ubuntootoo
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Hi Everyone,
This is my first post on here, or any other aquarium forum for that matter. I have a problem but maybe first a bit about my fishkeeping history.
I have only kept tropical freshwater fish once before, for about 4 years and that was about 24 years ago (when 15). I had a 4ft tank with a mixed community setup. It had undergravel filter plus an internal pump type filter with a foam element below motor if that makes sense. Apart from a couple of cases of white spot I never had any problems. I didn't even know about conditioning tap water etc but all seemed fine. I never knew about testing kits or anything like that.
This April I bought my wife an aquarium as a present. It was a secondhand item complete with pump, ornaments, light etc. I bought new gravel and a heater. The tank is 60cm x 30cm x 30cm.
I set it up and left it for two weeks before adding some fish. We don't have many so I doubt overcrowding is a problem. They are 3 small Neon Tetra's, 3 barbs (they look like tiger barbs but I think they were another name, still stripey anyway), and there were 5 mollies, so 11 small fish in all (all under 1.5 inches long)
The temp is about 78 degrees. The tank did not come with an undergravel filter. It just has an internal pump with a foam filter on the side of the tank near the surface creating lots of water movement.
Anyway...
All was fine until about a month ago. One of the Mollies became very lethargic and over a few days it grew bloated with its scales all sticking up. I think this was signs of dropsy. That fish died so I kept a close eye on the other fish for signs of illness.
After a couple of weeks things still looked ok so I assumed there were no more problems. A few days ago 2 of the mollies are laying on or near the bottom, not moving much, and one is very bloated, the other looks normal. The other 2 mollies are absolutely normal as are the other neons and barbs.
Since getting the tank I have been doing partial water changes every 2 weeks, changing about 25% of the water with untreated tap water (didn't know I should add stuff to it). Yesterday I did another water change. Today I bought a water testing kit and a bacterial treament. The water testing kit was the litmus paper type (don't know if there are any other types.)
The results are:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate: 250
Nitrite: 0
GH: 250
KH: 100
PH: 7.2
From the leaflet in the testing kit it seems that nitrate is acceptable at that level, as are all the other readings. Is that correct?
What is happening to my mollies? Could they be pregnant or are they ill?
One situation I do have which I never had years ago is snails. Lots and lots of the bloody things. They must have arrived on the plants. Every other day I pick out the ones I can see but they just keep coming back. Are they a problem?
Finally, I feed them on normal flake, and sometimes frozen bloodworm.
I can email photos if anyone wants to see them.
Thanks for the help. Sorry for a long post but wanted to give as much info as possible,
This is my first post on here, or any other aquarium forum for that matter. I have a problem but maybe first a bit about my fishkeeping history.
I have only kept tropical freshwater fish once before, for about 4 years and that was about 24 years ago (when 15). I had a 4ft tank with a mixed community setup. It had undergravel filter plus an internal pump type filter with a foam element below motor if that makes sense. Apart from a couple of cases of white spot I never had any problems. I didn't even know about conditioning tap water etc but all seemed fine. I never knew about testing kits or anything like that.
This April I bought my wife an aquarium as a present. It was a secondhand item complete with pump, ornaments, light etc. I bought new gravel and a heater. The tank is 60cm x 30cm x 30cm.
I set it up and left it for two weeks before adding some fish. We don't have many so I doubt overcrowding is a problem. They are 3 small Neon Tetra's, 3 barbs (they look like tiger barbs but I think they were another name, still stripey anyway), and there were 5 mollies, so 11 small fish in all (all under 1.5 inches long)
The temp is about 78 degrees. The tank did not come with an undergravel filter. It just has an internal pump with a foam filter on the side of the tank near the surface creating lots of water movement.
Anyway...
All was fine until about a month ago. One of the Mollies became very lethargic and over a few days it grew bloated with its scales all sticking up. I think this was signs of dropsy. That fish died so I kept a close eye on the other fish for signs of illness.
After a couple of weeks things still looked ok so I assumed there were no more problems. A few days ago 2 of the mollies are laying on or near the bottom, not moving much, and one is very bloated, the other looks normal. The other 2 mollies are absolutely normal as are the other neons and barbs.
Since getting the tank I have been doing partial water changes every 2 weeks, changing about 25% of the water with untreated tap water (didn't know I should add stuff to it). Yesterday I did another water change. Today I bought a water testing kit and a bacterial treament. The water testing kit was the litmus paper type (don't know if there are any other types.)
The results are:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate: 250
Nitrite: 0
GH: 250
KH: 100
PH: 7.2
From the leaflet in the testing kit it seems that nitrate is acceptable at that level, as are all the other readings. Is that correct?
What is happening to my mollies? Could they be pregnant or are they ill?
One situation I do have which I never had years ago is snails. Lots and lots of the bloody things. They must have arrived on the plants. Every other day I pick out the ones I can see but they just keep coming back. Are they a problem?
Finally, I feed them on normal flake, and sometimes frozen bloodworm.
I can email photos if anyone wants to see them.
Thanks for the help. Sorry for a long post but wanted to give as much info as possible,