I'm new to the hobby and I'm having a problem with my mollies.
I have a 36 gallon bowfront tank with:
5 Mollies (3 silver female, 1 dalmation female, 1 black male)
6 Green tiger barbs
1 Oto cat
1 Incredibly Chill Clarkii Crayfish (seriously he wouldn't hurt a fly. We had feeder fish in with him in his original smaller tank and they survived for 4 monthes without so much as a threatening posture from him)
Water parameters are in perfect order and haven't changed since I cycled the tank.
No ammonia, no nitrites and no nitrates
Steady 7.0 PH
Light salinity (2 teaspoons of AQ salt in the whole tank)
kH at just over 40 ppm
gH at 30 ppm
I know the kH and gH are a little high but the water around here is already pretty high and I use sodium bicarbonate to adjust PH as the water is a tad acidic here too.
The tank is also lightly planted with 5 anubiases and a floating wad of hornwort.
Now for the actual problem. A little while ago (about a week), my mollies very suddenly got incredibly skittish with no discernable reason for it. They dart and hide, occasionally impacting with the side of the tank, at the slightest provocation. They all seem to have their frills up at all times. This is very strange behavior as they were very friendly prior.
Soon after, my barbs got skittish too, but I feel like that's a reaction to the mollies as they were fine for a few days after the mollies started being weird.
The only two inhabitants to exhibit normal behavior now are the Oto cat and the clarkii, both of which act as though nothing is wrong.
It bears mentioning that all 4 of my female mollies are pregnant and prior to this outbreak of strange behavior, two were becoming rather rectangular and were, I assume, ready to birth.
Curiously, I did a light water change recently and they briefly reverted to their old selves. They even let me touch them. The next day they were darting again however.
I am at a loss, and could use some help.
I have a 36 gallon bowfront tank with:
5 Mollies (3 silver female, 1 dalmation female, 1 black male)
6 Green tiger barbs
1 Oto cat
1 Incredibly Chill Clarkii Crayfish (seriously he wouldn't hurt a fly. We had feeder fish in with him in his original smaller tank and they survived for 4 monthes without so much as a threatening posture from him)
Water parameters are in perfect order and haven't changed since I cycled the tank.
No ammonia, no nitrites and no nitrates
Steady 7.0 PH
Light salinity (2 teaspoons of AQ salt in the whole tank)
kH at just over 40 ppm
gH at 30 ppm
I know the kH and gH are a little high but the water around here is already pretty high and I use sodium bicarbonate to adjust PH as the water is a tad acidic here too.
The tank is also lightly planted with 5 anubiases and a floating wad of hornwort.
Now for the actual problem. A little while ago (about a week), my mollies very suddenly got incredibly skittish with no discernable reason for it. They dart and hide, occasionally impacting with the side of the tank, at the slightest provocation. They all seem to have their frills up at all times. This is very strange behavior as they were very friendly prior.
Soon after, my barbs got skittish too, but I feel like that's a reaction to the mollies as they were fine for a few days after the mollies started being weird.
The only two inhabitants to exhibit normal behavior now are the Oto cat and the clarkii, both of which act as though nothing is wrong.
It bears mentioning that all 4 of my female mollies are pregnant and prior to this outbreak of strange behavior, two were becoming rather rectangular and were, I assume, ready to birth.
Curiously, I did a light water change recently and they briefly reverted to their old selves. They even let me touch them. The next day they were darting again however.
I am at a loss, and could use some help.