Sick Molly

[AilyNC]

Tank size: 58 litres
pH: 8.7 (hard water area using easy balance & cones)
ammonia: don't know
nitrite: 0.09
nitrate: 13
kH: 20
gH: 10
tank temp: 27.3 Celsius (81F)
Chlorine 0.1

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior):

My Molly looked pregnant only small belly not huge, fish shop looked at picture & said same. Two weeks later I fed skinned peas. She started pooping clear poop. Next day her tummy wasn't big & she no longer looked pregnant. She barely swam about much & had been active. She pooped normal and then again clear/pale poop.

Today is day 3 and she's sitting bottom of tank & barely moving, first day she didn't eat at feeding time. I added King British disease clear drops as 2 female platies have ragged fins (I think from aggressive Male platy harassing them). But she was listless before this was added. I also moved my sick Molly into isolation tank to stop other fish bothering her. She's alive but pretty stationary.

Volume and Frequency of water Change:
Was doing weekly changes of 25%. Then every 2 days when I noticed fish was unwell.

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank:
Today I added King British Disease Clear to treat ragged fins. Says it helps lethargic fish too.

Tank has clear water media filter from Caino.

Tank inhabitants:
2 female mollies
3 platies (2F, 1M)
5 neon tetra adult
1 baby tetra (accidentally from pet shop)
2 pleco (need to ask shop what breed they are)

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration):
1 pregnant Platy
5 adult neon tetra
1 baby tetra

Added 1 week ago

Exposure to chemicals:

Digital photo (include if possible)

 

[AilyNC]

I can't see edit option. Molly is dead.she started swimming up to surface and sinking back down. This is most active she's been all day so I thought she was improving. Then swam erratically, twisting and turning over, and died.

No idea why. Really hope other fish don't get sick.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I'm sorry about your molly.
Before you come back to answer my questions, do a 75% water change on your tank. If it's what I suspect it might be, it's urgent to do that as soon as you can, and might save your other fish. Make sure that the water you replace it with is the temperature as the tank water, and that you use the right amount of water conditioner.

Then please let us know how long the tank has been set up for, and how you cycled it. Does it have any live plants? And can you please link the model of filter you have? I don't know the brand and can't seem to find results for the filter itself, only replacement cartridges.

 

[AilyNC]

Quick question before I water change - do I keep the fish in the tank for a 75% change?

This is the 5th week. 1st week had no fish. This was advice from fish shop to leave for one week then add fish weekly

It's a Ciano 60 tank with CF80 filter

CF80 - Ciano

ciano.pt

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Quick question before I water change - do I keep the fish in the tank for a 75% change?

This is the 5th week. 1st week had no fish. This was advice from fish shop to leave for one week then add fish weekly

It's a Ciano 60 tank with CF80 filter

CF80 - Ciano

ciano.pt

Yep, you can leave the fish in, they'll be fine, and it's less stressful for them than taking them out. Will go over what the problems might be once you're done. Try not to worry too much, not your fault that you've been given bad advice, and we'll do our best to help you save the rest of your fish

 

[AilyNC]

So the 75% water change is done *phew.

Temp 27.5

I don't have any real plants - the advice I had from shop was you've to leave light on too much of the day & it bothers the fish. So I've a fake plant. I do have an air stone but it's not on constantly.

I had tank set up for one week, the shop tested my water and said add fish week by week Max 5 at a time. I didn't always do for Max number.

This is week 5 (week 4 with fish).

I am guessing the Ammonia is too high as the fish tank wasn't cycled.

Currently there's 12 fish. I also reckon my Plecos are too big and I probably shouldn't have neon tetra in a hard water tank. Though the fry seems to be doing great & the other 5 look good.

But all advice welcome. It's too upsetting losing fish. I lost a Betta after the first water change one week in. And 2 angel fish within a week after that. But fish shop said my levels were fine to add more

Last addition was about 6/7 days ago.

I'll attach photo of tank set up.

 

[Essjay]

I'm afraid the fish store gave you terrible advice. We have all been there are one time or another.

You need to cycle a tank before adding fish - what the fish store had you do is a fish-in cycle which means lots of water changes only I'll bet they didn't mention that.

Live plants are very good for tanks; they help keep the water clean amongst other things.

Is the tank approximately 60 litres with a 60 x 30 cm footprint? (That's 16 gallons, and 24 x 12 inches for those who don't use metric). If the store said angels were OK for this tank, that's yet more poor advice, I'm afraid.


So, going forwards -
Get a test kit, preferably one with liquid reagents rather than strips. Most of us use the API master test kit, though there are other brands. Test for ammonia and nitrite as soon as you get it. If either or both read above zero, do a water change, big enough to get them down to zero. Test every day and do a water change when over zero.

Get some live plants. To start with, floating plants are probably the best - something like water sprite or Amazon frogbit. These will do 2 things - help keep ammonia low (plants use ammonia as fertiliser and they don't turn it into nitrite) and they provide shade for the fish. If the shop doesn't have any look on Ebay.
My main tank is full of slow growing plants attached to wood, and a tangle of water sprite on the surface and if I can grow these, anyone can

Once you have the water sorted out, then we can talk about fish

 

[AilyNC]

Thanks. I'm gonna go tomorrow to buy the API master kit as my tetra test strips don't test Ammonia. And some plants. Thanks for the advice.

The tank is 60cm x 30cm. Box said 58 litres useable.

Everyone looks ok today so hopefully that big water change has helped. I'd much rather real plants so happy to add those but my test strips say my CO2 is zero. Will I need to add something for the plants? Will they be ok in hard water area?

My KH is always at 20.

 

[Essjay]

Yes, you need fertiliser for the plants. If you can get the same products as mainland UK, look for Seachem Flourish comprehensive supplement for the planted aquarium (yes, a mouthful but there are several products with the name Flourish and it's just this one) or TNC Lite (not TNC complete). Dose once a week at half of what they say.

Do you know your GH as that's the one that directly impacts fish and plants?

Floating plants can get their CO2 from the air

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Thanks. I'm gonna go tomorrow to buy the API master kit as my tetra test strips don't test Ammonia. And some plants. Thanks for the advice.

The tank is 60cm x 30cm. Box said 58 litres useable.

Everyone looks ok today so hopefully that big water change has helped. I'd much rather real plants so happy to add those but my test strips say my CO2 is zero. Will I need to add something for the plants? Will they be ok in hard water area?

My KH is always at 20.

View attachment 111724

Happy that you were so quick to respond and do that water change! You can do that daily if need be, until you can get a test kit and some plants. Your plants will love your hard water. Some plants are more delicate than others and need things like CO2 and perhaps softer water, but most beginner plants in stores will be just fine in your water and without extra like CO2, and fine with your tank lights being on 6-8 hours a day.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

If you take photos of the plants you get, there is a section here where people can ID them for you, and tell you what they need. If you google "beginner aquarium plants", you'll see some ones that are low maintenance. Only get java fern and java moss, or anubius, if you have the funds to spare for lots of plants, because these ones are slow growing, so won't do much to help your water quality. If you can find floating plants and some stem plants like elodea, hornwort or wisteria, these are fast growing plants that will help to suck up the ammonia that your fish produce, and help you get the tank cycled faster.

 

[Retired Viking]

I am sorry for the death of your fish, one rule all forum members agree on is to never believe what the LFS tells you, always research it yourself. I also use Flourish comp for my plants. Good floating plants are frog bite, salvinia, hornwort, moneywort, and water sprite. I have all of these in my tanks. They are easy to care for and do not need CO2.

 

[AilyNC]

Yes, you need fertiliser for the plants. If you can get the same products as mainland UK, look for Seachem Flourish comprehensive supplement for the planted aquarium (yes, a mouthful but there are several products with the name Flourish and it's just this one) or TNC Lite (not TNC complete). Dose once a week at half of what they say.

Do you know your GH as that's the one that directly impacts fish and plants?

Floating plants can get their CO2 from the air

GH is 10.

I'm in Ireland so can get products that are sold in UK easily.

 

[AilyNC]

Thanks everyone. Honestly. I've been staring at the rank an hour each evening and get pretty upset when it's gone wrong so thanks so much for the advice and help.

We've only 2 fish shops in my nearest city but I'm sure they'll have some of plants mentioned. I really regret not looking up this stuff before buying the tank & fish and cycling the tank right.

Hopefully I can turn it around now. Cheers

 

[Essjay]

GH 10 is middling; neither soft nor hard. Water companies call it hard but they always make it sound harder than fishkeeping use of the words