Mollies dying, New Tank Syndrome

bahamut285

Hello everyone, I figured I should post this here instead of the sister site for bettas.

My friend recently decided to dig out his old 10G and stocked it with two mollies (silver and black). It's heated and I think it only has a few plants, and probably barebottom. He is a fairly new aquarist and decided to ask me a bunch of questions since I'm (apparently) an expert.

He decided to stock it before asking questions, as most new aquarists do. Now he's having problems with them.

The only time I have EVER owned mollies was when it was my father's tank when I was like...8 years old.

Onto the problem...

The tank was super cloudy at first, so I just assured him it was NTS and that he should keep up with water changes to prevent ammonia from becoming toxic and killing everything. The tank was stocked on the 23rd of June, and the mollies were swimming away nicely, even though the tank was cloudy.

He messaged me today saying that yesterday, one of his mollies was swimming strictly at the surface, ignoring food and passed away this afternoon. By this time, the tank had cleared up and it wasn't cloudy anymore. He immediately took out the corpse and did a 50% waterchange. After the waterchange, the water became cloudy again, and now this time the other molly is swimming at the surface, ignoring food.

I know NOTHING about mollies other than the fact that they need warm water, but he told me he has a heater.

I personally always fishless cycle my tanks with fish food and I don't know anything about cycling fish-in style other than you gotta use a hardy species and you MUST keep up with water changes.


I read up a little bit about the gasping and a lot of forums/info sites recommended a bubbler for mollies, should I tell him to get one?

Sorry about the lack of information, this guy is not really my friend friend friend but more of an acquaintance/friend because he's a co-worker. I feel a little uncomfortable probing him with 1000000 questions that he probably won't know the answer to.

Thank you! :(

LasColinasCichlids

Ammonia spikes easily kill mollies. A 10 gallon is too small for mollies as well. They also require hard water. There are a number of reasons they died, most likely due to an un-cycled tank. The best thing you can do for him is to suggest he come here to TFK to get informed or to do research online or at a library about the chemistry part of an aquarium, and then the care needed for the particular fish he is interested in keeping.

Byron

I concur.

bahamut285

Hello Byron and LCC, thanks for your advice, I'll let him know right away!