# Vertical Molly...anybody know about this?



## homegirl2180 (Jul 6, 2007)

1. Size of aquarium (# of gallons) -47
2. Is your aquarium set up freshwater or saltwater? Freshwater
3. How long the aquarium has been setup? Since July 4th '07
4. What fish and how many are in the aquarium (species are important to know) -three mollies, four tetras, four platies, three gold barbs, one rosy barb, one neon flame rosy barb, six tiger barbs, one cory catfish, eight guppies, and three scissortail rasboras
5. Are there live plants in the aquarium? Anacharis, onion plant, water wysteria, moneywort, white ribbon plant, japanese grass, and um two others that I grew from bulbs but the names have escaped me. 
6. What make/model filter are you using? Emperor 400
7. Are you using a CO2 unit? no
8. Does your aquarium receive natural sunlight at any given part of the day? In an upstairs room with lots of windows but no direct light.
9. When did you perform your last water exchange, and how much water was changed? one week ago, 10%
10.How often and what foods do you feed your fish? twice a day, tropical flake food and sinking pellet (once a day for my cory catfish). Once a week they get freeze dried bloodworms or tubifex worms and about once every few months they get brine shrimp.
11.Is your aquarium light incandescent or fluorescent and how often is it kept on? fluorescent and it is kept on whenever I am upstairs working. So really only 4 hours a day or less.

12.What specific concerns bring you here at this time? I purchased a creamcicle lyretail molly from my LFS. I really have had a hard time with aggressive mollies but with the introduction of more fish in my tank and the girls giving birth to fry, the ones I own have become really tame, in fact, it looks like the girl mollies have become anorexic by comparison to how they used to look (they still eat though) and their tails and top fins are clamped all the time (i guess cus my tiger barbs might nip at them?). My main concern is this male molly I bought. He wasnt aggressive at all and kept to himself really, so I got him. But now he sits completely vertical. His gills are moving slowly, maybe too slow. He'll sit real still like that and then swim a little like he is waking up and then go back to being still. I put him in my breeder tank to let him rest and keep him from being bothered by the other fish. He is really very beautiful and I would like to know if there is anything I can do? Last fish I had that acted like this, I thought it was a swim bladder disorder...

13. Water are your water test results for: 
pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate? ph is 7.6 and ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are all 0ppm. 


THANKS


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## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

homegirl2180 said:


> it looks like the girl mollies have become anorexic by comparison to how they used to look (they still eat though) and their tails and top fins are clamped all the time (i guess cus my tiger barbs might nip at them?).


Mollies are almost always the first to react negatively if they are not satisfied with the environment. Does your lfs use salt when keeping mollies? Clamped fins and in skinny state are not good signs that your mollies are healthy. What temperature is the tank right now? What is the appearance of the fish waste?


> My main concern is this male molly I bought. He wasnt aggressive at all and kept to himself really, so I got him. But now he sits completely vertical. His gills are moving slowly, maybe too slow. He'll sit real still like that and then swim a little like he is waking up and then go back to being still. I put him in my breeder tank to let him rest and keep him from being bothered by the other fish. He is really very beautiful and I would like to know if there is anything I can do? Last fish I had that acted like this, I thought it was a swim bladder disorder...


When you bought this fish, have you observed anything unusual with it in the lfs tank? 

What test kit are you using? I think I should update the sticky thread questionnaire.


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## homegirl2180 (Jul 6, 2007)

> Mollies are almost always the first to react negatively if they are not satisfied with the environment. Does your lfs use salt when keeping mollies? Clamped fins and in skinny state are not good signs that your mollies are healthy. What temperature is the tank right now? What is the appearance of the fish waste?


I added salt when I first set up the aquarium, but i really haven't bee keeping up with adding it cus I have heard some fish just don't like it at all. The tank is 76 degrees. I haven't noticed the fish waste and am not at home to be able to check. As soon as I notice, i will post that also. 




> When you bought this fish, have you observed anything unusual with it in the lfs tank?


 Like I said, he was not aggressive and kept to himself. He was the second largest male in the tank with the first largest being incredibly aggressive. I thought he was so chilled out bc he wasnt the "alpha male." He just swims around by himself all the time. It wasnt until two days ago now that I saw him start going vertical. I put some fish food in the breeder tank I have him in and he doesnt seem very interested in it at all. Not a good sign I know. 



> What test kit are you using? I think I should update the sticky thread questionnaire.


I am using the Master Freshwater Test kit from Aquarium Pharmaceuticals (sp) that I bought for about $30 at PetSmart.

Glad I can help you make the best questionnaire for everyone!  Thanks for your help.


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## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

homegirl2180 said:


> I added salt when I first set up the aquarium, but i really haven't bee keeping up with adding it cus I have heard some fish just don't like it at all.


True but unless the mollies have been kept in salty conditions by your lfs, then the salt is not necessary. And in this case, keep them only with fish that are brackish water or have been adapted to salt.


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