Sick Dalmatian molly

[MariaS]

I just purchased this Dalmatian Molly a few days ago from a local pet Co. It is not well and I don’t know if he will recover. I have done frequent water changes once a day for three days and added prime to help with the ammonia level. I also have an angel fish, pleco, two loaches, 2 cherry barbs, two tetras and four neons in a 20 gallon tank. Alll others are thriving. Should I get rid of this dalmatian or will he recover?

 

[FishGuest5123]

I would QT him. Keep his water super clean, change daily with Prime and add 1 tablespoon per gallon of dissolved aquarium salt. See how he does.

 

[FishFinatic77]

I agree with @Deanasue. But, the problem is that Petco fish, in general, are not very healthy because all the tanks share the same water so the tanks are filled with disease. To fix this, petco puts antibiotics into the water, but, once the fish leave the medicated water, they are become very sick and die almost immediately. If I were you, I would try to find a smaller, independent aquarium store because they are usually more reliable. Also, live bearers are hard water fish while all the other fish in your tank prefer softer water. Maybe you could get a tank to quarantine him in, then, if he gets better, you could convert it to a molly tank with harder water. Good luck!

 

[seangee]

There is another potential issue here.All the other fish you mention are soft water fish. Mollies require very hard water, and will die in soft water. So it is possible that you cannot keep mollies in your water.

Making the water harder won't really help because this would be detrimental to the rest of your fish.