Total newbie needs help....PLEASE

[Katfish]

Sorry for crashing in, but I am totally new to fish keeping and have a problem with our fish.

Firstly, our tank is only a month old and has 2 swordtail, 1 dalmation molly (female) & 1 black molly (male).

The black molly is always chasing and nipping at the dalmation molly. He seems to make her go to the side of the tank and stay there, when she come out he just chases her back. He doesnt bother the swordtail, yet they seem to stay out of his way most of the time.

Im not sure if this is normal as I stupidly let my 3 yr old talk me into getting an aquarium that I know nothing about.

Do I just leave them be or do I need to intervene?:confused:

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

Katie

[gm72]

Let's get a little information so we may properly help you.
1. Tank size
2. Filtration
3. How often you change the water
4. Water parameters. If you don't have a test kit for at least ammonia, nitrIte, and nitrAte, you need one.

[Katfish]

Let's get a little information so we may properly help you.
1. Tank size
2. Filtration
3. How often you change the water
4. Water parameters. If you don't have a test kit for at least ammonia, nitrIte, and nitrAte, you need one.

Sorry,

Tank size - 90 litres
Filtration - Not sure what you mean, I have an Aqua One tank with a built in filter at the top? (sorry)
Water Change - At the mo every 4-5 days as they nitrite was a little high.
Water Parameters - Nitrite a little high (tested this evening), everything else ok. (not cloudy, water checked yesterday at aquarium shop)

HTH

[shockshockshad]

We need to know the EXACT perimeters. you know like, 8, 1.5, 4.7, etc...

did you cycle?

[Katfish]

We need to know the EXACT perimeters. you know like, 8, 1.5, 4.7, etc...

did you cycle?


Sorry, I have no idea what the numbers are or what you mean by cycle?

I have been using the aquarium shop for help and advice so not up on all the correct terms.

Sorry. I will go back to the shop on monday and ask them.

Katie x

[WCMMinnow]

it's best to have 2 or 3 females per male, so that one female isn't being harassed at all times

a cycled tank would be...
ammonia=0
nitrIte=0
nitrAte=somewhere between 5 and 40... try to keep it at 20 or less by doing weekly water changes of at least 25% of the water

[Katfish]

it's best to have 2 or 3 females per male, so that one female isn't being harassed at all times

a cycled tank would be...
ammonia=0
nitrIte=0
nitrAte=somewhere between 5 and 40... try to keep it at 20 or less by doing weekly water changes of at least 25% of the water

Thank you, I only have nitrite tester kit, which shows less than 0.25 on the indicator (darker blue). I was changing the water every day but it just made it worse.

I will buy the other kits on monday.

But I shouldnt add any more fish until the water is better (even though aquarium shop said the water is fine) so will my female be ok for a couple of weeks?

[WCMMinnow]

so it's 90 litres? lol i only know gallons... anyways, is there anything in the tank for the fish to hide? like plants or decor?

[NickFish]

The water parameters are important but that isn't what's making your 1 molly chase the other. If there aren't enough females to males the males will always chase the female. Often this results in the death of the female. This is true with almost all livebearers.
Make sure you have 1 male to 3 females so that the aggression is spread out over all the fish without actually harming any of them.

[Pr0eve]

90liters is a little over 20g. 23.775-blah blah blah..

[Katfish]

There are 2 spongebob squarepants houses, 3 large leafy ornaments and some smaller ones along with some spongebob figures. (DD wanted the tank and chose decs)

[NickFish]

so it's 90 litres? lol i only know gallons...

90 litres is exactly 19.7972 gallons.
There are a lot of metric conversion sites out there just pick one:ezpi_wink1:
I used [Only Registered Users Can See Links.]
for that

[shockshockshad]

You NEED to cycle. I will tell the LONG story short.........

When fish eat, they obviously digest it and get rid of it. well that waste comes out as ammonia. ammonia kills fish. when ammonia is present, bacteria grow and consume it and that bacteria has nitrIte as a waste. ANOTHER type of bacteria eats the nitrIte and turns it into nitrAte. nitrite can kill fish too. nitrate can kill fish at high levels.


So to get the bacteria to grow, you need to cycle. go to how to to learn how to cycle with fish, and go to beginners section to learn fishless cycling (the much better and more humane way in my opinion)

the numbers are parts per million. it should tell you on your test kit.

[Katfish]

You NEED to cycle. I will tell the LONG story short.........

When fish eat, they obviously digest it and get rid of it. well that waste comes out as ammonia. ammonia kills fish. when ammonia is present, bacteria grow and consume it and that bacteria has nitrIte as a waste. ANOTHER type of bacteria eats the nitrIte and turns it into nitrAte. nitrite can kill fish too. nitrate can kill fish at high levels.


So to get the bacteria to grow, you need to cycle. go to how to to learn how to cycle with fish, and go to beginners section to learn fishless cycling (the much better and more humane way in my opinion)

the numbers are parts per million. it should tell you on your test kit.

Thank you, I was just reading that thread, I will buy some more kits so I know whats going on with the water. The nitrite levels are less than 0.25mg/l. The aquarium shop told me to keep the light on longer to help the bacteria in the tank? but never mentioned adding salt?

Its late and my brain is not in gear so I will re-read it again tomorrow before I do anything.

Thanks to you all. Have repped ya.

[shockshockshad]

what about salt? salt does nothing in a cycle.

[SkarloeysMom]

Hey Katfish, welcome to the forum! You might want to download the Free Aquarium Ebook available on the left hand menu of this site and give it a read. It will bring you up on all the terms you need to know and explain how to cycle and why its important to keeping your fish healthy.

You are probably cycling your fish since the tank is 23g and has been running with the fish for a month. The fact that your doing water changes every 4 days or so is probably why your fish are not showing signs of illness. Once you get your other test kits you can figure out where you are in the cycle.

I think the other posters have explained the problem with your mollies but as I think someone else said until you know if the tank is cycled it would be best to wait to add more fish. One other question for you, how much water are you changing out when you do the water changes?

[Katfish]

One other question for you, how much water are you changing out when you do the water changes?

I change 25% of the water, and add a water conditioner.

[Katfish]

what about salt? salt does nothing in a cycle.

Am I understanding this wrong, on one of the stickys it says...

Salt

One of the few uses of salt (I'm referring to NaCl, table salt). The chloride ion in table salt inhibits the uptake of nitrite, effectively preventing most of it from entering the bloodstream of a fish. The usual dosage is 1 tablespoon per 10 gallons of water. If you are unfortunate enough to have any type of catfish (cory, oto, etc) or loaches (clown, yoyo, etc) in the tank, OR live plants, you can't go this way, as all are sensitive to any amount of NaCl (most live plants can tolerate a small level of it though)


Isnt that supposed to help?

[Lady Hobbs]

Sorry Katfish, you asked a pretty simple question and got bombarded with 20 others.

Minnow mentioned that to one male, you need several females. Simply having a pair doesn't mean they will like one another. I had 3 Dalmations and had the same problem with one always being brutalized.

That ended the live-bearers for me. With nearly all fish, you'll always have an alpha male and alpha female. Someone always rules the roost.

Mollies also like salt. Aquarium salt not table salt. Or Kosher salt which is the same as tank salt. Table salt has been iodized and should not be used on fish altho there is a non-iodized that can be purchased. It may contain clumping agents, however. Best to stick with tank salt.

Sometimes the fish we pick out when we start this hobby isn't the fish we thought we'd like. We've all gotten fish like that.

You might enjoy having a group of tetra's instead. But if you like the Molly and want to continue to keep those you have, I would suggest you get several more females, add some floating plants and make sure you have lots of hiding spaces. They will breed like rabbits, as well.

You may have to get rid of the dominate male as some fish are just plain mean and will always keep others hostage. Fish are like little people, you know. There's always got to be one that just can't be pleased and is never happy. :)

Altho you are new to the hobby, you are doing very well with your concern about fish that are being brutalized. None of us like to see that since the poor things are trapped in a glass box forever. I always figure it can't be much fun living like that. You're doing very well to recognize this is not good and to question it.

[SkarloeysMom]

You may have to get rid of the dominate male as some fish are just plain mean and will always keep others hostage.

I agree with Hobbs on all counts. I was also going to suggest that maybe you could see about taking the mean Molly back to the shop but I realize that this is a tank your keeping for your DD. I'm sure you'll probably have to convince her that the Molly needs to go back or you'll never hear the end of it. I had to take a female guppies back for the same reason. It solved a lot of problems in my community tank.

[nanaglen2001]

The problem isnt the water, its simply Mollies normaly live in kind of schools. Not like Neon tetras or barbs, they school much more loosley. And the best way to keep them is lets say 2 males and at least 8 females, and lots of plants.

I wouuld stock the tank with as much plants as possible. The plants are needed by the females to hide from the always chasing males.

The in the next comming weeks I would do a hearty water change at least every 3 days, until the Nitrite is very much below those numbers you now have, and stays low.

[Pr0eve]

90 litres is exactly 19.7972 gallons.
There are a lot of metric conversion sites out there just pick one:ezpi_wink1:
I used [Only Registered Users Can See Links.]
for that


thats UK gallons, not US Gallons, this is why the USA need to change over to metric. lol....

[SkarloeysMom]

thats UK gallons, not US Gallons, this is why the USA need to change over to metric. lol....

HA! Sounds like the US and UK need to agree on what a gallon is!

[Katfish]

Back again, thanks you all for the advice, I think the mollie is going back to the shop tomorrow, its not fair on the female.

I bought a proper tester kit as suggested. As already stated, my tank is an Aqua One AR-620, 90 litre, with an integrated filer in the lid. My readings are

Amonia - 1.0 mg/l
NitrIte - 1.0 mg/l
NitrAte - 5 mg/l

Im not sure about the PH, it was darkers blue (7.6) so I also tested for High PH and the colour did not match any.

:confused:

So do I need to keep changing the water every other day (or more regular), and will the biological filter become established or do I need to do something to help it along?

I have read the e-book but its like everything, general and I dont know enough about aquarium keeping to be able to use the info to my situation.

Sorry for being a pain guys, :14: I will get it though, eventually...

Katie x

[kurly]

You aren't being a pain at all so please don't feel that way. We all have questions especially when we are new to fishkeeping and are here to help each other. That is why I love this site so much! :luxlove:

[SkarloeysMom]

Sorry for the delay in responding. If you have a Nitrate reading then it seems like you should be close to being done with your cycle. Your ammonia and nitrites are very high still so you'll need to do a fairly big water change to lower those numbers. You'll just have to keep testing and doing big water changes when the those numbers get up there again. You do need to keep up the water changes until your ammonia and nitrite test 0 and you have a Nitrate reading.

I think you might want to test your water straight out of the tap to see if you have ammonia. Some city's water supplies do have it, ours does. If you do you'll need to use a water conditioner that removes ammonia so that you're not feeding your cycle with every water change.

Try testing your tap water for Ph too. Its good to know what you're working with so you'll know what kind of fish will do well in your water without too much messy about.


What water conditioner are you using? Sorry if I already asked this. I'm going Christmas crazy here.