Starving Fish?

[musicaljello]

Hello everyone,

My fiance bought me a 2 gallon aquarium and 2 black mollies last weekend. I set up the tank, have an air stone going and when I put the water in I also used the dechlorine drops. I have gravel and a small hide-spot for them. To be honest, that's about all I could do. I feel sorry for the fish and I want to take care of them as best I can on my college/no job budget.

I have tropical fish flakes to feed them, and I feed them twice a day. I could tell after a day though that they were still hungry, so I slightly increased the amount that I fed them(still at twice a day). They still seem like they're very hungry for food. Yesterday, I noticed one of them attempting to eat the other's feces. Thinking how bad for their health this could be, I then decided to feed them three times a day, maybe that would work. I fed them this morning and I just now fed them again at lunchtime, and they are fighting each other for the food..

I don't want to starve the poor things, but I don't know how much I really need to feed them either. I don't want to keep increasing and then either prematurely run out of food or overfeed them.

Please help!

Thank you,
Ella

 

[mfdrookie516]

put them in a bigger tank and they probably wont do that... i used to have mollies and i fed once every other day, only as much as they ate in 3 minutes, they never acted like that (granted they were in a 30g tank)

 

[Blueiz]

What do they physically look like?

 

[musicaljello]

I am home for the weekend, but when I get back I will post some pictures.

 

[HollieDahhrlinn]

Do you want the whole honest truth?
BIGGER TANK!
Get a bigger tank and then they probably wont do this.
A 4 gallon is probably the smallest if you want something small and pretty?

HollieDahhrlinn x

 

[musicaljello]

Here they are... I don't know exactly what kind of picture you were looking for but I took this with my phone, so either way it might not be very helpful.

I won't be able to get a bigger tank for a while. In the meantime, how much am I supposed to be feeding them?

Also, does anyone have any tips/directions for how to change their water?

 

[meegosh]

Sounds like they are a bit stressed due to their cramped conditions. I feed my fish as much as they'll eat in a few minutes. I feed very slowly so that it gets eaten and not just fall to the bottom of the tank. A bigger tank would be ideal. You may want to consider taking the 2 mollies back and getting a betta. Personally I think a 2 gallon tank is too small for any fish other than some shrimp maybe.

Also, don't let your fish fool you, they always look hungry! My Angelfish could eat for hours on end if I let him. He would probably explode before he realized he was full.

As far as water changes... some people with smaller tanks have recommended small battery powered gravel vacuums. They can be found at petsmart or any LFS. Another option would be to use some larger diameter airline tubing. Get a siphon going and suck up any wastes in the bottom of the tank.

 

[dkpate]

I use a turkey baster to clean the bottom of my bettas tanks.
I agree with Meegosh in that that size tank is too small for any fish. I had my betta in a one gallon, and felt bad so I got a 10G tank and used a divider so I cold get another betta lol.
As for changing their water: In my betta tanks, since I can't use a gravel vacuum in it, I use the baster to get the junk off the bottom, and then a little tupperware bowl to scoop the water out. Before I start all of this, I get my 5G bucket filled with the same temperature of water and treated ready to fill the tank back up. You will probably be doing a lot of water changes because you don't have a filter. You should also pick up a liquid test kit so you can make sure the ammonia, nitrates and nitries don't get high and kill the fish.
Also, do you have a heater in there? Do you know what temperature your tank is? You should google the kind of fish you have and see what temps they thrive in.
Good luck!

 

[gzeiger]

The poster who asked what they look like meant do their stomachs appear rounded or sunken. A hungry fish will start to have a sunken stomach days before it has any other symptoms of malnutrition. Eating feces is a fairly normal reaction and shouldn't hurt them - they're just going to try to eat whatever is falling through the water.

From the picture, it looks to me like they're fine. These fish are not as carnivorous as most tropicals though (in fact they're US natives) and would appreciate some vegetable food. You can get a tin of algae wafers at the pet store for probably $5-8 that will last for many months. With just two of them you could probably feed just one wafer a day, but it will take them a couple hours to eat it. They will also take vegetables from the cafeteria if cooked enough to make them soft. They particularly like peas. Goldfish flakes also have more vegetable material in them than the ones marketed for tropicals, and are probably closer to their normal diet.

I've caught mollies in water as cold as 55 degrees, so as long as the room temperature where you keep them is stable (such a small tank could change temperature rapidly, which is very stressful to fish whose normal habitat has tremendous thermal inertia) and they show no other signs of stress, I would say you don't need a heat for that tank. You do need some sort of filter though to remove ammonia. This doesn't have to be anything fancy and expensive, or even come from the pet store, but you need water to flow over something with a large surface area that can be colonized by bacteria. The low-budget solution is to get a pack of plastic pot scrubbers. I got mine for 6 for $1 at the dollar store. Take scissors and cut a small hole in the middle and stick 2 or 3 on the airline tube. The bubbles will provide enough water circulation.

After doing that, make sure you're changing some water fairly regularly. I'd suggest half a gallon every 2-3 days for the first 4-6 weeks. That's not necessary in the long run, but understand that the way we keep fish they end up breathing their own urine and it is toxic. The filter ultimately will develop a bacterial film that will remove the toxic compounds from the water and allow you to change water weekly or less frequently, but in the meantime you just have to dilute it. The ideal situation is to test the water regularly for ammonia and nitrite, but those test kits will be $15-20 and aren't completely necessary *if you change water proactively enough to be sure chemical concentrations don't reach a high level.*

 

[musicaljello]

Thank you very much for all of the replies! The advice will certainly come in handy.

I do have one question, from a friend actually. She has a betta and wants to know why she isn't supposed to use a gravel vaccum?

 

[meegosh]

She should be using a gravel vacuum. You may not be able to use the larger ones that many people have but they do make smaller battery operated ones designed for smaller tanks. Regular vacuuming of the gravel is a must in any fish tank. Uneaten food and wastes can decompose in the gravel and create ammonia which is harmful to your fish.

 

[gzeiger]

Most gravel vacuums work by siphon, and your tank just isn't big enough for it to work well, if at all. That's all they were saying. It's definitely desirable/necessary.