Black Molly Isn't In Good Shape

[Polley]

So one of my black mollys recently gave birth, then started hanging around the bottom of my tank. I didn't think anything of it, since my water was pretty clean, I didn't have really any problem with PH, Nitrate/ites or anything like that. However, I was in the process of cycling a new tank and when it finished (I let it run for about 1 1/2 weeks; with filter media, plants from my first tank and even put water from my old tank into the new one during a water change) I began slowly putting my fish in one at a time, over a period of 3 or 4 days.

Now the problem is that it's been about 4 days since I've put my molly in that tank, it barely eats, has lost a ton of weight and hardly moves around. It's got no spots on it so I'm pretty sure it's not a skin infection and I just did a 1/4 change today, even vaccuming the gravel extra thuroughly, just in case.

Any suggestions? If she's just dying in there and there's nothing to be done, I'll put her under some hot water or something and make it quick, but I'd much rather she survived.

 

[glolite]

Some livebearers don't do well after giving birth but have you checked ammonia and nitrite levels in the newly set up tank? The problem here is that if the new tank has been running without fish for 1 1/2 weeks on the media from the established tank, most of the good bacteria will have died off without anything to feed on.

When "cloning" a new tank like this, it is important to add the fish straight away to feed the bio load in the filter. I would test for the above and do another water change if ammonia or nitrite are present (the water does not hold much good bacteria alone) and then add some more media from your established tank.

If you think removing more media from your established tank may upset the balance then simply rinse the media in the new tanks water. This will help to reseed the new filter and help prevent mini cycling.

 

[Polley]

Some livebearers don't do well after giving birth but have you checked ammonia and nitrite levels in the newly set up tank? The problem here is that if the new tank has been running without fish for 1 1/2 weeks on the media from the established tank, most of the good bacteria will have died off without anything to feed on.

When "cloning" a new tank like this, it is important to add the fish straight away to feed the bio load in the filter. I would test for the above and do another water change if ammonia or nitrite are present (the water does not hold much good bacteria alone) and then add some more media from your established tank.

If you think removing more media from your established tank may upset the balance then simply rinse the media in the new tanks water. This will help to reseed the new filter and help prevent mini cycling.

Yes I've checked everything, and all the other fish are doing well. Also, I had added media at a couple different times and even put plants in after a couple days when it was cycling. I even began putting fish in after a couple of days: I started with one molly, then my rasboras a couple days later, then another molly and then finally this last molly, with my snail and plec. All of my other fish are doing fine.

I didn't know that some fish don't do well after giving birth, although it makes sence, since people and other animals don't always do well too (?). I will keep checking on her, although she's not eating at all *is worried*

 

[glolite]

It sounds like you're doing all you can. The only other thing I can think of is to put some aquarium salt in, dissolving it first in some warm aquarium water before adding it to the tank. Aquatonic is good and reasonably priced too. It may give her a boost and will certainly help her immune system to fight off disease. The dosing instructions are on the packet.

 

[Polley]

It sounds like you're doing all you can. The only other thing I can think of is to put some aquarium salt in, dissolving it first in some warm aquarium water before adding it to the tank. Aquatonic is good and reasonably priced too. It may give her a boost and will certainly help her immune system to fight off disease. The dosing instructions are on the packet.

Yeah, thanks I put salt in every time that I do a water change, but I've put a tiny bit more in today. Again, thanks She is looking better this morning than she did yesterday, but she's still skin and bones, barely moving and hardly eating.

 

[Polley]

It sounds like you're doing all you can. The only other thing I can think of is to put some aquarium salt in, dissolving it first in some warm aquarium water before adding it to the tank. Aquatonic is good and reasonably priced too. It may give her a boost and will certainly help her immune system to fight off disease. The dosing instructions are on the packet.

Yeah, thanks I put salt in every time that I do a water change, but I've put a tiny bit more in today. Again, thanks She is looking better this morning than she did yesterday, but she's still skin and bones, barely moving and hardly eating.

Okay, so it's been nearly a week and she's still hanging out at the bottom of the tank, not eating very much and you can tell it's getting harder for her to move around. Now I usually do my water changes at this time of week, but I'm worried that it'll stress her to the point of death. How should I go about doing this?