What's Wrong With My Balloon Molly?

[Butters06]

Alright, I got a Fluval Chi in January. I thought it was an amazing looking tank. I started it out with just one Betta. He was doing alright, so I add a little Cory cat. Everything is fine. So I add two Balloon Mollies (Molly & Chester) The Betta and the Cory died within two weeks. Turns out my water got jacked up, but the mollies were fine. Everyone says the mollies are very delicate and can't handle it but they've been thriving since January.

Heres my concern, with the Fluval chi the top is open so water constantly evaporates so I was concerned about my water balance because I had to add water every day. Molly started hiding alot but Chester kept buzzing around the tank. Well then the light in the tank went out and I went a few days with just a crappy dim light. Chester was gasping and pinned to the rocks... And the Hagen company has Terrible customer service and they just wanted me to send the filter block back.. And leave my tank with nothing apparently, so I just decided to buy a new tank.

So I set up the new tank and put the fish in, now Molly is buzzing around but Chester is gasping like crazy and flailing his fins but not going anywhere.. When he tries to swim it looks like a terrible struggle, and he gets maybe 3 inches off the bottom and bounces along the rocks. He's not hiding alot, he doesn't mind sitting out in the open.. But he gasps sometimes more than others. When I transferred the tanks he had a giant bottom lip with seems to have gone down.. But now he just looks miserable. I have them in a 6.6 gallon aquarium with 2 decorations. I add the freshwater salt when I add or change water but that's all. I use bottled water to keep from having the extra battle of fighting to balance tap water, and now I'm just confused.

He hasn't really been eating either. I put in flakes which he let's float right by and crisps because theyll sink down and sit next to him, but he picks it up and just spits it out into bits. And he only even picks it up about 10% of the time.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Butters.

Use your tap water and leave the bottled water for drinking. Hard as rocks tap water is the perfect thing for mollies.
There is no such thing as freshwater salt. Salt makes salt water. There is salt sold by pet shops for people to use in freshwater tanks but it is a poor idea to use it for anything but as medication for certain parasite infestations. If you want to run your mollies salty, as some people do, use the salt they package for a salt water tank. That stuff will drive your pH up to over 8.0 and will add plenty of minerals to your water. For mollies, that is an easy way to get good water for them, but it will kill cories and such. If all that you have left is a pair of mollies, they will thrive in briny water. Mix it anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 strength compared to a salt water tank and try to make the identical mix every time you do a water change. If you can keep the mineral content constant, the fish will thrive and reproduce freely for you.

 

[Butters06]

Thank you for the information.

Do you have any idea as to why my one Molly seems to be glued to the rocks? He's been in the same place gasping away for almost a week now.

 

[OldMan47]

It honestly sounds like a water quality problem to me. If you are resisting doing water changes because of the high cost of bottled water, that could sort of explain how the water got that way. You need to use a liquid type test kit and verify that your tank water is always less than 0.25 ppm of ammonia or nitrites. I suspect that either one of those chemicals is too high or the mineral content of your bottled water is too low. The euryhaline mollies in your tank are very adaptable to varying mineral contents but are terrible at adapting to low concentrations of minerals. It is a reason that the "tried and true" method of keeping mollies is to present them with a brackish environment. By doing so, the people that have a low tap water mineral content will raise it in their tanks and the people like me that really don't need the help, will not see their fish harmed by the even higher concentrations. Commonly available mollies can adapt to pure salt water, the kind you would find in the ocean. We will seldom do anything to drive our mineral contents that high.

 

[Butters06]

The cost of the water isn't a problem, I was regularly buying it because of the Betta I had, and I didn't want to change it from bottled to tap if they were settled into the bottled water, I could try tap water and get a test kit. But I didn't know if having no light and constant water additions would have bothered him.

He still isn't eating. How do I make him eat? He spits everything out.

 

[OldMan47]

We really do not look after fish, we look after water. If you get the water right, the fish will eat and take care of itself.

 

[Butters06]

Welp, he died...

 

[Baccus]

Sorry he died.

You didn't meantion if you have plants in the tank and if you do are they live or plastic? If plastic are they scrupliously clean, same with your ornaments? Because Mollies thrive on vegetable matter like algae etc.

 

[Butters06]

I have one big rock ornament with algae on it. My last Molly seems to be doing fine.

 

[nessar]

Just checking here - are you dechlorinating your water?

And you NEED to get a test kit, to tell you the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels in the tank. Your fish could be swimming in poison.

Have you read up on cycling?

 

[Butters06]

I haven't read much, but I do test my water regularly. It's getting me into trouble I think, because I keep trying to solve my problems and then another one arises. That and everyone always tells me something different. I had a man tell me yesterday to not test and just let the tank do it's thing and to just feed every few days.
I also heard to test daily and do water changes more frequently. I also was given a list of chemicals I could use to treat this that and the next thing and now I have no idea as to what to do. I had a Betta in a giant novelty martini glass live 3 years.. No filter, no heater, no chemicals. Now that I have a full tank set up I can't get my fish to live 3 months. This is baloney.

 

[Butters06]

I wasn't doing anything to the water because I was using bottled water..

 

[nessar]

I wasn't doing anything to the water because I was using bottled water..

some bottled waters can still contain chlorine or chloramine, its best to dechlorinate anyway to be on the safe side, as chlorine will kill bacteria meaning that your tank wont cycle.

You shouldnt normally need any chemicals except the dechlorinator and water tests, unless your fish are sick.

Please read up on fish-in-cycling in the beginners resource centre, it will answer a lot of your questions.

As you have been testing your water, could you please post your test results?

 

[OldMan47]

Most bottled water, at least in the US, is RO water with traces of minerals added back in for flavor. It is too pure for any fish to live in good health. Fish need some minerals in their water. Some fish need far more minerals than others but "pure" water is bad for all of them.