Why is my Silver Molly swimming so crazy?
Ok well I have recently lost two fish one black molly and one dalmation molly. so I have two silver mollies and 2 creamsicle mollies 1 black molly and 1 dalmation molly in a 28 gal tank. Well here a little history. My tank has been up now for about 3 weeks. A few days ago I noticed the water changing kind of cloudy. So i went to my local pet store where I bought them and I was told that water was just growing “good bacteria and it should clear up. So then one of my black mollies died. Then I notice one of my silver mollies swimming kind of odd. She is kind of on her side or upside down or vertical. It’s like she is trying so hard to flip over but she just can’t. So i had the water tested and the lady tells me the ammonia is high to do a 25% water change. So i did that and the tank cleared up a bit. So i usually do a fish count and observe them once or twice a day. So yesterday all that remained were there. Everything was fine except my silver molly. Then last night one of my dalmatian mollies died. Well now my tank is clear and my silver molly still looks like she is having a stroke still. Of course I don’t expect instant changes in her but what else can I do? I’m worried about her of course don’t want to loose another fish.
Would you recommend I daily change the water? And I was told not to add anything to the water because I was going to be a treatment to help with the ammonia. The chic told not to add to many chemicals because it would completely destroy my water. And how long does treatment take?
I was also told she may have eaten too much oxygen.
Oh and the symtoms of ammonia poisoning..Fish gasp for breath at the water surface
Purple or red gills
Fish is lethargic
Fins are torn & jagged
Loss of appetite
Fish lays at the bottom of the tank
Fish may appear darker in color
Red streaking on the fins or body
She doesn’t have any of them she just floats at the top trying to swim around.
Yep, as soon as I saw the question “Why is my silver molly swimming so crazy,” I knew it’d be ammonia poisoning.
You cannot run a tank in using mollies – they cannot tolerate ammonia or nitrite poisoning.
Whoever told you that you could fibbed to you, sorry.
Do a very large water change (big as you can get away with), use dechlorinated water and add MicrobeLift Niteout II to get loads of nitrifying bacteria into the water column – they will then colonise the filter, but you need them processing the ammonia STRAIGHT AWAY!
Don’t feed for three days, and then only feed sparingly every other day.
Don’t even touch the filter – leave it to tick over, and keep testing your water parameters – if you see the ammonia or nitrite levels even begin to pick up, water change.
A lot of people will disagree with this, but 50% in one go is not too much. This is about the only chance your fish has got.
Remember with bad water – if you’re in a room full of gas, you get out quick; that’s why big water changes when the conditions are already lethal are the only way to save the fish. Just watch the temperature – don’t chill or boil the fish – touch-match the temperatures, you don’t need to be mega-strict but get it close.
Good luck!
Hi! Further to your additional notes – I’ve seen what happens to mollies exposed to immediate rise in toxic ammonia levels, and they swim violently and madly in circles or just fit until they die; it seems to be particular to them.
It is possible that your molly has ingested air in it’s gut, which would cause it to float awkwardly – this does indeed happen with fancy goldfish. What makes me think this might not be the case is fancy goldfish have a compressed and deformed bodyshape, so the gut is more likely to trap air in it which will take a few days to work through. A naturally-shaped molly is adapted to surface-feed and has a less compressed stomach, so that ingested air should pass through quite swiftly.
As far as additives are concerned, use of tapwater conditioner (essential) shouldn’t create any problems but eradicate them, and a bacterial culture will boost your filter’s capacity to work correctly. In my experience this action can only help. If you want/need to change water daily then go right ahead – this creates superior ‘turnover’ and recreates a natural through-flow as found in a river. The idea is just to keep diluting ammonia and nitrite down to a safe level. With NiteOut, treatment time may be as little as ten days or a week; it depends on the amount of waste to be processed versus the quantity of bacteria – like a secretary’s ever-filling in-tray! If loads of waste keeps being generated it’ll take longer, so very sparing feeding speeds up treatment.
Is your fish still hanging in there? (fingers crossed)