Mollies hiding and hanging out at tank's bottom

[Romuald]

Just bought three mollies over the weekend and all three are spending most time at the bottom of the tank or hiding. They were very active in the store tank. Tested water and all levels look good. Temperature is fine and filtration works too. I am not sure why they behave like this. I even added an air stone to add some bubbles yesterday but that didn't help. They did not come up to eat. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

[quikv6]

Welcome to the forum. What are your water parameters specifically? (PH/GH/KH) in addition to Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate?

How long has the tank been established?

 

 

 

[Root]

Hello! Beautiful tank and fish. For them to be acting this way vs how they were at the store does indicate some stress. Could be change of environment. If you don't mind me asking now old is the tank? 

[Romuald]

Thank you for responding so quickly! Before we added the fish the tank has been running for more than 2 weeks without any fish, just plants. We added crushed corral to increase PH too. Please see the attached test results just done few minutes ago.

[quikv6]

Your tank looks to have not finished (or started) cycling, given it has only been up for 2 weeks, and there are 0 nitrates.

Please keep a close eye on ammonia, as that can increase rapidly now that you have the presence of fish in the tank. Be sure to follow the instructions for the ammonia strip, as they are different than the multi-strip.

It would be smart to have some Prime (or similar ammonia binding dechlorinator) on hand. Be ready for some partial waterchanges as well.

As for them hanging out at the bottom, they could be stressed from the move, and perhaps their water that they came from was different than yours and are undergoing an acclimation period. From your GH/KH/and PH on the strip....you should be totally good to keep the mollies successfully!

[DaniV]

Pretty much what @quikv6 said.  I started with mollies with my tank, and from my experience they are pretty dang hardy.  They kickstarted the cycle and have been thriving since.  They probably need time to get adjusted to their new surroundings, since you don't have any ammonia or nitrites that could cause any problems.  But once you start seeing ammonia and nitrites showing up in the tests, change out some of your water every couple of days to keep it from going too high.

[Tanked]

On 12/26/2022 at 8:23 PM, Romuald said:

Just bought three mollies over the weekend and all three are spending most time at the bottom of the tank or hiding. They were very active in the store tank. Tested water and all levels look good. Temperature is fine and filtration works too.

My first and best guess is that they are just stressed from the move.  The absence of other fish can add to their stress.  Your photos show individual fish.  Do the three come together as a group? I have had new fish remain in hiding for days, darting out only long enough for a quick bite. 

My second guess is to check your temperature again. Some of my fish exhibit the same behavior when a heater is failing .  I have used Mollies as fish in cycle successfully, so keep tabs on the ammonia and give them a little time. 

[MattyM]

I recently moved some of my Platys to a very bare bottom holding tank. They also hang at the bottom, it's a sign of stress. Adding more plants, esp floaters, and caves has helped, as well as dimming the light. 

Keep in mind, and I'm learning this too, that your tank is cycled according to the bioload in it. When you increase it, the nitrifying bacteria often need to reproduce and catch up. That's why I always keep some FritzZyme 7 on hand, and have lots of plants. 

[Romuald]

Hi everyone, thanks so much for responses and recommendations! One of them unfortunately died today. We had 3 mollies and one catfish. It's really frustrating, because I thought we had everything in a really good shape before we added the fish, but still something is off. Water heater works as water is nice and warm. Water is not cloudy at all and when I checked today there is no indicator of ammonia in the water. I have no idea what is missing unless there is some bacteria in the water that makes them sick. Could it be plants??? 

If the rest of the doesn't survive we are planning to start from scratch and replace everything including plants. We have a 9 gallon Fluval tank so it's not large, but still should be enough for 3-4 fish I think. Do you recommend adding SafeStart bacteria?

 

Thank you again!

[Root]

No need to start over just let it run and cycle and it will eventually be a nice seasoned tank. 

[PineSong]

No need to replace plants, they are not the problem. I second the advice to use Prime to detoxify the ammonia in the tank while it cycles, or do water changes daily to protect the fish while your beneficial bacteria grows to fit the bio load.
 

[Romuald]

Thanks! I took some of the stuff out. Also did small water change and added biological booster and ph regulator. One molly and catfish still alive.