631GCLaredo
Aquarium Advice Newbie
- Joined
- Mar 9, 2015
- Messages
- 3
Hey now, about 7 weeks ago I set up a ten gallon. I ended up with 3 mollies and one wag tail platy from Petsmart. I was going to get more but, thank god because this turned out to me almost too much. The only warning I got from a girl who worked at the store said that mollies make "a lot of ammonia" So, four fish in that small tank I could see how bad the water got within a few days of a water change. Not good. There is one female Datamation who would chase away the black male molly during feeding. Now, she grew and the black molly keeps getting stress and ich. I blame it on poor water quality and got into this cycle of just doing water changes, then I got a bottle of pimafix. The whole time I kept putting off ordering a new filter cartridge. So I was on the same filter for over 5 weeks and since I did so many water changes and rinsed the filter in my sink I thought it was ok. The last week has been no filter because it says to remove the carbon so the pimafix can work. So, yesterday was sunday and after a long weekend of work I knew the water needed to be changed because the ich on the black molly would not go away and hes floating at the top of the tank!
When I did the water change, I had my mom help me and we moved the whole tank over a few feet to sit on a brand new stand from petco. So, the water was on the cold side because I figure colder is less likely to spread germs and ich. My biggest fish the silver molly never liked water change. He would always sit on the gravel with his fins down. But, after a few hours would spring back. And the same thing happened with the water change, moving of the tank. He looked stressed, not eating, caught him just floating by the heater. And I thought to myself "this thing will die" Sure enough, around 11 at night I turn off the light because I figure the black molly has stress. I thought by the time I wake up today they medicine will take effect the water will be brand new and clear. And my new filter cartridges will come this week in the mail from walmart. When I woke up today, I turned on the light and my silver molly was dead stuck to the filter. He was the biggest, he had so much blue color and fun to watch him swim. I gave him so much special color enhancing flakes that even his fin tips were turning red. But, I kept having problems with ich and when I gave them frozen blood worms, the ammonia levels must have spiked and I never got it under control. I kept doing water changes every week or so. So annoying, I know there will be post saying I did this and this wrong. The truth is I was reacting to how these fish were reacting. I over fed them once to many times, one gets ich, I do water changes. Silver molly is stressed, black molly had ich. Remove filter cartridge and add pimafix. Water changes now shock and death. In the future what should I do different? Maybe less water switched when I clean the tank or add hotter water then cold. Is hotter water 77-82 degrees safer then colder? I did a water change and it was mid to lower 70s. I saw my Silver molly floating by the heater. I figure he might die or he could just wait overnight for the heater to warm up the water. He ended up dead. I'm in the process of setting up a 55 gallon tank. This way when i go to replace the silver molly I will do the buy two get one free at petsmart. I just hope I get one just as cute with as much color as the one I had, this is very sad.
When I did the water change, I had my mom help me and we moved the whole tank over a few feet to sit on a brand new stand from petco. So, the water was on the cold side because I figure colder is less likely to spread germs and ich. My biggest fish the silver molly never liked water change. He would always sit on the gravel with his fins down. But, after a few hours would spring back. And the same thing happened with the water change, moving of the tank. He looked stressed, not eating, caught him just floating by the heater. And I thought to myself "this thing will die" Sure enough, around 11 at night I turn off the light because I figure the black molly has stress. I thought by the time I wake up today they medicine will take effect the water will be brand new and clear. And my new filter cartridges will come this week in the mail from walmart. When I woke up today, I turned on the light and my silver molly was dead stuck to the filter. He was the biggest, he had so much blue color and fun to watch him swim. I gave him so much special color enhancing flakes that even his fin tips were turning red. But, I kept having problems with ich and when I gave them frozen blood worms, the ammonia levels must have spiked and I never got it under control. I kept doing water changes every week or so. So annoying, I know there will be post saying I did this and this wrong. The truth is I was reacting to how these fish were reacting. I over fed them once to many times, one gets ich, I do water changes. Silver molly is stressed, black molly had ich. Remove filter cartridge and add pimafix. Water changes now shock and death. In the future what should I do different? Maybe less water switched when I clean the tank or add hotter water then cold. Is hotter water 77-82 degrees safer then colder? I did a water change and it was mid to lower 70s. I saw my Silver molly floating by the heater. I figure he might die or he could just wait overnight for the heater to warm up the water. He ended up dead. I'm in the process of setting up a 55 gallon tank. This way when i go to replace the silver molly I will do the buy two get one free at petsmart. I just hope I get one just as cute with as much color as the one I had, this is very sad.
If the water change was so bad then why are the other two still alive? The thing is, I have a heater that is automatic so I can't adjust the temp! I just ordered three boxes of cartridges with 6 filters each. I thought they needed to be changed once a month and this would be a 1 and 1/2 supply. So frustrating because I get these fish and right away. I give them too much food, I have to unplug the filter so its not sucked up every time. They go to the bathroom over and over and I did my water changes. My black molly got ich, I would have been better off leaving the dirty water and just dumping in more pimafix. But, to me that is the lazy way and i just had to "get it over with" and did a 50% water change with cold water and now my little guy died. Plus the other one is still floating at the top. Within the next two weeks I'm getting the 55 gallon set up and that is where the fish will go.
