrate(harmless).

I recommend doing 50-60% daily water changes, increased aeration, and reduce feedings. Test for nitrite daily (using API Freshwater master test kit, don't get test dips, they are inaccurate)...any small ppm reading of nitrite is still very lethal to fish, so get it really low and always be sure to add water conditioner to your bucket of water before pouring it all in.. or add the conditioner to tank first.

Water change every day until you get readings of nitrate;once you get nitrate, you can go back to your regular water changing schedule. By this point, your fish can live as long as they don't run into infections, always keep up with water changes. To prevent another problem like this, you should stock fish slowly once your nitrogen cycle has completed in your tank. If you add fish too fast, you may get a re-cycle meaning you may have to go over it again

You should read up on cycle

Good luck, Jim

-William



 
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