Mostafa

Hey Everyone,
I just started keeping fish in a 5g tank we had at home, it was a store bought kid so it had all i needed. about 6 weeks ago i put 4 small kuhli loaches in there and they did fine. Ive been adding fish periodically every 2 weeks or so along with live plants. Now ive got the 4 loaches, 2 bala sharks, 1 Otocinclus, 3 cremecicle lyretail mollys, a blue mystery snail, 2 african dwarf frogs and 3 ghost shrimp. now that i wrote all that out it looks kinda crowded.... But they all have been doing great up till a few days ago. 1 molly started losing her color, turning more white, and she looks crooked... the other 2 looked great. Then this morning one of the other mollys died. the whitish one is still hanging on, but i found another on the bottom of the tank with a green spot on her side.
Any ideas as to what happened?

Sophism

that is WAY over crowed. bala sharks alone need a 55G tank. Please for the health of the fish return them or get a bigger tank. a

Do you have any filtration on this tank? What are your water levels? Do you know about the nitrogen cycle?

Lucy

Hi Mostafa

Welcome to Fish Lore

I'm really sorry about your fish.

Is your tank cycled?
Do you know the readings for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates?
Here's some information about how to cycle a tank.
http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm

Your tank is terribly overstocked.
The shark needs a tank of about 55g's.
http://www.fishlore.com/Profiles-BalaShark.htm
Your two frogs need at the very minimum of 5g's to themselves.
The mollies do better in a 20g tank.
http://www.fishlore.com/Profiles-Mollies.htm
The loaches, depending on the species also need a bigger tank.
Although the couple of kuhlis that you began with could survive in the 5g with nothing else.
Changing the water might help them for the moment, but there's no way around the overstocking issue except returning some fish/frogs or getting a larger tank.

Good luck.

capekate

Welcome to fishlore
You are experiencing a typical beginner's mistake. we all make mistakes when we first start out. Your tank is waaaay overstocked! I cant imagine all those fish in a tiny 5g tank. You really need to either find a new larger tank or return those fish asap before you find yourself loosing them one by one. The first ones I would return are the sharks, as was mentioned they need at least a 55g tank. Your mollies are too large to keep in a 5g along with the loaches IMO.
Your 5g would do well with one betta fish, or a small school of neon tetras.
Please read up in the beginners section where you will find useful information on the nitrogen cycle, calculating how many fish can be kept in a tank, what species work best with others etc etc.

Tavel

that's more than i stock in my 20 gallon tank. is there any water in your tank...or is it just fish? yikes.

bubbles53219

wow thats alot of fish amonia spike probly killed them

NanoAddict

im sorry for being captain obvious, but it is overcrowded.

hurry get at least a 15 g tank

Bettalady

Hi Mostafa,

These shop people should know better than to sell you all those fish for a terribly small tank I think you could only fit 1 in there at best!!!

Yes I agree with the others amonia spike would have surely taken them...the cycling process and appropriate tank size is key to fish survival! Good luck - and please get a bigger tank for the other remaining fish.