Dalmtion Molly Acting Strange

[patel]

Hi,

I am not sure if this is an emergency "yet" or not but since we are newbies and I do not want to wait too long or take any chances, I am posting this here.

We got a new aquarium last week for our kids and it is barely 10 days now. It is a 5 gallon aquarium and we put only two fish to start up - one for each of them.

One is an orange swordtail and other is dalmation mollies. We asked for male and the petco rep said she can try the best with the dalmation molly but cannot say for sure if it is male or female.

I also tested the pH two days ago and added the pH adjuster in there.

The Swordtail has been pretty normal and very active - it eats well, moves well and poops well too.

The Dalmation Molly has been strange though. It was not very active and also was eating lesser than the swordfish. It will also hang around the heater a lot. and be steady too much.

This morning, I saw it was stuck under the water pump, which is again right next to the heater.

So, I thought that it may have got sucked there and may be is stuck due to the pump- pulling the water off. I unplugged the pump and shaked it a bit so that the fish can get moved from there.

It moved away from the filter but stayed in the corner of the aquarium next to the heater and is not moving at all. Also, it has been vertical and still all this time since then. I see the gills moving, so I hope it is still alive.

I am not sure what to do and how to treat it. I have seen mixed information saying that it may also be pregnant. Not sure how to take this and how to treat it. Some places it also said that the water may need to be changed but the petco guys told me not to do it for first 3 weeks as it is a new aquarium.

I just remembered too that the pump speed may not be high as we let it at the medium or whatever it came with, May be I can increase the pump speed for better filteration too.

Any ideas on what to do and is this sickness or pregnancy? Either way what is the treatment

 

[patel]

Never mind - I think it is dead now....

 

[KCB]

My immediate advice is to do a huge water change, like 80-90% with dechlorinated and temperature matched water.

Right, I see a couple of problems here:
1) Unfortunately your tank is too small for those species. I would say only a Siamese fighting fish would be happy in there or shrimp. Mollys need around 15 gals according to some of my research.
2) I'm assuming your tank isn't cycled as you've only had it 10 days, unless you put some mature media in the filter first? If it isn't cycled (bacteria has built up in your filter) your fish is probably succumbing to ammonia poisoning which can damage the gills and ultimately lead to death. If you could post some water tests it would help us get a clearer picture of your water conditions.

Your guy from petco is completely wrong and doesn't sound like he knows how to keep fish. You should be changing the water everyday to prevent your fish being poisoned if performing a fish-in cycle.

In this case as your tank is not big enough for those fish, I would return them and cycle the tank without fish (excellent guide here: http/www.fishforum...shless-cycling/) or purchase a bigger tank and then fish-in cycle if you really don't want to return them (a great guide here for fish-in cycling: http/www.fishforum...ish-in-cycling/).

Unfortunately your local fish shop has given you some pretty poor advice and this is a common occurrence in the hobby

.

I'm sorry for your loss and I hope the others pull through ok

.

P.S I forgot to mention that adding a substance to alter pH can cause huge swings which can shock the fish. There are more permanent ways of altering the pH but a lot of species can adjust easily to different pH's so there's no need to add anything.