Dead Mollies

Jim, how are things going? Hope things are improving. Let us know, when you can.
 
Right now everything is okay for the most part. The levels are perfectly fine, although pH is still low it's been constant with no fluctuation. The gold tetras are acting perfectly fine while the other variata is a little lethargic, but he seems fine for the most part. He's not showing any erratic or unusual behavior. I was looking at pictures of colu...whatever it is online and what my fish had didn't look like that, so hopefully it wasn't anything that bad. I'm still continuing treatment though!

I think you misunderstood my question about the plants. What I meant was should I take them out completely during the treatment? I know they can absorb the bacteria and recontaminate things later, at least that's what I read. I'm not too attached to the plants, and I'd rather toss them then risk getting my fishies sick again. Also, when I do place the filter back in when treatment is complete do I get a new filter or use the same one? Wouldn't that be contaminated.

Thanks again for all your help.
 
The variata is a platy. It will do best in relatively hard water with a pH well over 7.0. If it is surviving in your soft, low pH water, it is doing very well for a platy. The only part of the filter that needs to come out for a treatment is the carbon. The rest of the filter should be left functioning to keep the nitrogen cycle working in the tank. If you completely replace filter media, you will need to start the nitrogen cycling process over again from the beginning. You may need to do a fresh cycle anyway if the maracyn manages to kill off the beneficial bacteria in your filter. Keep an eye on your ammonia levels during the treatment just in case the filter is killed by the medication.
 
JimTurntable said:
I know the ph is low, but how I can I rasie it without using chemicals? I heard those are bad for the fish.
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Crushed corals, crushed oyster shells, aragonite, limestone and marble chips.
 
JimTurntable said:
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!
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Not all fish illness is visible. In fact most illness is only visible in it's finale stages. You should always quarantine new fish before adding them to the main population.
I would get the API freshwater master test kit. The strips really are inaccurate. Test your water for 3 weeks. If the Ammonia, and Nitrite are 0 for all of these readings, you should see nitrate readings ( since you say you don't have any you have probably stopped the cycle in it's second stage Nitrite) . A cycled tank must have nitrates present to sustain the cycle. That being said you still need to keep nitrates below 40 ppm, preferable 5.0 to 10.0.
Get new fish and quarantine them for 2 weeks. Just to rule out any problems with the fish that my have come from the LFS tank.
Make sure the readings in the tank and the readings in quarantine are as close to each other as possible. IE: Ammonia, Nitrite, and most importantly Nitrate, and Temperature. You may also want to test the PH just to see if there is a difference. The way to make the readings match is to find out which has the higher Nitrate, and do a water change on this tank one quarter cup to a half a cup at a time until they match. Once all reading match move the fish. This is the best way to rule out problems with new fish. If you do all of this and you still lose the fish I would guess that your Mollies need water that is more brackish (higher in salinity).
 
Hang in there Jim. You do need something to help buffer the water. Lupester's suggestions are right on the mark. I got some cuttlebone, like for a parakeet, and put in my tank and that has helped stabilize my ph.

I was having the ph steadily drop in between water changes, heading down to 6.8. I have also added some limestone, a small piece, since I have a 10 gallon. My ph stays around 7.6 to 7.8 now.

I'm not sure about the plant question. I think someone else can give a more knowledgeable and accurate opinion on that one.
 
Platys are naturally found in all sorts of waters from moderately soft to hard; in any event it's the hardness which matters to them, not the pH. It's a sign of the poor breeding in many aquarium strains that they can't manage in moderately soft water.
 
Things are going fine, the platy looks good and the gold tetras are still acting like nothing has happened at all. Today was the last day of the medicine and tomorrow I'm putting the filter back in and disinfecting all my buckets, nets and syphons. I'll just keep up with water changes and hopefully things will be fine. I'm going to wait until the middle of May to get new fish in there.

Thanks everyone for your help.
 
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