I was wondering if any one could help me with an aquarium problem? I have a 10 gal. set up for about a month, I bought 3 fish (2 mollies and 1 corry cat) after it had set for a day. One of the mollies was female and had babies to my surprize, well she died and the babies lasted a week, then the male mollie died for no aparent reason. I changed half the water and and bought 2 more sailfin mollies, male and female, the corry is doing fine. I also bought 2 balloon mollies. The balloon mollies died the next day, so I took them back and got 2 more, they both died the next day. The male sailfin had been chasing them relentlessly. Now the sailfin and the corry seam to be fine. I have changed half the water again today. The temp stays around 79 to 80 degrees. My question is.... why would the baloon mollies die and the others be fine? Is it just that those type of fish are to sensitive? I don't think I will buy any more of them. This is not the first tank I have had, I have had them since I was a young girl and just sold my 55 gal and went to the 10. I have always had at least a 29 and I have kept goldfish and tropicals most of my life but this has me stumped. Any ideas?
It has been a while since I had Mollies of any type in my aquarium, but I can testify to the Resilience of the Cory Cats. I have had cory's and they outlive everything. Seems to me that if I remembe correctly that the mollies actually licked to have some salt in their water, ie brackish. Don't know if this helps.
You may have some kind of disease in the tank. A small tank is more difficult to keep than a large one, as it doesn't take much to go wrong to wipe out the whole thing. Fozzy is right, mollies like brackish water.
NWW, as a kid I worked in the local pet store which was owned by an Ichthyologist. For new tanks he started people out with one or two goldfish or mollies and he told them not to expect these fish to survive. The purpose of these fish was to "break in" the tank. It sounds like your tank hasn't developed the beneficial bacteria that convert toxic fish waste into safe compounds. Changing the water will help the fish somewhat, but changing half of the water can also be another source of stress. What type of filter do you have?
I have an outside charcoal filter, I also have an air ornament. Right now I have had 3 fish survive for several days. I put in 2 plattys and 2 guppys, they seam to be doing fine, I think part of the problem is a Sailfin molly male that has been chasing the others around, I am thinking of exchanging him for something else.