sick molly

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AwesomeMarioFan

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Apr 9, 2014
Messages
11
I have a guppy and silver molly in my tank, my molly after 2 weeks looked it had trouble breathing and would turn head up, turn backwards, then reorient itself again. Tested the water and nitrites high, did 50% and then 25% water change next day, but still high. I vacuumed the rocks and found food and my filter was dirty so I changed filter. Should I have waited to get fish until it cycled? How can I help my molly fish? (My guppy seems to tolerate it okay.)
 
Well yes you should always wait, and the best thing to do with the Molly is exchange it for another at the store.
 
Well yes you should always wait, and the best thing to do with the Molly is exchange it for another at the store.
Ah,
The tank we got was cycled with the beginners kit for 48 hours, then we put the fish in. Would it be better to wait a few weeks/a month?
 
Well, a month is a LONG wait, I thought you meant you put water in and then the same night put the fish in. 48 hours is longer than I waited
 
Well, a month is a LONG wait, I thought you meant you put water in and then the same night put the fish in. 48 hours is longer than I waited

Read up on the nitrogen cycle, you probably did fish in cylcing, and I don't want to start the war again. I'm talking about fish less cycling.
 
My best advice right now besides the reading as sugested is keep doing water changes multiple times per day at this point as much as you can, watch for secondary infections that can come about from stress, see if you can get your hands on some fulter pads from an established and healthy aquarium (or gravel or decor...dont wash it and put it in...and if that fails, get a bottle of biospira to try and establish the nitrifying bacteria. I have read some really good things about that product specifically.
Water changes are your best friend in this situation. Every time you do it you will reduce the amount of Nitrite that is currently creating a toxic environment for your fish. You may have to keep it up for a while if you can't get that bacteria population bumped up, just make sure you are using prime or a dechlorinator every time you water change at the approriate level. If you are not sure how much water you removed over estimate it, you don't want to add chlorine problems and kill off the bacteria you already have going.

Hang in there, many of us discovered helpful communities like this because we didn't know about the full meaning of the cycle process and everything going on that is unseen.
 
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