shimmying molly?

[nirvanarama]

i dunno if the condition "shimmying" is meant literally or not, but my new mollie (been in tank for about 24 hours) is doing a kind of mexican wave with its body, but staying in one spot (behind plant). is this shimmying? if so, how much salt should i add to the aquarium? my setup is on my sig!
thanks

 

[tstenback]

Yes this is shimmying. It is a sign of stress in the livebearers in particular. Why do you want to add salt? Did the molly come from a tank with salt? If not there should be no need to add any salt. I would look at things like how did you add the molly to the tank, did you float the bag then add some of your water to the tank? Is there places for the fish to hide, as it is a new fish it will not feel comfortable right away so it will need to have places where it can feel safe. what is the temp in your tank?

I am not saying dont use salt i was just wondering why you would immediately jump to that to solve the problem. Livebearers do generally like some salt in the water so if you are going to add salt then the normal rate is one tablespoon per 5 gallons. HTH

 

[nirvanarama]

i jumped to that bcause i have a book which says that some salt must be added if the molly is shimmying. im not sure if the lfs had slat in its last tank. i folated the bag for bout 20 mins thn added a cupfull of my water from my tank into it, then poured in a tiny amount of bag water (so the fish could get out)

 

[tstenback]

Great routine. Just watch out for that tiny bit of bag water, it could have a disease in it. I usually net the fish out of the bag as there is less water from the LFS added to my tnak that way.

The salt shouldn't hurt anything else in the tank in those amounts so give it a go, just make sure it has no additives or is aquarium salt.

 

[nirvanarama]

ok thanks

i asked a mod earlier and he said that tetras get immense stress to their kidneys and stuff wen they are in salt water, and that it takes years off their lives.

confused lol

Thanks for the water advice though