Molly swimming strangely

[Kelli fish]

Hello my molly was swimming strangely earlier like in a current and vertical at points it calmed down alot now I also have a molly and platy that just very still on the top but was fine earlier am I over feeding as I am new to fish bit had a turtle p.s my first post

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[anibis]

How big is the tank? Since you are new to fish I figure the tank is new as well? Have you read up on the nitrogen cycle? Has there been any temperature swings?

I believe your molly is suffering from the "molly shimmy" as they call it. It's pretty common, and since your platy is having issues as well my guess would be it's a water quality issue.

My molly and platy had the same kinda issue after being in an un-cycled tank for about a week. They started having issues after a temperature swing while dialing in a new heater, but I believe being in an uncycled tank played an equal part. I added 1tbs of aquarium salt per 5g and kept up on water changes, after a couple days they got better and are doing great now.

If you choose to add aquarium salt read up on it. It's a bit tricky when you have to change water daily to maintain an un-cycled tank. I plan on keeping it in my tank until my cycle completes, then slowly getting it out.

If your tank is new, and you have yet to do any water changes, do a 50% change asap.

 

[Kelli fish]

Hello thanks for your reply.

I set my tank up for 2 weeks over xmas before adding fish.

My platy died through the night but do think I maybe bought a bad one.

My tank has been stocked for 2 weeks I have lost 4 fish now???

Today the molly is still swimming strangely like its drunk ???

All the other fish seem fine.

I have just now done tests as follows:

Ph 8 (to high but have put cattappa/almond leaf in)
Nh4 0.25
No2 between 0 - 0.1
No3 between 0.5 & 1.0

Is this healthy water? ?

Advice is much appreciated.
Thanks kelli

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[Kelli fish]

Sorry forgot to spell check before sending

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[Kelli fish]

Oh... 90 liters & I have done 25% water changes once a week since I added fish.

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[anibis]

How big is the tank? What do you have stocked in it right now?

Just running the tank for a couple weeks without an ammonia source (ie fish or manually adding ammonia) doesn't do anything for the cycle. So unless you were adding an ammonia source, your cycle didn't start until you added fish.

Higher pH makes ammonia+nitrite more toxic. I wouldn't worry about it now though, any drastic change in pH will just stress the fish more. Most say not to worry about pH while cycling a tank anyways.

Any levels of ammonia+nitrite are unhealthy for the fish, but most will be okay if you keep the levels .25ppm or below. So it seems your nitrite (no2) is a too high. I would do a 50% water change and retest an hour later to see where it is. You may have to do another 50% change to get it around .25ppm. Make sure you use a good water conditioner (Prime is the best) and match the temperature. Are you using a product to detoxify ammonia+nitrite (Prime does that as well)? It seems like you are because nh4 is ammonium, which is the detoxified version of ammonia if I'm not mistaken. This will help make the cycling process a bit easier on the fish. Test strips are the least accurate way to test your water, so keep that in mind if that's what you are using. The API liquid kits are good for beginners, and they are much cheaper in the long run as each bottle will do 180 tests.

Cycling is hard on fish. The best thing you can do is frequent water changes to keep the ammonia+nitrite levels low. The fish you bought may have been a little weak to begin with, and going through the cycling process did them in. When I picked out my fish at the store their fins were all flared out, super active, seemed very healthy. I went back to the fish store yesterday, and the brothers and sisters of my creamsicle molly were not looking good at all. Quite a few had the shimmies, fins were all clamped, not swimming around. I'm sure if I had bought one of those and put it in an un-cycled tank it wouldn't have lasted long.

Don't get discouraged, I'm sure a lot of people give up when they lose fish at the beginning. Fact is the beginning is the hardest part, once your tank is established things will settle down.

 

[anibis]

Yeah sorry I added in the tank size question after. At least it's a decent size, a lot of people make the mistake of buying a tiny tank thinking it will be easier to maintain when the opposite is true.

I have a 29g (about 110L) with 1 molly and 1 platy in it. At the beginning I had to change about 30% of my water every other day to keep my ammonia+nitrite around .25ppm. I was only feeding them a small amount once a day too. The more you feed them, the higher the bio load. So until your levels even out feed sparingly.

 

[Kelli fish]

Thank you very much for your reply.
I currently have
5 neon tetra
1 clown loach
2 suckie plecos
4 mollys that had babies 2 still going strong after week and half
5 platy
3 guppys
Thats all intend to have, no more!!!
I lost 2 platy, a clown, & a 2 guppys.... ??

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[Kelli fish]

I believe its 90 liters as i put 8/9 buckets (12l) in. But did calculations online from size it said 142L ?? Was confused. I bought tank second hand I had a turtle who sadly got put down :,( couldn't go through it again so cleaned it all out extremely well dried it all out then refilled few weeks later after washing again only with warm water. So had the full set up and went for fish.

Rip timmy turtle xxx

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[Kelli fish]

When I set the tank up I put pure balls like see though balls to start bacteria in the tank and filter and I always treat water with aquasafe and put easy balance in but as my bf pointed out am I best leaving that out untill cprrect then add to stabilise it???

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[anibis]

That's a lot of fish, you are probably overstocked, hopefully someone with more experience will come along to tell you for sure.

Scratch the salt idea, your plecos and tetras won't like that. Your best course of action is to change water daily. Unfortunately it's not a surprise that you've lost some given your stocking level, more fish = more ammonia+nitrite production. I have 2 fish in a slightly larger aquarium, and I still had to change water every other day to keep them happy.

If you have 12L buckets then you should change 4 buckets worth, that will be a little over half.

 

[twiddlemuffin]

The clown loach and the plecos have to go, they over stock your tank. Also the plecos have a huuuuuge bioload which is probably messing with your levels.

 

[venymae]

I just learned about cycling but I already have fish. What now?! - Aquarium Advice
So, even though you let your tank set, because it did not have any ammonia source it did not cycle. The above link is a great source to help your fish survive the cycling process that is probably going on right now. I would NOT add any chemicals that take out ammonia to your tank pretty much ever. Regular water changes will help with that and once your cycling process is finished, your bacteria will be taking care of it. I would take the time to read the above article. Hope it helps, and good luck. I see lots of water testing and water changing in your future

 

[anibis]

Yeah I'd just stick with using the aquasafe, the easy balance is more for established aquariums. I'm not sure what the pure balls are, I've never heard of them. Most of the products that claim to jump start the cycle don't work all that well. The best way to seed a new aquarium with bacteria is to take media from an established aquarium. Even then it takes time to grow enough bacteria to handle a large bio load as you have.

 

[Kelli fish]

I also have natural plants my tanks is my profile picture.... I will give a suckie fish to my brother
And keep clown and a suckie for while till they get bigger.

Pure aquarium it says reduces cleaning, bacterial treatment and maintains healthy aquarium from aqua evolution the pet shop suggested thrm and said would do?!?

I shall read the link thank you

I am use to water changes and testing due to my turtle so not a problem luckily

Thank you all I shall let you know how the levels go

Back to molly shimmy what is this??

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[Kelli fish]

And unbelievably I go to my tank now and see new baby platy wagtails omg I bought 2 pregnant fish. Trip to get a holding tank tmrw lol

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