Please Help! Why do my Mollies keep dying..but other fish are fine?

Question

Please help! I have a 20 gallon aquarium, ive had it for almost two weeks now. I tired putting mollies in my tank three times..i went throught nine mollies (dalmation and ballon) but they all died. I took my water to the pet store, and they said the nitrates and ammonia were at 0 (obviously..it was brand new) and the ph was 7.0....just fine. I keep the temp between 78-80 degrees. I use water conditioner, and added aquarium salt. The pet store told me to get some Buenos Ares Tetras, and if they died, they knew something was very wrong. The tetras have been dong great for a week now, as are my live plants and my algae eater whom i have had since the beginning (he is the only survivor!)

Today, I bought mollies again i hopes that I could have one last shot with them...however, the male dalmation seems to already be dying :( For the last 6 hours he has been just sitting on the bottom of the tank, barely moving, and not eating. What's wrong? :( He has no spots...so its not Ich. PLX HELP!

Thank you all. For further info...I floated the mollies for 30 minutes in the bag. I have a air stone to give more oxygen, I've cleaned the filter, and its def. not Ich from what ive read. Right now, its only one Molly who i feel is dying...I feeli like the water is okay because everything else is doing good, with the exception of these mollies. Should I just not get livebears and stick to egg-layers? Are livebearers more difficult to take care of? Also, the aquarium salt wont hurt the tetras, will it?

Answer 1

try buying mollies from a different store. sounds like your water is fine. if you have driftwood in your tank, that could hurt mollies because they like hard water. add some seashells to make the water harder. take the driftwood out cause that makes it softer.

EDIT: i have a feeling it's a bad batch of mollies, since they're normally very hardy fish. sounds like you're well educated about fish maintenance so i wouldn't give up on them. theyre very interesting fish to care for.

Tetras can handle the normal amount of kosher salt, 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons. hope this helps.

Answer 2

Mollies and tetras have differing water needs, so what your store told you wan't that accurate of a test. While tetras like soft acidic water, mollies like the water on the hard side - that is, with a higher content of dissolved minerals like calcium and magnesium. They also prefer to have some salt added to their water - about a Tablespoon for every 5 gallons of water. The same is true for all livebearers. I didn't know about that until I was told by a guppy breeder, and since I started using it, it's cut the losses in my livebearers. You can use aquarium salt from the pet store, but canning, kosher, or rock salt from the supermarket is the same thing, and costs less. Just don't use salt with iodine added.

Also, make sure you're acclimating the mollies properly by letting their bags float for 15 minutes to equalize the temperature, then opening the bag and pouring out about 1/4 of the water (down a drain, never into your tank!) and replacing it with water from your tank. Wait for about 5-10 minutes so your fish gets used to any changes in the water chemistry. Do this about 4 times in all, then net the fish to add it to your tank.

Also, did your stor test for nitrites as well as ammonia and nitrate? Nitrite is an intermediate product. Since your tank is new, it should have ammonia within the first few days of adding fish, followed by nitrite. Both products are toxic to your fish, but will be converted to nitrate by bacteria once enough time has elapsed for it to become established. But this process can take 3-6 weeks, so it's a good idea to have your water tested frequently (2 times a week at least) to be sure the levels of ammonia and nitrite aren't too high for the fish. Partial water changes of 15% twice a week or 25% once a week also help, as does not overfeeding (only give what the fish can eat in 2-3 minutes, twice a day).

If you do have nitrite in the tank, the salt also helps alleviate nitrite poisoning.

Answer 3

The problem could be numerous things, but one main issue is it sounds like you are trying to add too many fish at the same time. The 'good bacteria' in your aquarium isnt established after two weeks. Try slowing down and adding one or two fish every couple of weeks. And brush up on your aquarium knowledge. Google it girl. There is sooo much to know about different requirements for different fish, pH, the bacteria stages, nirites, nitrates, salt content(even in a freshwater tank), light quality and duration, etc....

Answer 4

Make sure you give the fish plenty of time in the store bag to adjust to your tank temp. Let the bag float on the water for at least 20 minutes. Then when you transfer them, DO NOT ADD THE BAG WATER TO YOUR TANK. You probably already tried this but it's all I can think of. Oh do you have an air pump?

Answer 5

I even have had many tropical fish tanks the main needed element approximately fish tanks are the filtration equipment. i like the bio wheel filtration equipment and one element that makes my tanks sucessful is that I consistently get a clear out equipment it relatively is designed for slightly greater advantageous tank. I consistently stored my tanks between seventy two-seventy 5 once you commence hitting the 80 mark you have alot of problems with algee yet that leads me to the subsequent significant element that i think of all tanks desire and that's a Placostamus (backside eater) in addition they help shop up with the mollie pooh. I even have fish stay for 4 and 5 years. good success........playstation in case you could run a gravel clear out alongside with a bio wheel set-up you have not any ploblems.

Answer 6

are these mollies all from the same store? they may have ick, a common disease among fish. signs would be scaley skin and twitching. I had a bad batch of mollies this happened to a few years ago. I would research ick. i know there are cures for it but it is also contagous so im not sure if this would be the problem. Just a thought!

Answer 7

I have mollies, and one recently die, and found my giant plecastomus basically eating it!!!
Just wanted to tell you, in case you have a big pleco!!!