Soccerholic9000

Ok guys i have a 10 gallon tank that has been set up for about 2 months know. At first we had 3 mollies, and 3 platys. We then had 2 rubber lipped plecos (at different times) they both died with in days of getting them. We were told that this was due to are pH levels fluctuating, we placed three small seashells into the tank, which has helped keep our pH at about 7, we now have a clown pleco who appears to be doing great. The temp of the tank has been at a constant 80 degrees, the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels are all at zero, we have been doing water changes about every 3 days on average.

In the last 2 weeks three of our fish have died,two of our mollies and one of our platys, all with no clear symptoms of why they died. For the mollies they were perfectly active up until we found them floating. The platy before it died was not active at all. We often found it resting on the bottom of the tank or in the middle of the tank up against the heater. It did appear very bloated before it died, but the scales never had the "pine cone" appearance and none of the other fish appeared to suffer any of the symptoms of Dropsy, so we are pretty sure that is not the problem.

Now one of our other platy is doing the same thing as the one that died was doing before it die. Any help would be amazing!!! Oh and as a side note the fish were bought at Petsmart if that means anything.

midnightwolf

alot of fish bought at chain stores will most likely carrie some sort of desiese but another reason may be that your tank is a bit overstocked. if you could tell me your water parimiters and the type of molly and platy you have i will have a greater chance of figuring out what happened so just get back to me on that and me or someone else will beable to help u out. oh and WELCOME TO FISHLORE!

Chrisson

I heard Petsmart fishes turn sick after awhile in your tank even though it looks very clean in the store. Have you finished the cycle? Sorry for your loss.

Shawnie

welcome to fishlore!! not all fish carry disease from fishstores..but im wondering what test kit you are using? you should have some nitrates unless you have a heavily planted tank ..with the tank maintenance you are doing, your stock is fine ....

agabr123

welcome to fishlore

did you put all the fish in the first day you set up the tank or did you let the tank cycle first?

Soccerholic9000

thanks for the fast responses. Ok first off the only molly that is still alive is a black molly the other two were a silver and a dalmatian molly. The platys that are still alive are a Red Wag Platy(this one is now often found resting on the bottom of the tank now), and a mickey mouse platy. The platy that died was a assorted platy. The test strips we use are Jungle Laboratories Cooperation 6 test is one strip Quick Dip multi test strips. Ok according to the test the nitrate is ~10 mg/L, the nitrite is ~.2 mg/L, the total hardness is ~80 PPM, the chlorine is ~0 mg/L, the alkalinity is ~50 ppm, and the pH is ~6.5.

We did let the tank cycle is one golden Gourami for about 2 weeks before we put any fish into the tank. We first put in the three mollies and then the next week the 3 platys. They were in the tank for about a month before they started to die. When we do the water changes we also rinse the filter in the water being taken out, we will be putting in a new filter in a couple days. We have two plants in the tank a bamboo and a small Hygrophila polysperma.

We leave the aquarium light on during the day and turn it off when it starts to get dark outside.

When we do water changes we also vacuum the gravel out.

Thanks for any help I'm really worried about the platy now he keeps going back to the same place at the bottom of the tank and just lays there for a few mins. When he swims is appears that he is having a harder time swimming up in the tank. Hope i covered enough about our tank to give you guys a clear picture of whats going on

Lucy

Hi Soccerholic9000 welcome to Fish Lore

I'm sorry you've lost fish, I know that stinks.
I would suggest investing in a good liquid test kit such as the API master kit. It's more accurate than the strips and less costly in the long run.
Do you know your ammonia reading?
Assuming the strips are giving you a good reading and you're showing a nitrites it would be a good idea to up your water changes to daily.
If you were cycled, for some reason you're not now.
Hopefully that'll make your fish feel better.

Good luck

midnightwolf

i think your platy may have swim bladder try feeding him some peas without the shell and see how he does, also i would suggest you do 25% WCs everyday or as often as possible. hope he gets well soon and good luck.

Soccerholic9000

Thank you for all your help so far. After browsing around the forums for some time i ran across this one, my fish are slowly dieing!!, which sounds almost exactly like what we are going through with our tank. Tonight i'm gonna see what the pH is coming from the tap and make sure the temp of the water is almost exactly the same as the water in the tank. I hope this is not due to some parasite, julie never stated if her fish recovered at all. I am also going to try feeding my fish some peas without the skin. I really do not want to lose any more fish. Any more advice on this would be amazing!