Balloon Molly Sitting On Bottom Of Tank? Not Happy :-(

[alexpb22]

Hi,

I've just joined this forum as I'm looking for some advice regarding one of my Balloon Mollies.

I have the Fluval Edge tank (I know it's not great), I only have two female balloon mollies in there and they have been there for a few months now.

They were both happy at first although one of them has been a bit aggressive to the other one in that she sometimes chases the other one off but this is only occasionally and so far the fish hasn't been hurt or injured as I have kept a close eye.

However last week I noticed that the smaller one was sitting on the bottom of the tank for a lot of the day. This varied from sitting on the bottom, to sitting on some of the plastic plants, to hovering near the surface. At first I thought that she was "on the way out "but this has been happening for about a week now and often she has times where she is completely normal such as feeding time when she goes beserk eating the food and will then "act normal" for the next couple of hours grazing along the bottom of the tank.

I'm not sure what to do as the other fish seems to be flourishing in the tank and doing incredibly well so I don't think it's anything to do with the water quality.

Has anyone have any ideas as to what it could be as I want to get her back to herself?

Thanks in advance.

 

[techen]

Do you have a testing kit? I recommend you getting one to be 100% sure it's not you're water that's causing it.

Also lack of oxygen can make fish seem less active, Does the water surface have good movement?

The last thing I can think of is if the other molly is still bullying her it could just be tired from all the running away it's done. All worth having a look into.

 

[greenmumma141]

I agree with Techen about testing the water. The master test kit is pricey, but you should look into atleast the ammonia kit.

Balloon mollies are tricky little things. I used to keep one, and I always had problems with one being a bully, and one being picked on/left out of the group. They seem like they want to be in a group, but still always had problems, then when I kept them singly, they seemed unhappy with that too. I know you said you have just the two mollies, but are there any other species of fish in your tank? If you have room, maybe try adding a small school of neons or something once you know your water is okay. That way the bullied one can swim with them, and there will be something else going on in your tank besides just the one molly to get picked on. That might help, but as I said, I always found them to be tricky. GL!!

 

[alexpb22]

Thanks for your replies, I will get a testing kit and look into that side of things and unfortunately due to the nature of the fluval edge tank I doubt there is much movement on the surface of the water unless the filter circulation is enough.

I suspect it may be something to do with the bullying as well though as the other one has been bullyish to her.

I do literally only have the two fish in there. Before them I had a variety of fish (tetras, guppies, platies) but they got white spot quite soon after introducing them and they all died within a week! After leaving it a couple of months I decided to just get the two fish and keep it simple. So far no white spot or any other ilnessess which is good however this one fish clearly isn't happy.

There may be something to be said about adding some more fish, I have seen this alter behaviour for the better with some fish before but as I only have a 20l fluval tank I didn't want to put too many in hence only the two I have now.

If I was to get some neon tetras, how many do you think I can add to the tank without over crowding it?

 

[fluttermoth]

If this is the 23l Edge, then you won't be able to have any more fish. In fact, to be honest, your mollies are really too big for it

The reason your previous fish died will be because your tank (well, technically the filter medium) wasn't 'cycled'; that means it didn't have the good bacteria growing in it to process the fish's wastes.

 

[greenmumma141]

If this is the 23l Edge, then you won't be able to have any more fish. In fact, to be honest, your mollies are really too big for it

The reason your previous fish died will be because your tank (well, technically the filter medium) wasn't 'cycled'; that means it didn't have the good bacteria growing in it to process the fish's wastes.

Agreed. If you didn't have any fish at all in your tank, adding the two might have caused an ammonia spike too. That could even be why one molly turned to bullying the other. High ammonia can cause aggression. I didn't realize your tank was that small, once things are sorted, I would think about rehoming the mollies and getting a very small group of neons or something. Not sure how many (my brain works in gallons hehe), maybe someone else can help with that