coramdayo
Aquarium Advice Newbie
It seems there are a couple different threads/posts about this phenomenon recently. In the past when this starts happening to my Mollies, they end up expiring within a couple days. It bothers me that I cannot figure out what is going on! Now, I have five and in the last two days, 3 of them have started drifting into a vertical position before righting themselves. I have sequestured two of the worst ones into their own little "rooms" in my tank, which keeps the others from picking on them.
Here is my specs:
20 gallon tank, artificial plants, rock substrate:
(4) Balloon Mollies
(1) Creamsicle Molly
(9-10) Neon Tetras
(1) Sunset Platy
(This tank is a 12 year established tank)
This past Monday, I did some reading on Mollies and in particular, this info at this link: www(dot)wetwebmedia(dot)com/fwsubwebindex/mollies.htm - replace (dot) with a real one to see article.
I read that using Marine Salt has some benefits over regular aquarium salt, so decided to substitute marine salt (1 tsp/gal) with my water 25% change on Monday. It was Tuesday that I noticed several of my mollies swimming vertical.
So, today, I did another change, this time 40% and did NOT use the marine salt but went back to my aquarium salt at 1 tsp/gal.
Now, let me add that the reason I was online reading up was because I have been battling two water issues in particular; low alkalinity & low ph. I have watched these two numbers decline over the last 6 months, despite weekly water changes, etc. All other readings have pretty much stayed the same.
So, in Sept 2011, these were my water results:
Nitrate:0
Nitrite: 0
Hardness: 250
Alkalinity: 180
PH: 7.2
Amonia: 0
As of today:
Nitrate:0-10 (not ever as "pink" as 20 but has slight color change)
Nitrite: 0
Hardness: 250 (sometimes comes in at 120)
Alkalinity: 80 (but has been ranging between 0-80 for weeks now)
PH: 6.4
Amonia: 0
I have read that Mollies prefer harder water so I don't think this could be causing the crazy swimming. PH has been consistantly low for months now. The Alkalinity/Buffering does worry me as it is often 0!
So, any thoughts from anybody here on this? I am concerned that I may be loosing 3-4 of my mollies if I cannot correct this. My tetras seem to be fine...they have grown quite a bit since I added them many months ago. The platy seems quite the happy little camper as well.
Oh, and I do feed my fish an assortment of food; algea wafers, froz brine shrimp, flakes and pellets. Just not all in one day! I sort of change it up and alternate foods.
Thanks in advance for any advice!
Dawn
Here is my specs:
20 gallon tank, artificial plants, rock substrate:
(4) Balloon Mollies
(1) Creamsicle Molly
(9-10) Neon Tetras
(1) Sunset Platy
(This tank is a 12 year established tank)
This past Monday, I did some reading on Mollies and in particular, this info at this link: www(dot)wetwebmedia(dot)com/fwsubwebindex/mollies.htm - replace (dot) with a real one to see article.
I read that using Marine Salt has some benefits over regular aquarium salt, so decided to substitute marine salt (1 tsp/gal) with my water 25% change on Monday. It was Tuesday that I noticed several of my mollies swimming vertical.
So, today, I did another change, this time 40% and did NOT use the marine salt but went back to my aquarium salt at 1 tsp/gal.
Now, let me add that the reason I was online reading up was because I have been battling two water issues in particular; low alkalinity & low ph. I have watched these two numbers decline over the last 6 months, despite weekly water changes, etc. All other readings have pretty much stayed the same.
So, in Sept 2011, these were my water results:
Nitrate:0
Nitrite: 0
Hardness: 250
Alkalinity: 180
PH: 7.2
Amonia: 0
As of today:
Nitrate:0-10 (not ever as "pink" as 20 but has slight color change)
Nitrite: 0
Hardness: 250 (sometimes comes in at 120)
Alkalinity: 80 (but has been ranging between 0-80 for weeks now)
PH: 6.4
Amonia: 0
I have read that Mollies prefer harder water so I don't think this could be causing the crazy swimming. PH has been consistantly low for months now. The Alkalinity/Buffering does worry me as it is often 0!
So, any thoughts from anybody here on this? I am concerned that I may be loosing 3-4 of my mollies if I cannot correct this. My tetras seem to be fine...they have grown quite a bit since I added them many months ago. The platy seems quite the happy little camper as well.
Oh, and I do feed my fish an assortment of food; algea wafers, froz brine shrimp, flakes and pellets. Just not all in one day! I sort of change it up and alternate foods.
Thanks in advance for any advice!
Dawn
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