Help for Ms. Molly

[stephanied]

I have a 30 gallon tank with 4 platies, 2 cory cats, and 1 female dalmation molly. I apparently have at least two of what I believe to be platy fry. Two days ago, I noticed my Molly swimming strangely. On first glance one would think its that "swim of death" you often see where they are struggling but she actually seems to feel fine and is almost having trouble keeping her balance. She is active and alert. She comes to the front of the tank as always when I am in the room. She appears at the top of the tank asking for food. After doing my effort at research I figured it might be a digestive issue...I did not feed the tank for 24 hours. I have a hard time sitting and doing nothing, so tonight the gang had some peeled cooked peas but Molly didnt get any or much that I could tell b/c the platys are faster and she doesnt seem to want to go to the bottom of the tank to get what fell. I have read all about salts but just not sure what to do. I dont want to add stress. I dont want to hurt the other fish. I dont want Ms. Molly to suffer or die either. Do I wait it out or do I do something? (Oh, the water parameters are fine. The ph is a little low but it is and has ALWAYS been on the lower side so I didnt want to overreact there either). Any advice is appreciated.

 

[jessipanda]

With your pH, how low is low? Like 6.8? From my limited knowledge, mollies need an alkaline pH. Fish that live in acidic water adapt to needing less nutrients since there's a lack of it in their natural environment. Therefore, they can usually adapt to slightly alkaline water. However, fish like mollies that are naturally accustomed to alkaline water absorb nutrients from the water and typically don't do well in acidic water.

I'm not sure about platies or cory cats as far as natural pH environments; I've never owned them or researched them. You should do a quick search about them and find out. If they're both acidic water fish and are doing fine in your tank, it may be what's causing your molly problems.

Good luck ?

 

[Matt68005]

Jessi, are there any fish farms by ocala?
You should go see if they raise mollies in normal vats ponds or tubs, or if they add something to the raising pen to make the water harder. That would end this debate with me.
Most of the aquarium fish in the usa are raised in florida with little to no water agumentation to my knowledge, and the ph in florida ranges from 6.2 to 6.6, hardly alkaline at all. Any fish is gonna thrive in the water it was born in, because they are instantly use to that particular water. It has absolutely nothing to do with the water their wild counterparts live in.
Betas like soft water in nature, for example, the water in thailand is very soft, how then am i able to raise them sucessfully in my GH 250 and PH 8.4 water?
Im not saying jessi is wrong by any means, mollies like hard water, so do guppies. Its just not always critical to "match" the water the fish likes in nature, because the mollies in your tank were born and raised in soft acidic florida water, not mexico's brackish swampland....

 

[Matt68005]

Sorry Stephanied, i did not even answer you i apoligise. It sounds like a swim bladder issue not the "shimmies"
It is not a digestive issue but a swim bladder issue, it usually resolves on its own and is not usually fatal.
Feed her the peas if you want, mollies love and need algae to eat, consider spirula or an algae based flake.... but it is from gulping air, not any digestive issue, unless it is both.
You can go get some limestone rock from menards or home depot or some rock construction store, and add that to the tank with the substrate if you really want to increase the Hardness some.
Do you feed any algae based flake regulary?

 

[Sniperhank]

Hi there.
This thread has been cleaned up pretty heavily due to an off topic debate of personal attacks. As per our community rules:

Personal attacks on others will not be tolerated. Challenge others' points of view and opinions, but do so respectfully and thoughtfully. Excessive sarcasm, belligerence, insults, name calling, profanity, anger, offensive comments about race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and national origin, are not acceptable.

Due to this, the thread has been cleaned up. Any further issues will result in this thread being closed. Lets keep it civil so we can help the OP.