# Dalmatian mollies suddenly very scared



## sploopsploop (Aug 12, 2011)

Hi,

I just put in 4 amano shrimp and did a 6 gallon water change in my planted 29g tank; suddenly, my horde of dalmatian mollies is incredibly jumpy. Whenever I get near the tank or something moves or changes, they all freak out and jump at the surface. It's a miracle none of them have jumped out yet. Does anybody know why this could happen so quickly and what I could do to remedy it? For now, I've turned off the lights and turned on the moonlights to hopefully make them see a bit less motion. The amano are pretty small, so I kind-of doubt it'd be that... didn't mix store water with my tank's water either, although they're from a healthy tank at a LFS.

Here are the specs on the tank:
29G, eco-complete & well planted, 3WPG 6500k light, DIY CO2
Last night's test results:
7.0pH
0 ppm ammonia
.25 ppm nitrites
20 ppm nitrates
4 dkH, 143.2ppm GH/KH

I'm worried that maybe something happened to our plumbing and there was something in the new bucket of water to scare them?  They're mostly hanging out at the surface, jumping all over the place when one of them gets spooked (although the other species, like tetras & glass cats, are still in their normal spots acting calm...).

Thanks for any and all help.


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## GwenInNM (Feb 2, 2011)

sploopsploop said:


> Hi,
> 
> I just put in 4 amano shrimp and did a 6 gallon water change in my planted 29g tank; suddenly, my horde of dalmatian mollies is incredibly jumpy. Whenever I get near the tank or something moves or changes, they all freak out and jump at the surface. It's a miracle none of them have jumped out yet. Does anybody know why this could happen so quickly and what I could do to remedy it? For now, I've turned off the lights and turned on the moonlights to hopefully make them see a bit less motion. The amano are pretty small, so I kind-of doubt it'd be that... didn't mix store water with my tank's water either, although they're from a healthy tank at a LFS.
> 
> ...



I'm betting it's your nitrites. .25 if high enough to cause stress in fish. Why do you have nitrites? Is your tank still cycling? I don't know what else it could be. Keep doing water changes, till you get that to 0, and use Prime to help temporarily block the effects of nitrites until they are gone. You should also test your tap water for these things too.

Gwen


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