Poorly Balloon Molly? Please Help!

Unfortunately you are a victim of poor advice from the shop. You are now doing something called a fish-in cycle and it's going to involve some hard work for you for several weeks.

Ignore the pH level and nitrAte for now, they are not important. You need to concentrate on ammonia and nitrIte.

Fish excrete ammonia, it's the fish version of urine. But ammonia is toxic to them, it burns their skin and gills making it harder for the gills to absorb oxygen. In a mature tank, there are bacteria in the filter that eat this ammonia and turn it into nitrite. This is also toxic - it sticks to the fish's blood cells blocking oxygen from sticking on the cells. In a mature filter, another colony of bacteria uses nitrite as food and turns it into nitrate, which is much less toxic and only dangerous at high levels.
The problem is that there are no bacteria in a new filter; these bacteria are very slow growing and it takes several weeks to grow enough of them.

When you first put fish in the tank, they started excreting ammonia straight away, and this built up in the water as there were no bacteria to eat it. The nitrite level would have been zero as there was none being made because you didn't have any ammonia eating bacteria. Slowly, the very few ammonia eaters in the tap water you put in the tank will multiply. It will take weeks for enough of them to grow to eat all the ammonia continually being made by the fish. As the ammonia eaters multiply, they will make nitrite and this too will build up until enough nitrite eating bacteria have grown to eat it all.

You need to test the tank water twice a day for ammonia and nitrite, and any time you see a reading other than zero for either or both, you need to do a water change. I did say it was going to take some hard work! Depending how long ago you got fish, if it's only a few days you won't see any nitrite yet. But keep testing for it so you catch it when it does appear.
You need to change enough water to stop the level of either ammonia or nitrite getting higher than 0.25. You can change 90% of the water if that's what it needs, but with big water change get the temperature of the new water to the same as the tank water.
Here is a link giving more details on what you need to do. You can get through this, although it will sound a bit daunting.

Feed the fish once every other day or even once every three days. Don't give them too much food, only what they can eat in 1 minute. Less food mean less ammonia going into the water. Don't worry, they won't die of starvation. In the wild fish don't find food every day.



Now to the mollies. It is interesting that you are having problems with the mollies rather than the much more delicate rams. Though as they are balloon mollies, they have been quite inbred to get that shape.
What is your pH and is your water soft or hard - does you kettle or shower head fur up, that's hard water. Mollies (and guppies) like hard water with a high pH; rams like very soft water and a low pH. Mollies more than guppies can suffer if the water isn't hard enough for them. Since your rams seem to be OK, I suspect you have soft water and a low pH?

What kind of fish was Bob, was he a molly?

With regards to the PH... We have the strip testers, which show up as a 7 which I believe is all okay? We have tested the water, and from memory it reads as medium/hard. The amomonia tested at 1-2 yesterday, it was 2-4 on the previous day...

The nitrate level was around 50 yesterday? Or this may be the nitrit level? I'm not sure? We did two water changes in a row, on Monday & Tuesday of around 20-25%...

Hope that helps? x

I did suspect you'd had the fish a few weeks, but couldn't be certain, which is why I covered all possibilities. By now you should have quite a few ammonia eaters though probably not enough yet. And you should definitely be seeing nitrite.

If the filter media (the sponges, whatever else is inside it) were dry, the bacteria that had been in there would have died. If the media had been damp, there is a chance some bacteria would still have been alive though probably not enough for your fish. But this would give the cycle (the name for the process of growing bacteria) a head start.

An ammonia reading that high is quite dangerous. I would do a huge water change to get it down below 0.25, then smaller daily water changes to keep it that low. You can remove almost all the water, just leave enough in the bottom of the tank to keep the fish covered.
The reading of 50 would have been nitrate as nitrite testers don't go that high. You do need a reading for nitrite as well.
What is the bottle of stuff to treat ammonia called, there are a few of them out there from ammo lock through dechlorinators containing something to detoxify ammonia to bottled bacteria (which don't actually work!). If it's something that claims to detoxify ammonia, they usually do that by converting the ammonia to a slightly different form. But it will still show up in the ammonia test, which tests for both forms. The filter bacteria only use one form so using a 'detoxifier' can slow down the cycle. Also, these products are only effective for a limited time so you have to redose. There is a dechlorinator called Seachem Prime which interferes with the ammonia reading so if you are using that one you need to be aware of this.


I should warn you that strip testers are not very accurate. Liquid reagent testers are more accurate, though more expensive to buy. They are cheaper on-line than in a 'real' shop.
Have you tested the nitrate level in your tap water? Assuming you are in the UK, the maximum allowed level in drinking water is 50, and some water companies get pretty close to that. If your tap water has a lot of nitrate, you need to take that into account.
For the majority of fish, nitrate is only harmful well over 100. There are some nitrate sensitive fish, and unfortunately you have some - the rams. If you have a high tapwater nitrate you won't be able to reduce the level in your tank by water changes. You'll find live plants can help with the nitrate, and they'll remove ammonia too - but I'll leave Richard to help you with those.

Guppies are also inbred fish and often just drop dead shortly after purchase even in a tank that has been running for years. I would be inclined to put Bob's death down to this, combined with the still cycling filter and associated water conditions.

Columnaris is known as rot (fin, mouth etc). I'm afraid I don't agree with Richard over melafix - I usually compare it to dettol, fine for stopping an infection getting into a wound, but if the infection does get in you need something stronger. In the UK we are a bit limited for medication; we can't get antibiotics without a vet's prescription. The medications available sometimes aren't strong enough but they are worth a try. Look for Myxazin by Waterlife or eSHa 2000.
Do you have carbon in your filter, either as granules or a sponge impregnated with carbon? If you do, you need to remove this before treating the tank as carbon can remove the medication.
If you do use a medication, they usually have to be dosed daily. Check the water conditions first, do a water change if necessary then add the medication. If you don't dose every day but need to do a water change on a non-dose day, add some medication, enough to replace the amount you take out with the water.


Your observations on that shop are well founded. Don't take advice from there. And don't take advice about what fish to put in your tank either. In fact, take everything every shop says with a huge pinch of salt till you've doubled checked it. It's a lot safer if you assume that no shop worker knows anything.

Richard, could you give Emily some advice on plants to help her high nitrate? Plants would also help with her ammonia. Since I know virtually nothing about plants, I need someone who does 

Hi BucEmi

I'm not a plant expert like Richard but thought it may be worth adding some supporting comments from my experience as a relatively new fish-keeper:

I'd always recommend floating plants as the first choice.

I added a good bunch of floating plants a while back and saw my nitrate levels half in a matter of days. I have a combination of Frogbit, Salvinia & Water Lettuce. The only problem may be getting hold of some! None of my local fish shops sell floating plants - mine were actually acquired from a fellow fish-keeper and I did start with a good bunch which covered about 1/3 of my water surface.

For rooted plants, I'd suggest Hygrophila corymbosa or H. difformis as the fastest growing. Not sure how they'd do in a gravel only substrate though, as all of mine have soil underneath.

I have Hygrophila Corymbosa and it grows really well - my substrate is just standard gravel (2-3mm) with no fertiliser added.

Java moss is always surprisingly quick to get going as well in my new tanks, so I suppose it must be using nitrates to grow ...........

I've got this as well! Grows ok but not as well as the Hygrophila (at least in my tank) and can be tricky to keep in one place!

My absolute favourite floating plant is Hornwort, or Foxtail, as it's known. It's hardy and easy to grow. The best bit is that it sucks up Ammonia, Nitrites AND Nitrates like nothing else. You give it a good amount of light, and it will suck up all of the bioavailable nutrients in the tank and use that to spur it's growth rate. I have seen it double in size in 4-5 days when there has been an ammonia spike in my tank. Also, my fish love it. They play in it, they hide in it and often times, eat it. You can also plant it, or just leave it floating - it doesn't care.

The kicker is that it needs a LOT of light - it needs all of the light it can get to suck up the dissolved ammonia, nitrates and nitrites to convert them to food.

Oh, and it's cheap. A cup full will set you back about $10, and considering it can double in a week - it's a pretty good deal.