problem with my mollies

Can you get a water testing kit to test your water yourself? They are a little costly, but are extremely well worth getting.

Also, are you able to get ahold of any Tetra Safe Start? That seems to be the starter of choice. Tetra Safe Start will add organisms to your tank that will help your cycle through faster.

As far as temperature goes, 24-28 C is fine. I keep my tank around 27-28 C, but I have warm water fish. Mollies are fine with cold water, but some sicknesses can be cured faster in warmer water. You're probably fine at 24-25 C.

Do you have any aquarium salt in the tank? Mollies can live in fresh water, but they seem to do better with a little salt in there.

Also, I agree with everyone else about how many fish you have in there. He sold you _way_ too many for a tank that size. Usually we assume "one inch of fish per gallon" as the loose, general rule. Mollies will get to be around 1.5-2" each. In an 8.5 gallon tank, that's 4-5 Mollies living comfortably.

You can get away with more, but it's a challenge.

Fish are a challenge to get started in. But once you have learned the basics everything gets better. I promise :)
 
Can you get a water testing kit to test your water yourself? They are a little costly, but are extremely well worth getting.

Also, are you able to get ahold of any Tetra Safe Start? That seems to be the starter of choice. Tetra Safe Start will add organisms to your tank that will help your cycle through faster.

As far as temperature goes, 24-28 C is fine. I keep my tank around 27-28 C, but I have warm water fish. Mollies are fine with cold water, but some sicknesses can be cured faster in warmer water. You're probably fine at 24-25 C.

Do you have any aquarium salt in the tank? Mollies can live in fresh water, but they seem to do better with a little salt in there.

Also, I agree with everyone else about how many fish you have in there. He sold you _way_ too many for a tank that size. Usually we assume "one inch of fish per gallon" as the loose, general rule. Mollies will get to be around 1.5-2" each. In an 8.5 gallon tank, that's 4-5 Mollies living comfortably.

You can get away with more, but it's a challenge.

Fish are a challenge to get started in. But once you have learned the basics everything gets better. I promise :)
the aquarium close by doesnt sell those kits and tetra safe start :mad:. am trying at different places. would post as soon as i get one.
as for aquarium salt , i hope to get today as the shop keeper ran out of stock yesterday. how much should i add for my 8.5 gallon tank?
am planning to get one more small tank and transfer those little ones into them.
 
i have bought an OTC medication for the fungal infection.the label read "treatment duration 24 hours" does that mean one dose is sufficient? i added 1 ml of the violet solution to the tank. and 0.5 ml to my isolation tank. will that be fine?
 
I may be about to get flamed for this...

You have an uncycled tank with too many fish. Offload some of these fish, preferably the mollies since they are harder to care for. The main thing you need to watch for right now is ammonia. Here's a page on platies and what they like, btw.

Since you're in India and probably less likely to run into the brands most of us have in the US, you're better off getting one of the store regulars to help you find stuff you need for your fish. Water tests are probably carried at a farm supply store and your violet stuff may have from there too but was sold in a larger bottle than at the pet store. Hope the fishies feel better soon :)
 
You don't need "aquarium salt". Plain ordinary table salt will do the job, but for mollies marine salt is better, as these are estuarine fish.
 
It has to be non-ionized salt. All Aquarium salt is non-ionized. However you can used "table salt" as long as it is non-ionized.


Not sure what "ionized" means. All salt is composed of ions of chloride and sodium. If you mean "non-iodized", then I'm afraid that's an ancient myth. Iodine in salt is completely harmless to aquarium fish.
 
Not sure what "ionized" means. All salt is composed of ions of chloride and sodium. If you mean "non-iodized", then I'm afraid that's an ancient myth. Iodine in salt is completely harmless to aquarium fish.

The difference is that some table salts have extra additives like iodine. Non-ionized salts have no iodine added to them. That's all I'm getting at.
 
The difference is that some table salts have extra additives like iodine. Non-ionized salts have no iodine added to them. That's all I'm getting at.

The word you're looking for is "non-iodized", not "non-ionized". Not that it matters, as the additives are harmless to fish anyway.
 
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