Molly Fish Shaking

[airbusa1]

Hi, my black sail fin molly has started to shake a bit and he has done it since two days ago. It is just constant waging/shimmying from side to side like he is swimming but on one spot it might be that he wants to mate because he is obsessed with the female but he gets pushed aside by the other sail fin every time he gets near a female. He has a whitish/grey film all over his body but i dont think it is ick or anything like that because he had it for months now and it has come and gone all the time with no trouble it might be injuries from fighting with the other male.

Any ideas?
thanks.

 

[OldMan47]

Shimmy is a common symptom among mollies that are living in less than ideal water conditions. Although you may have matched every factor commonly used to define your water, such as pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, the fish are still being stressed. OK, so what is the problem? It is simple and easy to cure once you understand it. Mollies need a fairly high mineral content in their water. Many, perhaps all, general fish care books will recommend water that is neutral or even slightly acidic in terms of pH and that is soft. Mollies are not "typical" in that respect. Mine thrive in a pH of 7.8 in my uber hard tap water. They demand a premium at local fish club sales because they look so good. It has nothing to do with me and instead has everything to do with my tap water. If you have pet shop mollies that are experiencing a shimmy, try adding almost anything that will drive the pH and mineral content of your water higher. Sodium bicarbonate will both move pH and mineral content. Salt will move just mineral content. Other common water chemicals each also have their own impacts. Sea salt, the stuff used by people who have reef tanks, will add both pH raising chemicals and obviously add to the mineral content of water.
If you have only pet shop mollies in a tank, it is even safe to set up as reef tank chemistry in their tank. The mollies will be fine with that much mineral content in their water while the same chemistry would kill most fresh water fish. The only weakness common mollies seem to have is not to pH or similar items, but a lack of ability to cope with pure water, water with low mineral content.

 

[airbusa1]

thank you

 

[pingu1997]

Hi, sorry to crash an old thread but hoping oldman47 will be reading.....
I have a molly shimmying too, in a large tank with non-shaking mollies, guppies, platys and cardinal tetra as tank mates. The tank is about 7 months old and the water stats (nitrite, ammonia etc) all OK every time I test. We live in an area with natually high PH.
I have read about needing to improve mineral content.
I would like to know exactly what I can do to improve my tank for the mollies, without harming the other fish?

ps my kids call the molly *Shaky* because that's what she does, especially in the afternoons and evenings, and her tail goes thin and she hangs around near the bottom. Has been behaving like this on and off for months...if she was a human I expect she would be telling me she is fed up?

thanks for any help

 

[OldMan47]

I have no idea what to tell you Pingu. If other mollies are fine in your water, it may be that the one particular molly is just a bit less adaptable than its tank mates. Common mollies are what is called euryhaline, which means they adapt well to variations in mineral content of their water. As with any animal, some are more adaptable than others. If your water has just enough minerals for your other mollies, it may be the one you see affected is simply not quite as adaptable. You could try adding a bit of crushed coral or crushed shell to your filter and see what the result is. You will see a rise in the GH of the water along with a rise in pH but your other fish may tolerate the change well and Shaky my start acting better. The fish I would be concerned with is the cardinals. I find that cardinals do OK in my water but they never do well enough to breed in my tanks. To get things like cardinals into good breeding conditions I would need to dilute my tap water to half or less of its natural mineral content.

 

[tropicalfish16]

Hi, my black sail fin molly has started to shake a bit and he has done it since two days ago. It is just constant waging/shimmying from side to side like he is swimming but on one spot it might be that he wants to mate because he is obsessed with the female but he gets pushed aside by the other sail fin every time he gets near a female. He has a whitish/grey film all over his body but i dont think it is ick or anything like that because he had it for months now and it has come and gone all the time with no trouble it might be injuries from fighting with the other male.

Any ideas?
thanks.

Well I'm not sure exactly what it is, but I do know of a good website to help diagnose your fish. It's www.fishfarmacy.com. There you can easily determine what is wrong with your fish. Although my fish have done that before and usually it comes along with ich. Does your fish have any white spots?

 

[OldMan47]

OK, here we go. I followed your link and found a commercial site devoted to fish farming TF16. It did not immediately help me in any way determine anything about any fish problem, much less the one that is the present concern.

 

[hillbilly]

LOL. I think TF16 left a "y" out of his URL. I think he meant www.fishyfarmacy.com.

 

[Kimdeyal]

Can someone tell me the correct amount of sodium bicarbonate to add to a 20 gallon tank to correct the pH for the mollies? We just got a tank and 9 mollies/platys four days ago. One died today and now another one is doing the shaking thing. It's neutral right now. I know this is an old thread.

 

[Colin_T]

You would be better off starting a new thread. However, since we are here, there is no formula for adding bicarb to a tank because there are too many variables including exact amount of water, pH, GH, KH, how much food is going into the tank, how often you do water changes, etc.

If you have livebearers like mollies you can add some Rift Lake Conditioner (designed for African Rift Lake cichlids) at a lower dose to raise the general hardness (GH), carbonate hardness (KH) and pH. You need to take a glass full of your tank water to a petshop and have them check GH and write the results down so you can post them on here. Then get a container of Rift Lake Conditioner (in powder form) and add a bit to increase the hardness.

You only want to raise the hardness a bit every few days, and you want to get the general hardness up to 300ppm (about 16 degrees on the German scale).

 

[Byron]

I agree with Colin on the new thread, and also on increasing hardness. Another option for the latter is to use a calcareous substrate; a sand intended for rift lake cichlid tanks is what you want. Do not get a sand for marine tanks, it will have salt. [Salt is not so bad for mollies, but if you wanted other livebearers this could be a problem.] Of course, we are assuming you only have mollies (or livebearers) in this tank; soft water fish will not do well with increasing hardness.

 

[Kimdeyal]

Thank you. We lost another fish overnight so now I'm very worried. I will get the water tested asap. Wish it wasn't the middle of the week. I did further reading in the threads last night and I'm pretty sure all the fish are showing various signs of stress. After I get the results, I'll start a new thread.

 

[Colin_T]

Stop feeding the fish for a couple of days.
Do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean. Make sure any new water going into the tank is free of chlorine/ chloramine.
Post some pictures of the fish in a new thread so we can see if they have any diseases.

If you have an ammonia, nitrite and pH test kit, test the tank water before the water change, and post the results. If you don't have the test kits then take a glass full of tank water to the petshop and get them to check the ammonia, nitrite, pH and GH and write the results down and post them here.
If the petshop says the water is good, get them to write the results down anyway. We want numbers.

 

[Kimdeyal]

I'm at the pet store, the only one close to me is PetSmart, and they have something called proper pH 8.2 by API. I'm also getting the full test kit as I didn't have the water with me and I want to be able to test on my own in the future anyway. Is the proper pH stuff something that would work if after testing I need to add hardened? The only other thing they have is aquarium salt. When I get home I'll test and start a new thread.

 

[Byron]

I'm at the pet store, the only one close to me is PetSmart, and they have something called proper pH 8.2 by API. I'm also getting the full test kit as I didn't have the water with me and I want to be able to test on my own in the future anyway. Is the proper pH stuff something that would work if after testing I need to add hardened? The only other thing they have is aquarium salt. When I get home I'll test and start a new thread.

NO. You do not want Proper pH or anything similar. It is too complicated to explain here, but I will later.

You want a test kit for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH. The API Master Combo has these four, if they have that in stock. We need to know the GH and KH of your source water; you could get a kit (the API liquid test GH/KH is good) but this is not really necessary; you should be able to ascertain the GH and KH from your water authority. We need to know what it is in your tap water.

The hardness/pH may be an issue here, but it may also be an issue of cycling, now that I read your first post again. If this tank is only a week or two old, cycling is probably an issue. The test kits will allow you to test for this. And daily partial water changes may be needed. A conditioner like Seachem's Prime is helpful as it detoxifies ammonia and nitrite temporarily. Will explain this later too.

Salt is not of much use, it is not "hardness." Can't hurt to have it on hand though, regular aquarium salt.