I didn't see a a thread for dalmation mollies, so hopefully I am putting this on the right site. I added 2 dalmation mollies to my tank yesterday.(one male, one female. I have a 10 gallon tank and in it had one albino catfish, 4 tetras, one rainbow shark(small kind) and a frog. I woke up this morning to find one of the dalmation mollies dead. The one thing I noticed is when I introduced them to the tank, the one that died seemed to just stay at the top of the water, and rarely go into the tank at all. Do you think this is just shock from the new tank it was out in? My wife and I get that feeling like we killed the poor fish. I'm going to the pet store today to get another one and ask them if they know what the problem is. The temp is around 80 in the tank, and for some reason, the tank seems to be getting cloudy the last few days. ( I set it with the original fish about 2 weeks ago, it has a slight akaline of about 7.0. Thanks for any help you can give me.....
dead dalmation mollie
- Thread starter dbracks37
- Start date
(Actually Mollies are livebearers so this would fit in the livebearer thread or the freshwater beginners thread)
Do NOT go get more fish to go into this tank!! I hope you read this before you go to the store. One thing you learn not to do is trust the store for their advice...they'll sell you products up the wazoo only to have all of your fish still die and then you'll be discouraged from the hobby. We want to avoid this!!
Please please read through the site and get an idea of what "cycling" a tank is. It is likely that right now the levels of ammonia in your tank are very high...and the nitrite level is on its way up too. The tank sounds pretty well stocked even for an established cycled tank...
The pH is not important...as long as it stays stable where it is. Using chemicals etc is not advised in most cases. If I were you I would trade in most of your healthy fish for some test kits (ammonia, nitrite and nitrate) and watch your tank. If you don't decide to empty the tank and startover with a fishless cycle, then water changes are needed...a LOT of them...and you'll still probably lose fish. At least 50% a week...if not more, until the cycle is over, which could take a good month to 6 weeks.
As for why your molly died, its probably because it was used to clean water with no ammonia or nitrites at the petstore, and then you brought it home and put it in the tank full of ammonia and nitrites...that on top of the shock of transport and a new tank, it probably just couldn't handle it.
Its normal for new tanks to be cloudy...don't worry about the cloudiness, it should go away. If you want more info about cloudy tanks and what it means/how to deal with it you can do a search on the board (using the search button up top) and look for cloud. There are some good threads about it.
A good place to start is the article in the sticky thread at the top of the freshwater beginners forum!
Welcome to the tank...
Do NOT go get more fish to go into this tank!! I hope you read this before you go to the store. One thing you learn not to do is trust the store for their advice...they'll sell you products up the wazoo only to have all of your fish still die and then you'll be discouraged from the hobby. We want to avoid this!!
Please please read through the site and get an idea of what "cycling" a tank is. It is likely that right now the levels of ammonia in your tank are very high...and the nitrite level is on its way up too. The tank sounds pretty well stocked even for an established cycled tank...
The pH is not important...as long as it stays stable where it is. Using chemicals etc is not advised in most cases. If I were you I would trade in most of your healthy fish for some test kits (ammonia, nitrite and nitrate) and watch your tank. If you don't decide to empty the tank and startover with a fishless cycle, then water changes are needed...a LOT of them...and you'll still probably lose fish. At least 50% a week...if not more, until the cycle is over, which could take a good month to 6 weeks.
As for why your molly died, its probably because it was used to clean water with no ammonia or nitrites at the petstore, and then you brought it home and put it in the tank full of ammonia and nitrites...that on top of the shock of transport and a new tank, it probably just couldn't handle it.
Its normal for new tanks to be cloudy...don't worry about the cloudiness, it should go away. If you want more info about cloudy tanks and what it means/how to deal with it you can do a search on the board (using the search button up top) and look for cloud. There are some good threads about it.
A good place to start is the article in the sticky thread at the top of the freshwater beginners forum!
Welcome to the tank...