I recently had one of my mollies in my tank die. I tested the water and it is in the ideal ranges. The molly had no symptoms of disease, I just found it dead one morning. Now my dwarf gourami is acting strange. He barely swims and lays on the bottom on a slanted angle. I he sees you come near he will start to swim again and swims fine. All of my other fish seem fine. Is there something wrong that could be undetectable in my tank?
fish dying??
- Thread starter vgeorge
- Start date
Could you give us exact numbers on the ideal ranges? How long has the tank had fish in it? Any recent additions? do anything maintainance related recently (switch out filter media, water change......)
First aid with any problem is always a water change (done correctly they never hurt and can only help)
First aid with any problem is always a water change (done correctly they never hurt and can only help)
dwarf gourami's are tricky characters that need ultra-clean water. That doesn't suprise me that he is acting strange. the molly however is normally a hardy fish and can be kept fairly easily as long as water conditions are favorable. Mollies do not require salt but generally do better with salt. They can even be kept in a full marine environment and actually seem to do very well. I recommend keeping about a tablespoon of salt per 10 gallons of water. I use the generic store brand non-iodized salt(no iodide included, however it reads). Some fish need the iodized but mollies don't. As for other problems, like mooman said, post some numbers and the other info suggested for more help.
vgeorge --
Contrary to what another user has posted, "domestic" mollies do not need salt in their water. Wild mollies kept in brackish conditions need marine salt, not table salt.
Optimally, domestic mollies require a hard water with a lot of Ca and Mg -- one that is high in TDS -- but not salted water.
I read your other post in regards to softening your water and it is possible that that may be where the problem lies. What exactly are your water paramenters in your tank: pH, KH, GH, NO2, NO3 and NH3/4?
And your tap as well please. Same parameters.
Thanks
Roan
Contrary to what another user has posted, "domestic" mollies do not need salt in their water. Wild mollies kept in brackish conditions need marine salt, not table salt.
Optimally, domestic mollies require a hard water with a lot of Ca and Mg -- one that is high in TDS -- but not salted water.
I read your other post in regards to softening your water and it is possible that that may be where the problem lies. What exactly are your water paramenters in your tank: pH, KH, GH, NO2, NO3 and NH3/4?
And your tap as well please. Same parameters.
Thanks
Roan
One of Mollies was doing the same thing a while back but didn't die. Now one of my Mickey Mouse Platies lies in the rocks and when you get near the tank he will get up and swim off. All of my parameters are good as well. I'm not sure what it could be.
as I, the other poster, said before, it is not required but it DOES help. Mollies develop shimmy fairly easily without salt in the water as a buffer. I used to lose mollies all the time until I started using preventative salt in the water and until I passed all my mollies onto a friend, had no problems with them using some salt.
Yes, they need hard water. I believe (no scientific proof here) the salt somewhat serves as a substitute of the calcium and magnesium and is much cheaper than trying to add those minerals.
Evenso, with the last post, I don't think water hardness or salt is the problem anymore. You've likely got some type of sickness. Do the fish seem to struggle to stay off the bottom? What is the water temperature? Kyle
Yes, they need hard water. I believe (no scientific proof here) the salt somewhat serves as a substitute of the calcium and magnesium and is much cheaper than trying to add those minerals.
Evenso, with the last post, I don't think water hardness or salt is the problem anymore. You've likely got some type of sickness. Do the fish seem to struggle to stay off the bottom? What is the water temperature? Kyle
Mine don't really struggle to stay off the bottom. I'm not quite sure what the temperature is because the thermometer is hard to read. It seems a little warm though...I'll try lowering the heater.
Here is my tank info:
55 gallon
fish in tank for a year now
nitrate - 30
nitrite - 0
ppm hardness - 120
ppm alkalinity - 180
ph - 7.2
I did a water change about a week and a half ago. I have had problems getting my water in good parameters after having a bunch of fish die last month, and am using a new chemical by aquasafe called easy balance which lets you take more time between water changes and stabilizes water parameters when added once a week. I have crappy tap water, so I am trying to keep my water within these parameters.
In my tank I currently have:
one molly
10 half-grown baby red swordtails
one dwarf gourami
8 zebra danios
3 harlequin rasboras
one pleco
55 gallon
fish in tank for a year now
nitrate - 30
nitrite - 0
ppm hardness - 120
ppm alkalinity - 180
ph - 7.2
I did a water change about a week and a half ago. I have had problems getting my water in good parameters after having a bunch of fish die last month, and am using a new chemical by aquasafe called easy balance which lets you take more time between water changes and stabilizes water parameters when added once a week. I have crappy tap water, so I am trying to keep my water within these parameters.
In my tank I currently have:
one molly
10 half-grown baby red swordtails
one dwarf gourami
8 zebra danios
3 harlequin rasboras
one pleco
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