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Brendanpat
Fish Crazy
Is 24 degrees warm enough?
Mollies
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That's a lot of fish for a 54l (15G) tank.
The fact that he recovered in a bucket is a good indicator that water quality is the most likely issue. I would do a daily 75% water change for at least two weeks. As has already been suggested you should be changing 75% weekly as a routine, but with the stock you have this may need to be more than once a week.
Long term your stocking levels do need to be addressed.
The fact that he recovered in a bucket is a good indicator that water quality is the most likely issue. I would do a daily 75% water change for at least two weeks. As has already been suggested you should be changing 75% weekly as a routine, but with the stock you have this may need to be more than once a week.
Long term your stocking levels do need to be addressed.
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Brendanpat
Fish Crazy
I'll do that . Do you think the corydoras will survive with just 2 of them plus on the fine gravel substrade? Should I get sinking pellets for them ?
What type of cories do you have? The usual advice is at least 6 or at least 10 for the pygmy varieties. However I would not add any fish to this tank so keeping them as they are is the lesser of two ills right now.
There is an additional complicating factor. Cories do much better in soft water and mollies and swords require hard water. It really is not possible to have a single tank that is suitable for both mollies and cories. Can you find out what your water hardness is? THe figure we are looking for is the GH and we need both numbers and units. It may be available on your water provider's website. It would be best to know this before advising further.
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Brendanpat
Fish Crazy
It doesn't say on website. I'll test my water tonight. There corydoras paleatus .the girl in the pet shop said they would go fine with my other fish .but they obviously don't know enough about them like myself
Never believe anything a shop worker tells you. So many of them haven't a clue or don't care. Always research for yourself. This is the best website for researching fish as it is written by experts not just someone who thinks they know. https://www.seriouslyfish.com/knowledge-base/
Corydoras paleatus do get quite big but there will be no problems adding more at a later stage (if that is the route you choose) as they do not have an aggressive bone in their body. With only 2 of them they may hide a lot and be less active than normal. More info on their requirements here https://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/corydoras-paleatus/
Im going to offer my 2 cents here. Your tank is way over stocked. Instead of spending so much time on water changes and tests and fixing sick stressed fish reduce your stocking levels. See if the fish store will take the corydora back and any other fish you can take back to reduce your numbers. Mollies and platys andxsword tails can get pretty big and they poop alot creating a lot of waste. A 15 gallon im my opinion is too small for mollies and swordtails. Stick with guppies, depending on your water.
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Brendanpat
Fish Crazy
Thanks for the advice . I have 3 guppies 2 ancistrus and 1 endlers livebearer. That's 6 tiny fish . 1 swordtail 2 Cory's and 3 mollies . Surely my tank can support these ?
I'm afraid not. Mollies need a tank that is 3' long. Swordatils need 4'. My ancistrus (mine is a common bristlenose) is 8" long.
Lemme show you how big mollies can get.
That's an adult guppy above them, for scale, and an adult platy below. Have three of these dudes in a 55 gallon community tank, and believe me, they use the whole tank. Check out the size of the adult gold dust molly behind them. The large black/blue mollies are at least five years old, and they're huge, voracious, and good swimmers, and aren't even as large as mollies have been recorded to get. Swordtails get even bigger.
It's like keeping you in a small ish bedroom for the rest of your natural life. Sure, you'll survive, but you can't go out and stretch your legs, or get any exercise.
Oh, and because mollies are mollies, they will eat as much as they can get, including any algae they find in the tank. Lots of food means plenty of poop, which can quickly give you ammonia spikes if you slack on water changes for even a week. And that's not even counting all the other fish you have in there.
It's easy to get excited as a beginner and want to stock your tank with as many fish, and as much variety as you can. But you have to consider the whole lifetime of the fish, and whether your tank is really big enough for their entire lifetime. It isn't, I'm sorry.
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Brendanpat
Fish Crazy
Maybe it's not ancistrus I have these 2 are about 1 " long and spend there time sucking on the glass or plants the mollies and swordtail wouldn't be much more than 2 " at the moment?
If you post a photo, people can ID them for you.
Even if the mollies and swordtail are small right now, you know they won't take long to grow, right?
My bristlenose was less than 1/4" when I got him
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Brendanpat
Fish Crazy
No didn't realise they grow much . I'll but up some photos later
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