Dead Molly

[Joller]

hello
i came home yesterday to find one of my mollys dead, i looked it over and it had no signs of damage, and it was swimming freely and eating when i left in the morning, it shared a tank with 3 firemouth cichlids and 3 other mollys.

does anyone know what might have caused its death so suddenly?
i had 2 male mollys and 2 female mollys, i did see the other male molly chasing it the other day so i thought that could be why

thanks

 

[Bexx]

Sorry to hear that, How old is she? could it just be one of those things?

What are your water stats? x

 

[Joller]

it was a male that died, is there a male/female ratio that i should use or does it not matter?
ph is about 7.4, and i don't have a hardness testing kit, i do water changes every 3 or 4 days
i would say the water is more on the hard side due to all the shell grit in my substrate, i also have lots of driftwood still leeching tannins if that helps

i've never had a fish so mysteriously die on me, i'd say he was young i only bought them 2 or 3 weeks ago.

 

[OldMan47]

With water on the hard side of things and a decent pH like 7.4, the water should not be a problem for your mollies.
As far as gender ratios, a ratio of 3 or more females to each male is often recommended for mollies but that is to spare the females from too much attention, not for the safety of the males.
The tannins will be driving your total mineral content higher which is seldom a problem for a molly. Common pet shop mollies can tolerate pure salt water, the stuff in marine aquariums, so the little bit of minerals added by some tannins will not bother them at all.
I would keep an eye on the rest of your tank's chemistry. Unless this is a well established mature tank, you may be seeing some ammonia or nitrites in the water. Either chemical can be deadly in very low concentrations.