Faelrin
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
I don't know if this the right forum or not for this, and if it isn't I hope someone could move it to the right one.
I'm absolutely freaking out right now, and I was really hesitant to post this, because I thought I knew what I was doing with them and I guess I don't and so I'm asking for help. I'm desperate. This is my first time having them and I tried to do as much research as I could when I got them, and I kept finding information that some people were saying yes do this, and others were saying no don't do this or that. I'm seriously confused and I'm wondering if my fish have been dying because of that.
So after asking for suggestions for my tank, I looked them up and found that none of those would probably survive in my tank because our water is hard here. So after looking up for fish that could survive (live bearer's) in my water, I went to the fish store and ended up going with two cremesicle lyretail mollies. Well I got home and got on the internet and researched like crazy (as well as acclimating them to both temperature first and then to my aquarium water before putting them in the tank). I saw already that one female was not enough and that I should have more. I used the one aquarium calculator out there and wanted to make sure I wasn't going to overstock the aquarium they would be in, and got two more a couple days after. So total of 4 fish in my ten gallon. I also added the api aquarium salt (2 tablespoons). There is also an automatic heater in the tank.
The females slowly started dying off. One after the first week (she was part of the second group), then the other (also part of the second group), and now my last female (and first) died either last night or this morning before I got up. Her belly was swollen and I'm wondering if it was because she was alone and she got stressed to death by the male, or if I wasn't feeding them properly in the first place (especially in the case of the first two since they died before I was able to pick up some food with spirulina in it), or a sickness. Her belly was not that swollen the day before.
I had been alternating tiny pinches of fish flakes, and bloodworms (one day fish flakes, one day bloodworms), until I could find some food with spirulina in it and started alternating and adding that in. The food I got with the spirulina were these small tank nibblets that you just press up against the side of the tank.
So I'd like to ask some questions and I want absolutely correct answers, because I'm sure my ignorance and maybe false information I found may have played a part in their deaths if it wasn't something else. I really don't like taking chances with living things which is why I researched like nuts the first day I got them, yet that wasn't enough apparently.
So are mollies brackish water fish and need salt? If they do what salt am I supposed to be using and how much per gallon or per 5 gallons?
What are they supposed to be eating? I'd like a feeding schedule to go off of too if possible so I can make sure I'm not under or overfeeding them.
Also final question even though this hasn't come to pass, I want to be ready if I'm going to keep these fish and if it does happen. If they breed, what do I do with the babies? What kind of tank should I get for them? Should I leave them to get eaten instead? Or is there a place I could take them to give them away or sell them away?
I just have the male left, and I want to get two more females for him so he's not alone, and because what I read up is that males don't get along with other males (is that even true?)
I'm absolutely freaking out right now, and I was really hesitant to post this, because I thought I knew what I was doing with them and I guess I don't and so I'm asking for help. I'm desperate. This is my first time having them and I tried to do as much research as I could when I got them, and I kept finding information that some people were saying yes do this, and others were saying no don't do this or that. I'm seriously confused and I'm wondering if my fish have been dying because of that.
So after asking for suggestions for my tank, I looked them up and found that none of those would probably survive in my tank because our water is hard here. So after looking up for fish that could survive (live bearer's) in my water, I went to the fish store and ended up going with two cremesicle lyretail mollies. Well I got home and got on the internet and researched like crazy (as well as acclimating them to both temperature first and then to my aquarium water before putting them in the tank). I saw already that one female was not enough and that I should have more. I used the one aquarium calculator out there and wanted to make sure I wasn't going to overstock the aquarium they would be in, and got two more a couple days after. So total of 4 fish in my ten gallon. I also added the api aquarium salt (2 tablespoons). There is also an automatic heater in the tank.
The females slowly started dying off. One after the first week (she was part of the second group), then the other (also part of the second group), and now my last female (and first) died either last night or this morning before I got up. Her belly was swollen and I'm wondering if it was because she was alone and she got stressed to death by the male, or if I wasn't feeding them properly in the first place (especially in the case of the first two since they died before I was able to pick up some food with spirulina in it), or a sickness. Her belly was not that swollen the day before.
I had been alternating tiny pinches of fish flakes, and bloodworms (one day fish flakes, one day bloodworms), until I could find some food with spirulina in it and started alternating and adding that in. The food I got with the spirulina were these small tank nibblets that you just press up against the side of the tank.
So I'd like to ask some questions and I want absolutely correct answers, because I'm sure my ignorance and maybe false information I found may have played a part in their deaths if it wasn't something else. I really don't like taking chances with living things which is why I researched like nuts the first day I got them, yet that wasn't enough apparently.
So are mollies brackish water fish and need salt? If they do what salt am I supposed to be using and how much per gallon or per 5 gallons?
What are they supposed to be eating? I'd like a feeding schedule to go off of too if possible so I can make sure I'm not under or overfeeding them.
Also final question even though this hasn't come to pass, I want to be ready if I'm going to keep these fish and if it does happen. If they breed, what do I do with the babies? What kind of tank should I get for them? Should I leave them to get eaten instead? Or is there a place I could take them to give them away or sell them away?
I just have the male left, and I want to get two more females for him so he's not alone, and because what I read up is that males don't get along with other males (is that even true?)