# help, please?



## abbysfish (Feb 8, 2006)

Hello....
We have had a molly since August and the last few weeks, he's been acting kind of strange..... it was actually quite endearing behavior which made me very fond of him, but he would kind of back into the pebbles onto the bottom of the tank and just lie down. He also was appearing kind of wobbly when he would swim. A few times i thought he was dead, but he was fine. I thought maybe he just decided that he liked laying in the rocks. Anyway, we bought a few new fish today, 3 platys, we also have 2 fruit salad tetras in the tank. (It's a 12 to 14 gallon tank) Not sure, it's a homemade gift from a friend. So tonight my daughter shreiked in horror... her favorite fish was stuck to the filter. I turned it off and he's gimping around, struggling to swim to the surface when fed, etc. Could it be that he's just old or sick? Or could his decline in health be due to the new fish? Should I try to fish him out or just leave the filter off and see how he does? Any advise would be greatly appreciated since we probably aren't qualified enough to have goldfish let alone anything else.


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## Cichlid Man (Jan 19, 2005)

:hi:

First off, mollies are hard water fish, and shouldn't really be kept with soft water tetras. Though if you keep the pH around neutral, it can be done. (Though isn't recomended, so stick with fish that come from the same area) What's your water like? What's the pH?
You're molly is suffereing from a condition called "shimmering", adding marine salt to the water should cure this, though tetras can't really tolerate salt.


abbysfish said:


> Should I try to fish him out or just leave the filter off and see how he does?


No don't do that, the filter is the fishes life support system. It provides the bacteria that keep you water nice and clean, and converts all of the harmful substances lurking in the water into more managable ones.
Is your tank cylced? Do you know anything about cycling at all? 


abby's fish said:


> Any advise would be greatly appreciated since we probably aren't qualified enough to have goldfish let alone anything else.


At least you got that right.


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## abbysfish (Feb 8, 2006)

well, i did just what i shouldn't do.... i took him out of the tank because i didn't know what else to do... I wanted to turn the filter back on for the other fish. He was stuck to the filter because of the strength of it. I also noticed one of the other fish starting to take advantage of his weakened state and nipping at him. To my surprise, he made it through the night. In my defense, when i bought him (& his 3 friends who have died a long time ago), I told the people at the store what my tank setup was and what other fish i had in there. I've since learned that the girl at the store knows even less about fish than i do. I didn't know mollies were brackish, but now that we have him, what can i do about it? I can't set up another tank and all my other fish are freshwater. We've had him for so long I guess I just thought he was the molly that defied the odds and didn't need the salt. Is it too late for him if i could get the pet store to take him back? My water is testing fine with the strips i have, the ph is high at 8.0 , but the fish store people said that it really wasn't a problem, that's how the water is around here and the fish do ok anyway. The nitrates were still in the safe zone and everything else looked benign to me. UGH.... This is why i liked my goldfish. If they lived through the first week, they lived forever.  I'd still appreciate any more input that anyone has to offer. Thanks!


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## Georgia Peach (Sep 23, 2005)

wow, IM surprised those tetras havent keeled over in that high PH!


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