Help! All My Fish Are Fighting :(

[Fish_Girl]

i only got my first fish last monday-3 balloon mollies and 3 honey gourami. they are all being kept in a 54 litre tank(juwel rekord 60). up until today everything has been absolutely fine. OHs Dad came here on friday and tested the water etc and said how good and lively they all looked.

however, this evening they have all been fighting amoungst themselves the 3 mollies keep chasing each other and the little black one and another one(i think both are males but im not sure) had a fight earlier. the same bigger mollie has even been chasing the gourami!! and the gourami are also chasing and attacking each other-although i think its mainly one thats attacking the other two

i just dont get it, up until today the only slightly fiesty one has been the bigger mollie and he has been mostly chasing what i assume is the female why on earth are they doing this??

the fiesty one has got what looks like a tiny white spot on his tail fin but other then that i cant see anything on any of the others. could this be the start of them getting sick and thats whats causing them to fight? could it maybe be white spot? if so, is there any paticular treatment i need to get from the fish shop? i have seen treatments for white spot in the fish shop, but is there any brand thats better then another?

please help, they are my first fish and im very very fond of them. i really dont want to have to give any up or lose any

 

[DebraAustin]

I'm not an expert, but my fish get nippy when the water quality is not great. I never let it get really bad, but they let me know when they want fresh water and their home vacuumed.

I can't answer any question on diseases, because I am a newbie, but I would get my own water testing kit and check the water again. Since you just got your first fish and it has been a full week, your water could be getting out of balance. You need to be checking ammonia, nitrates and nitrites daily until your tank stabilizes. I did mine for a full two months after getting my tank filled to capacity. You may have a mini-cycle going on, but without a water testing kit you won't know and checking it once a week or so isn't enough in the beginning. Good luck!

Debra

 

[dwarfgourami]

Does the white spot look like a grain of salt (ich=whitespot disease) or is it more like a white/greyish small area (finrot).

If the former, you should soon see more of them+ should get a medication for ich. You may also want to up the temperature ever so slightly.

If the latter, then that area should soon fall off, you need to keep the water very clean (water changes) and get medication for finrot. Finrot can start because of poor water quality, but can also be brought on by stress or injury.

A partial water change (with dechlorinated water) before you start treating won't hurt in either case. Both finrot and ich are treatable if you catch it quickly enough.

As for the fighting- I'd have a look of sex ratios. If you have 2 males to a female, that is basically bad news both for mollies and gouramis. Mollies, like all livebearers, are sex machines- you need a ratio of 2-3 females per male, to keep the females from being worn out (and the males from getting aggressive with each other). If you kepp males only, you need a bigger group (not really room in your tank) to spread aggression.

Gouramis are less highly sexed, but more territorial, so you can't really keep more than one male in a small tank. Again, a ratio of 2 females per male is good.

In the long run, you might want to exchange a male for a female, but first of course you must ensure they are not carrying a contagious disease, so start by doing a water change, observing the white spot closely and treating accordingly.

As the previous poster stated, aggression also often happens when there is a problem in the tank. In particular, fish are prone to attacking a sick comrade; sometimes before we can see that anything is wrong. It's a defence mechanism- let's get rid of this one before he attracts predators!

 

[Fish_Girl]

thanks for the replies guys. OHs Dad came down a couple of days ago and checked the PH level and Nitrite and said it was all perfect. he said he couldnt see anything wrong with the fish but i know they have been acting differently. he has told us that all we need to test the water is the PH stick and the nitrite test-this doesnt sound right to me though surely they wouldnt sell tests for nitrate and amonia if they wernt needed! he told us that if the nitrite is ok then the others will be too-is this true? bare in mind that he has more or less learnt everything from the stupid fish shop

the one who i noticed the spot on has been rubbing himself off the bridge so i think i will get treatment for white spot. however i cant see the spot on him anymore and cant see anything on anyone else. would it be ok to treat for white spot as a "just incase"?? or could it be something else?

as far as the sex of the fish go im honestly not 100% sure what they are. the gouramis all look completely the same to me! and im only really guessing with the mollies. if i were to try and get some piccies of them i wonder if someone on here could tell me what they are?

id really appreciate your advice on this one guys!

 

[dwarfgourami]

You are right about the testing; it isn't just nitrites and PH. If you read the pinned topic on cycling it will give you a better idea than I can of what's going on in your tank, but I'll give a quick summary:

When fish crap and breathe, they excrete ammonia. This is toxic to them and can cause skin irritation, gill inflammation and, in extreme cases, death.
Eventually, good bacteria will grow in the tank which turns the ammonia into nitrites. Some of these bacteria are always present in the water. When the ammonia from the fish feeds them they will multiply and become many enough to eventually deal with all the ammonia in a not-overstocked tank, but it takes a while.
Nitrites are also toxic, but eventually enough other friendly bacteria will grow to deal with those and turn them into nitrates.
Nitrates are a lot less toxic, and a weekly partial water change will deal with those in an established tank (plants help too but aren't necessary).
It therefore follows that the most dangerous time for your fish is the first month or two before enough bacteria have grown to cope with all the waste. This is where you need to be testing for ammonia and nitrites. During the first week or two ammonia will be the main problem, so essential to test for that. Whenever it reaches toxic levels (I'd say anything over 0.5 ppm to be on the safe side), do a partial water change (replacing with dechlorinated water at tank temperature). Some people may tell you that water changes will slow down your cycle. This is not at all certain, what is certain is that your fish may die without them.
I would not treat for whitespot just-in-case. It is at least as likely that the irritation is from ammonia burns, and medication may actually slow down the growth if bacteria. If you diagnose whitespot- then obviously treat for it, but not until you have. Water changes are the way forward for now. I would do a 50% today, then 20% every day until those readings stay down.
And don't trust to OHs Dad; get your own liquid test kit. I know this seems like an unforeseen expense- but it will save you in replaced fish! Which reminds me- don't buy any more fish now, probably not for the next few months, and then you need to review your stocking situation first.
As for the sexing, mollies like most livebearers are dead easy: look at the anal fin (the one under their bottoms). Females have a normal fan-shaped fin-looking fin; males have a rod-like contraption (actually acts as a primitive willy).
Honey gouramis can be trickier, but if they are very bright in colour they are probably males. Actually, why not ask in the anantaboids forum about this- they know their gouramis in there!

 

[Fish_Girl]

Thankyou for your reply-it was really informative!

i will get my own test kit over the next couple of days then and see whats what. il also read up on how to do water changes etc and will do this over the next couple of days also. i feel quite bad as i usually research BEFORE getting a new pet. i guess this time i was just trusting my OHs Dad, until i found this forum!!

i had another look at my mollies-im pretty sure that atleast one is male, and one is female-but im not sure about the other one im tempted to get another mollie-but make sure its a female. do you think this would be wise? or would it be better to wait a month or so like you said? they are still being agressive towards each other but have not caused any harm to each other at all. they are not like this constantly, and are sometimes pretty calm with each other. infact-feeding time is one of the calmest times!!

i was in the lfs today, and was looking at the mollies and some of them had black spots on them dont suppose anyone knows what that is? i dont think it was a marking on the fish as they were identical to mine apart from the odd black spot on them

as far as my gouramis go, ive been looking very closely at them and honestly cant see a difference in them at all!! they didnt even have any in the lfs today for me to compare them too so im rather stuck with those!

thanks again, and i will be sure to udpate as soon as ive done the tests etc