Tank Stats And A Question

[LionessN3cubs]

Okay I thought it might be a good idea to post all of my tank stats to paint a whole picture at once...just to see if everything looks alright to everyone and if there are any suggestions out there they are welcome

10 gallon fishlessly cycled
3 platys...2 females and a male. Somehow I think 1 of the females is a smaller variety..she's blue-ish with spots that remind me of trout LOL. The male sunset platy wants nothing to do with her either. She pretty much is a loner in the tank. The male and female sunset are constantly together unless the female manages to escape for some alone time. When she does manage to hide, the male pretty much comes to the front of the tank and just swims up and down repeatedly.

2 mollies. The dalmation mollie is definately a female. The black one always has his/her bottom fins folded up against body but the back one LOOKS like it would be long and pointy if it were down. It just doesnt look the same as the dalmations does even when folded. They have almost nothing to do with each other ...certainly aren't enemies, they just aren't together much. They prefer to just go do their own thing, usually grazing throughout the tank.
Apple snail

KH hardness is about 16. This is most likely from before I added fish and the baking soda I added. I had done about a 50% water change before adding the fish so Im sure there was still baking soda left in there. The water out of the tap definately does not have a decent KH.

Nitrite is 0
Ammonia is 0
Ph is 7.6
temp is now at 80ish since I unplugged the heater yesterday morning

I know Im pretty much fully stocked..however, I wondered how much of a bad idea it would be to squeeze in another platy like the blue small one. I feel really bad for her all alone all the time.
Im also worrying about the mollies not behaving the way they should with each other. I am going to try to add some salt to the tank. I hadn't previously done that because the store I bought them from didn't use salt. Im a little nervous about the salt adding since I have the apple snail and platys in there. I've read that if I do it right, they should be fine, but since I've never done it before.....

anyways, any suggestions are welcome

 

[Miss Wiggle]

hiya Lioness, good that your stats are holding out.

I wouldn't put any more fish in, livebearers are big waste producers so you're pretty heavily stocked as it is. (It's OK, but not really room for more)

remember you have livebearers and a mix of males and females, so you will have other fish in the tank soon enough.

i wouldn't be too concerned that their doing they're thing. you should be careful not to anthromoprhosise sometimes with the fish, most of them do not get lonley in the same way we would, they need to be kept in the numbers they do because they either feel safe in a group or to reduce aggression/breeding hassles.

providing none of the fish are being relentlessly pestered by another one then they should be fine as they are.

 

[waterdrop]

Hiya from me too!

Sounds like you are describing a normal healthy livebearer tank. I had many years of those back whenever.. Your observations were close enough that I thought to myself, yes, that's exactly how platties and mollies behave! I don't think, from your description, that I would worry about the mollies or even put salt in necessarily. I remember mollies seeming a bit close-finned especially on the bottom fins but living a long happy life. What I would do though, would be to hang out some in the livebearer section and perhaps even pose some of these questions there - there are probably people there who know them in minute detail.

I have a bit of an urge to differ here a little with MW (dangerous, I know) in that these 5 fish, while I may be wrong about how large they might grow... well it just feels to me like you could indeed add a smaller, matching platy if you happened to see one that truly matched your one in size and color. Ahhh, I don't know, technically she's right. You may have extra population soon and I'd hate to have contributed to overstocking the capacity of your filter, so its a hard call.

Will be interested eventually to hear if you learn more from the mollie experts and report back here.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Ahhh, I don't know, technically she's right.

lol, the best sort of right!! ha ha ha

nah i understand what your saying wd, it would be possible to add another platy with no problems, but personally i wouldn't advise it.