some problems...

[iheartvw]

hello all!

i have recently started a tank. bought a book, test kits, live plants, biofilter and heater. i started off by purchasing 4 silver mollies. i have been testing my levels everyday (at least once a day) to monitor the cycling of the tank. my ammonia floats between 0 and .25, i have a nitrite level of 0 and a nitrate level between 5 and 10. my pH was 7.6, but i did read that mollies like higher pH so i felt everything was set to add a few more fish. now, i tried to do research, but for as awesome as the information on the internet is, it is also super easy to get some very bad information, which is what happened next. i was looking for some compatable fish for the mollies, and one site listed tetras (which i now know, is NOT the best). i bought a school of 10 cardinal tetras and a golden algae eater. now, i know the pH was high, i found this out, because yesterday one of the tetras died and i wanted to see why. i realized that if i am going to save these fish i need to reduce the pH. this morning i checked out the tank, and i saw one of the mollies lying in the gravel, i thought he was dead. i phoned my husband, and when i returned to the tank, he was swimming around... then the algae eater bumped into him and he was doing barrel rolls, like he couldn't stabalize himself. i also noticed a faint orange coloration around his mouth and above his eyes. i went to the pet store to by the pH reducer and i asked about the fishes symptoms. that was no help. i returned home and my poor molly was dead and so was another tetra. i immediately removed the dead fish, and noticed that the molly had brown/orange spots which i imagine to be an internal bacterial infection.

my questions are:

are the tetra dying because of the high pH?
did the molly infect the whole tank?

TIA

~nicki

 

[FroggyFox]

Hi Nicki, welcome to the hobby and mft

Have you checked your ammonia and nitrite again?? I'm guessing that your tank has not been set up long enough for it to cycle, it was just beginning to cycle with the mollies in it. By adding more fish (esp fragile ones like those you added) you'll be kicking that cycle into high gear and probably overloading the tank...so you'll be seeing a spike in ammonia, followed by a spike in nitrites.

You'll read in here that we don't advocate messing with your pH at all. Reason being, is that tank bred fish are not really sensitive to pH levels and will do well at whatever your tap water pH is, as long as it is stable. Adding product to change the pH causes the pH to become unstable and fish do not do well with that at all.

As for why tetras would be dying, they're cardinal tetras. They're well known for being fragile and susceptible to all kinds of things. They have to have very good water quality and its best to add them to an established tank.

The molly could very well have infected the tank with something, but chances are good that it came from the new fish you added. Whenever a fish dies or is sick it stresses the whole tank out...so whatever you do, don't go buy more fish.

For an action plan right now I'd do a good size water change to stabilize the pH and make sure your ammonia/nitrite are low enough. Then monitor your ammonia/nitrite levels.

 

[iheartvw]

thanks for the advice!

i had checked the ammonia and nitrite levels this morning, those were the read outs... i'll check it again and see if anything has changed... in addition i'll do a 15 to 20% water change or more if the levels are too high... i'll post back when i find out

 

[iheartvw]

i did check all the levels and everything is still within tolerable ranges (pH 7.6, ammonia 0-.25, nitrite 0). another tetra died, so total lost are one molly and 3 tetras.

 

[MissFishy]

I missed what size tank this is? It sounds like an awful lot of fish for a beginner to start out with. With that many fish, you should have at LEAST a 20 gallon fish tank. It sounds like you've started your tank right. The live plants will definitely help with the water quality. As Froggy said, I wouldn't add any more fish for awhile, possibly even consider returning all those tetras until the tank cycles.

 

[iheartvw]

it's a 50gal. the tetras have adapted themselves and seem to be doing excellent since the deaths. i think i lost the few tetras from shock as i did not properly acclimate them to the tank.

as for the molly, he had been acting funny when we first purchased him, but then he started doing better, but i think the introduction of the tetras caused him to go downhill, but it happened so fast that i was unable to do anything for him. it also may have been from another plant that we added, but it definately had something wrong with it, so it was removed.


we added another pump to the bottom of the tank, to increase circulation and the mollys definately enjoy the new current. the plants are thriving and all my levels have gone to proper levels...

however i know that if i ever start another tank, i will ONLY do fishless cycles to save myself all of these headaches