Lyretail Mollies

[mbrew345]

I had a lyretail and a balloon molly in my tank for approx a month this weekend I purchased another lyretail about the same size as my other lyretail. All seemed fine on Saturday after the acclimatization time. The 2 lyretail's seemed to be getting along fine when I got up in the morning on Sunday my original lyretail was hiding in my holy rock (it had never done this before) but i was able to get him out with a little bit of food and he was swimming normally seemed completely normal. The new lyretail was acting sluggish and kind of laying on the gravel but would get burst of energy and swim around the tank but would end up sinking back to the gravel. I left and came back home Sunday night and the new one was dead on the bottom the old one was hiding in the holy rock. This morning I wake up and my old lyretail is doing the exact same thing as the new one was doing and ended up dying as well. When I removed him from the tank I noticed the top part of his tail was missing. My balloon molly seems to be fine as well as my pleco. I have tested the water with the test strips and everything seems to be absolutely good. My question is do I need to worry about my last 2 fish or did the 2 lyretail's just have a turf war?

 

[Delapool]

It doesn't sound like a turf war but something either in the water or an infection. Particularly to have an existing fish go. The fin loss might have been just curious fish.

I'd pick up a liquid based test kit to check the water just in case. The strips can under read and not be reliable.

 

[mbrew345]

Thanks I have been reading about that and it is on my shopping list, along with algae tabs for pleco, root tabs for my plants. Also going to get a larger tank since I hear they are more forgiving.

 

[Delapool]

yes, get as big a tank as you can. Pick that out and then get the next size up if you have room. Trust me, 6 months
later you will be complaining the tank is too small.

 

[mbrew345]

Biggest I can go in my current location is 50g bow front, or 75g rectangle these are the two I am trying to choose between.