Why Can't I Keep These Guys Alive?

[bmcelfresh]

I have three large tanks and have been dealing with tropicals off and on for over 20 years. I have NEVER had any luck with live bearers. Just this weekend, bought three lyre tail mollies (gold). The male died within a couple of hours and the next morning one of the females was covered with cotton and what looked like ick. The other female quickly sank to the bottom and looked like she was having major problems. Needless to say, I cannot loose the whole tank, and they had to go. I bought a snail and three more black skirt tetras with the same purchase and went into the same 55gl tank that are doing fine.

Am I doing something wrong? Are the tanks too big?

 

[kribensis12]

Use aquarium salt. Read the directions. Get them from a different dealer. Make sure your water stats are fine. Could you post them?

 

[mommyof2bettas]

mollies are brackish fish, they need salt in the water, or extremely clean water, if not they will probably get ich and other diseases. Maybe it was just the stress from being moved.

 

[theotheragentm]

Marine salt, not aquarium salt. That's a misconception that people new to aquariums miss sometimes.

Mollies are quite susceptible to ich from my experience. The reasoning behind this, I believe is that salt neutralizes the nitrates that common Mollies are so susceptible to in aquariums. Read the sticky in these forums on Mollies and salt. nmonks should read this and hopefully post a better explanation than I did.

Try Platies if you don't want to go with brackish water or can't do more frequent and larger water changes.

 

[iairj84]

I doubt the fish would die that quickly just due to the lakc of salt in the tank. It was probably a sick fish, with livebearers I always drip acclimate them since I dont know exactly to what level the fish stores tanks are at regarding salinity or PH

 

[dwarfgourami]

What is your local water like? I had constant problems with ich, fungus etc when I tried to keep livebearers in soft acid water. These days, when my local water is pretty well liquid concrete, I'm doing a lot better. If you can't do hard and alkaline, I wouldn't bother with the common livebearers.
The other thought is that there may be problems with the supplier. The first one I got my platies and guppies from wasn't very good and those fish brought in a lot of health problems; the second time round I looked all around and chose the place with the strongest-looking guppies and I've done well with those.

 

[cuprajake]

this is really wierd,

i have mollies, started with 3, they bread to become 8 one died, which made them 7 and now we have 15 more little babies, this is in a tank 600x300x350 never put salt in or anything, what am i doing right lol

on a side note does anyone know how many gallons my tank is,


jake

 

[james1971]

this is really wierd,

i have mollies, started with 3, they bread to become 8 one died, which made them 7 and now we have 15 more little babies, this is in a tank 600x300x350 never put salt in or anything, what am i doing right lol

on a side note does anyone know how many gallons my tank is,


jake

Me too

I currently have a silver sailfin molly and 2 orange mollies and have never had any disease problems with any of them and I have never added any salt to the water.

James1971

 

[sylvia]

I feel the salt + molly thing is overblown. You can keep mollies in fresh water - but it should be alkaline and hard. They don't do well in soft, acid water.
Mollies are found in (typically hard) freshwater in the wild - as well as in brackish. Regardless, many species will do well in purely freshwater and the majority of the (often hybrid) 'fancy' varieties have been raised for generations in fresh water.
The only problem arises (and the same applies to guppies, incidentaly), when you are buying fish that were raised in asia. Many of these are actually raised in salty water because of the simple fact that salt tends to kill parasites and, as livebearers like these can tolerate the high salt levels, it saves treating for diseases. What this means is that many have to deal with a very sudden change in water conditions when they are imported and placed in a completely freshwater tank so they are naturally far more fragile and stressed at this point than other fish. For this reason, gradual acclimation is essential and it helps to start them off in brackish and gradually wean them into freshwater.

 

[bmcelfresh]

I bought the fish at Petsmart (in the USA, just a run of the mill pet store), not a lfs. I just don't see how they could be covered in cotton and ick in less than 24 hours??? I surely would have noticed sick fish, but the coloring on these makes it hard to tell. The problem is not the mollies. I have tried guppies, and other freshwater fish and none seem to make it very long. All act like they're scared to death, gasp at the top of the tank and die. The tank mates may be a little bit bigger, but I am very careful to stock accordingly. Guess I will give it up (lol).

Thanks for the help.

 

[kribensis12]

Try swordtials, I never have luck with mollies without a brackish set-up, but swordtails do great!

 

[iairj84]

I'll agree with kribensis, Most guppies are very fragile and I've had good luck with platies and swordtails.. Try either one of those. They have great personalities as well.

 

[nmonks]

Hello Sylvia --

Yes, mollies do indeed live in freshwater in the wild. But, as you say, the commercial fish breeders do rear them in brackish water, both in Florida and in SE Asia.

I am increasingly convinced the issue is nitrate poisoning. Salt (NaCl) reduces the toxicity of nitrate, as is well known and now proven by scientific studies. Mollies seem to be phenomenally intolerant of nitrate. If you keep them in clean water (less than 20 mg/l nitrate) then you can probably keep them in freshwater, even at pH 7, moderate hardness (as in "The Optimal Aquarium" book) But as soon as you stick them in a generic community tank with an inexperienced aquarist who doesn't do enough water changes or someone stuck with tap (municipal) water where the nitrates are 50 mg/l to start with, then you have problems. London tap water has 50 mg/l, so is basically poisonous to mollies. Add salt, and the poison is far less dangerous and the mollies do fine.

In this regard, mollies are probably comparable to discus, puffers, Tanganyikans, and marine fish -- all of which are nitrate-intolerant.

I'm not that convinced about the "killing parasites" argument: the teaspoon per gallon dosages recommended by old-timers in the hobby are far too low to have any osmotic effect on parasites.

Cheers, Neale

I feel the salt + molly thing is overblown. You can keep mollies in fresh water - but it should be alkaline and hard. They don't do well in soft, acid water.
Mollies are found in (typically hard) freshwater in the wild - as well as in brackish. Regardless, many species will do well in purely freshwater and the majority of the (often hybrid) 'fancy' varieties have been raised for generations in fresh water.
The only problem arises (and the same applies to guppies, incidentaly), when you are buying fish that were raised in asia. Many of these are actually raised in salty water because of the simple fact that salt tends to kill parasites and, as livebearers like these can tolerate the high salt levels, it saves treating for diseases. What this means is that many have to deal with a very sudden change in water conditions when they are imported and placed in a completely freshwater tank so they are naturally far more fragile and stressed at this point than other fish. For this reason, gradual acclimation is essential and it helps to start them off in brackish and gradually wean them into freshwater.

 

[fishyfanatic95]

My mollies are the hardiest fish in my aquarium and they breed all the time

 

[bleechme]

I used to raise only guppies and swordtails and they multiplied non-stop. But now, I raise them in a community tank. and they get sick very often. I raise them with rams and neons that require lower PH and softer water to live. I think thats my problem since I try to adjust the water for my more sensitive fish, but it's causing my live bearers to become sick. so now, if i have livebearers, i keep them in a seperate tank with not much water chemicals being used.