Random Questions

[This Old Spouse]

Just some random questions I've thought about along the way. Maybe you can help.

1. I have a single male gold dust Molly. Currently he's in my 28g tank with male guppies and various cories. He's single because of his 5 other mates we bought, he killed 3 of them on the way home from the LFS, a fourth died a few days later, and the 5th died during our power outage. Should I get him some other mollies, rehome him, or just leave him be? He occasionally rousts one of the other fish but never enough to do damage.

2. Is there any way to help my trillis with what I think is ammonia burns on their gills? They had a long trip home from the LFS and suffered from too much ammonia buildup in the bag. They're in a nice, clean 55g (perfect stats as of yesterday) and don't seem to be suffereing, but I still worry about their red gills.

3. Do you think a 10g is big enough for 2 fiddler crabs and about 15 female guppies? About 4 of them are still fry.

4. Should I get more serpae and Von Rio tetras?

5. Will pearl gouramis do well in my 55g?

I guess that'll do for now. Anything appreciated!

 

[Athena]

Re 1) - Wow - a killer Molly?? Are you sure? They're not normally that aggressive. Could it have been something else that killed your fish in transit? Maybe lack of oxygen/too high or too low water temp? Shock/stress of being moved? How long were they in the bag for?

I wouldn't brand your molly a killer just yet unless you actually saw him do it. Maybe he's a piranha in disguise LOL.

 

[This Old Spouse]

I know they're not NORMALLY that aggressive, but this one has killed all others. There were pieces of the other mollies in the bag. They were in the bag during the 2-hour trip home.

 

[Crazycat lady]

2 hours? that's a long time. was it a really big bag?

I actually had quite an agressive male dalmation molly, he was always flairing up his dorsal fin and chasing the other fish about nipping them. killed a couple of my females. maybe their is a new strain about like the killer bees in america!

 

[This Old Spouse]

Two hours isn't that long (I have another thread going about this) and we've transported other fish that took this long, etc. and never had an outbreak of cannibalism like that before! Weird. He's actually almost shy now in the tank with about 35-40 male guppies!

And here's another random question ... I got a bunch of assassin snails months ago, but now that I know how NOT to overfeed my fish, and I just switched all my tanks around, what do I feed them?

 

[Caprichoso]

Assassins eat the same food as fish. When I feed my catfish their pellets, my assassin snail gets right in there. I don't think they will eat algae wafer, it has to be some kind of protein food.

As far as your killer Molly, keep it if you just want 1 Molly. Re-home it if you want more. Some peaceful fish can be violent. If those other fish were in pieces we can def assume he's the culprit.

Your tank is fine for Pearl Gourami, but no more than a pair(male and female)

 

[Crazycat lady]

The only think i know about snails ( i just have the small round ones that hitchhiked in with my live plants) is that i really hate them. they put their breeding goop in my filters and clog them up all the time! alo that cherry shrimp love to eat the small ones! xx

i just looked them up as i've never seen one before and saw this on the website x

from http/www.wetwebmedia.com

Diet


Feeding these snails is extremely easy, since both species consume any meaty food they find, including uneaten fish food. To a degree then, they’re scavengers. But for optimal health they will need some food left out specifically for them. Catfish pellets are a good staple, but these could be augmented with calcium-rich fare that will help them build their shells. Wet-frozen brine shrimp, mysis and krill all seem to be very popular. Small pieces of frozen lancefish are also welcomed, especially the more bony bits like the head that fish tend to ignore.

 

[Athena]

I think 2 hours for a group of fish to be in a bag in transit would have been stress enough to kill some off, especially if that male was being a bit nippy with the others having no way of escaping his playfulness. If a fish dies in a tank, the other fish would normally start picking at it, shredding it, eating bits etc. So the fact that you found bits of the dead fish in the bag could simply mean that the fish died of stress and the other fish had begun pulling it apart, eating it.

Maybe the solution for future reference would be to limit how many fish are in each bag - with tiny fish like neons you can put 5/6 in a bag but with molly-sized fish, maybe limit to only 2 per bag to avoid stress by crowding in such a confined space. It may not seem a big deal to us because we're saying "it's only temporary, just a couple of hours in a bag together", but it's surprising how quickly fish can get stressed to such high levels that they can die in an instant.

I also wrap a dark towel around a fish bag when I'm bringing new fish home, as they are calmer in the dark.

Other than that then, yeah, killer mollies must exist LOL

 

[england]

I think 2 hours for a group of fish to be in a bag in transit would have been stress enough to kill some off, especially if that male was being a bit nippy with the others having no way of escaping his playfulness. If a fish dies in a tank, the other fish would normally start picking at it, shredding it, eating bits etc. So the fact that you found bits of the dead fish in the bag could simply mean that the fish died of stress and the other fish had begun pulling it apart, eating it.

Maybe the solution for future reference would be to limit how many fish are in each bag - with tiny fish like neons you can put 5/6 in a bag but with molly-sized fish, maybe limit to only 2 per bag to avoid stress by crowding in such a confined space. It may not seem a big deal to us because we're saying "it's only temporary, just a couple of hours in a bag together", but it's surprising how quickly fish can get stressed to such high levels that they can die in an instant.

I also wrap a dark towel around a fish bag when I'm bringing new fish home, as they are calmer in the dark.

Other than that then, yeah, killer mollies must exist LOL

Agreed with this statement,

As to transporting fish in bags....Crazycat lady, have you ever been to a fish meeting? where they hold auctions for fish, there fish are kept in bags for most of the day, went with another member here to a meet, i was about a 4 hour drive, we got there early,people arrived with fish, i brought some as did the other two members, then we made the long drive back in the evening, all fish survived,

 

[This Old Spouse]

The molly was the culprit. I watched it pick at the remaining live mollies once in the tank. When there was only one male left he'd even chase him around, but not do any real damage. It died as a result of the temperature drop. The gold dust molly is still alive and being nice with the male guppies. Doesn't make much mischief at all any more.

At any rate, all that happened more than 8 months ago. In my OP I was asking opinions on getting him other mollies to play with or finding him a new home.

 

[Athena]

Well our responses were relevant to that query, I think. No point recommending additional mollies if you have a killer on your hands LOL. I was trying to ascertain whether he was/was not the culprit.

If you sincerely believe him to be a bit of a Rambo in the tank then I would avoid adding further mollies - just in case!

 

[demented pea]

I had to re-home a white sailfin molly who killed all the other mollies we had and then started on everyone else including bigger fish than him and he was quite big!

I have never had such an agressive fish other than my cichlids!

 

[Crazycat lady]

I think 2 hours for a group of fish to be in a bag in transit would have been stress enough to kill some off, especially if that male was being a bit nippy with the others having no way of escaping his playfulness. If a fish dies in a tank, the other fish would normally start picking at it, shredding it, eating bits etc. So the fact that you found bits of the dead fish in the bag could simply mean that the fish died of stress and the other fish had begun pulling it apart, eating it.

Maybe the solution for future reference would be to limit how many fish are in each bag - with tiny fish like neons you can put 5/6 in a bag but with molly-sized fish, maybe limit to only 2 per bag to avoid stress by crowding in such a confined space. It may not seem a big deal to us because we're saying "it's only temporary, just a couple of hours in a bag together", but it's surprising how quickly fish can get stressed to such high levels that they can die in an instant.

I also wrap a dark towel around a fish bag when I'm bringing new fish home, as they are calmer in the dark.

Other than that then, yeah, killer mollies must exist LOL

Agreed with this statement,

As to transporting fish in bags....Crazycat lady, have you ever been to a fish meeting? where they hold auctions for fish, there fish are kept in bags for most of the day, went with another member here to a meet, i was about a 4 hour drive, we got there early,people arrived with fish, i brought some as did the other two members, then we made the long drive back in the evening, all fish survived,

I guess the really question i should be asking is, how big are the bags?? the bags i get from my lfs will hold about a pint of water max! and they will easily put 5 full grown guppies in there. I have never been to a fish meeting so have no idea what bags are used x

 

[This Old Spouse]

My LFS usually has quite large bags, about a gallon, and they're more than half full of water and the rest is filled with compressed air.

 

[Crazycat lady]

My LFS usually has quite large bags, about a gallon, and they're more than half full of water and the rest is filled with compressed air.

AHHH well thats why i said i thought 2 hours was too long. I think 2 hours in the bags i get is too long. Gallon ones would be much better. Is this a cultural thing?? american fish bags vs uk fish bags??