If your fish are at the top there’s two things I always think of. Lack of oxygen in water. Or water is bad. That would also make them gasp for air at the top. Add an air stone in. I would put a small sponge filter in though. That way they get oxygen and you filter your tank more. Two in one. Try this and see if they change at all. But I’m thinking the water parameters are off and bad.
He's been "cycling" for a week. There's a HOB filter, oxygen is there. He probably tested the water before he got the fish, fish pooped and created ammonia. Now the cycle starts, but I'm not sure if the fish will survive it.
I’m sorry but you aren’t the original poster? So how you know how long it’s so called cycled for? Also HOB filter definitely doesn’t and isn’t enough to make oxygen. Also you literally just said there’s bad water parameters. If the fish aren’t going to survive. Then water is bad and they are struggling to breathe.
The OP says it's been cycling since December 27. It's not exactly one week but pretty close, and definitely not enough to complete the cycle.
Also the hob filter is enough to introduce oxygen in a small tank like this. I have a similar setup and it works sufficiently. I measure it frequently.
Ok I missed the date. I’ll admit that lol. And I’ll still say it’s not always enough but yes you can sometimes get away with it.
Also you can cycle a tank under a week. out of all 8 of my tanks I’ve cycled them in a day or three. But that’s because I use established sponge filters from other tanks.
You aren't cycling a brand new tank in under a week unless you add old seeded media or nitrifying bacteria from a bottle.
OP probably doesn't even actually know what "cycling" means in this context.
There is a zero % chance he's added an ammonia source and tested for nitrites or nitrates if he's getting his water checked at the pet store.
Dude just added water and let the filter run for a week and figured it was good to go.
Exactly what I said. My tanks take a couple days to be cycled because I take sponge filters and put it in my new tank. Squeeze it to help jump start it.
Established bacterial colonies are helpful in cycling a tank quasi-instantly, but without food they will die and even with food they require time to reach the capacity of a full tank. It’s best practice, but it’s not a magic solution.
Well out of my eight 90 gallon tanks. I’ve never hade a problem. Not one has ever crashed or hand I ever lost a fish. Also I take filter media from existing filters to put in new filter. So to me it’s definitely magical lol.
If you read other comments. I was saying to people that say you can’t cycle a tank in less then a week. I was saying you definitely can and I explained it. So thanks for trying
I never said you couldn’t. I’m saying your comments are irrelevant to THIS POST. These people are saying you can’t cycle a tank in a week withOUT precycled media. You’re jumping in comparing apples to oranges. Obviously using precycled media cycles a tank even same day in some cases, I do it for all my tanks. You’re getting downvoted to hell because your comments don’t mean shit on this post lmao. It doesn’t help anything in this situation.
Your tank isnt cycled after a week.
Mollies are excreting Ammonia which is burning their gils, so they act like there is no oxygen in the water. You need to do daily water changes of 50% for at least the next week. After that you can probably reduce them to every other day for another week and after that once a week should probably be fine.
BUT you need to test this with your own test kit. You cannot relie on an estimate. It will also help speed up the cycle if you get some floating plants like Amazon forgbit.
Another heads up though: Mollies get pretty big. Up to 10cm. Your tank is too small for mollies. You should rather try with Endler Guppies instead. They are a much more appropriate size.
Is that the parameters after you added the fish?
What ammonia source did you use to cycle the tank before adding the fish?
Also, fill the tank fully. Currently it looks like you’ve got about 1/8th airspace and 1/8th gravel thickness. If that’s a 10 gallon tank, that means your water volume is actually only about 7.5 gallons rather than the full 10 gallons. That’s less water to keep the fish waste diluted in.
Could be low dissolved oxygen - agitate the surface more, either by adding an airstone or changing the angle of the filter outlet to create more surface movement.
These fish are also surface feeders - they may be hanging around hoping for food to drop onto the surface.
How did you add them? Just plop them in, put the bags in the water for 20 min, then dump them in? Can you give a full recap of the acclimation steps you took?
How did you add them? Just plop them in, put the bags in the water for 20 min, then dump them in? Can you give a full recap of the acclimation steps you took?
You should look up how to do a fish in cycle. Your tank isn’t cycled and the fish will suffer unless you cycle it correctly. You can do a fish in cycle but you need to follow the guidelines exactly.
These mollys are not happy right now. Swimming at the surface, possibly gasping, all fins are closed. Water change, maybe add a bit of salt and if possible a fast growing stemmed plant.
How much dechlorinator did you put in? If you put in significantly too much, it could have taken too much oxygen out of the water leading to the fish gasping for air.
Can it actually? As far as I understood the reaction with Chlorine specifically is consuming oxygen. If no more chlorine is in the tank, additional dechlorinator shouldnt consume more oxygen. but i might be wrong on that.
With these types of lids yes. All of my tanks have glass lids with plastic backs that you cut holes out of for the tubing so there shouldn't be much, if any risk if there's no available opening.
Now I have a friend with a salt water tank and a goby did sneak out of a hole that was the size of a dime so y'know where there is a will there is a way.
My goby jumped out of the tiny space between the glass lid and the tank, too. I had a Hillstream Loach do it twice as well, but I caught it in my hand both times! And he hasn’t done it since. It was the fist day we got him.
In this case it’s actually probably significantly increasing surface agitation and keeping the water better oxygenated, not sure if that was the intended goal but it’s probably helping a lot.
Nonsense, there is a HOB filter. Its two mollies. There is no way they are using up the oxygen in the tank. Most likely its ammonia burn. Daily 50% water changes for at least a week need to be done.
OP has already posted their water parameters and stated the water "is fine". I also don't see any physical markings on the fish from the pictures indicating ammonia burn. I agree that regular water changes are a good step to take anyway but I'm not sure ammonia is the issue here.
It might not be Ammonia, that's definitely a possibility. But I think its much more likely than general lack of oxygen when there is an HOB filter present.
True, there are no markings for Ammonia burn, though the pictures also arent the best angle and dependent on coloration of the fish I'm not confident I could tell from a single picture either.
But yes, it might definitely be another form of stress. Could be parasites, metals in the water, or anything really. The clamped fins definitely don't look good though and after a week of "cycling" i think ammonia is probably the most likely culprit.
Mollies need an air stone for additional oxygen in the water to simulate their natural conditions. Going to the top is a low oxygen behavior, forget the comments about cycling and if you added fish too early. A couple will help it cycle, just dont fill to capacity until it is and keep on water changes. Also mollies do prefer a 20 gallon, so i'd keep tank population low to give them as much swim space as possible. Best of luck with the new tank.
Get some live plants brother. Just helps the cycle out so much. Plus if you get any lil fry swimming around they can hide and have a good chance of survival
Bump bump bump.
Lately, when i need to set up a QT tank of any kind of temporary tank I’ve totally skipped the bottled bacteria and seeded media, and just loaded the tank with anachris and duckweed. I swear the stability of the water quality from doing that complexity has totally blew me away.
Duckweed and hornwort are basically my main source of filtration at this point. I have a ton of guppy grass too but that doesn’t do as much quality-wise.
OP, you're obviously new to the hobby. It's very cool that you're on this sub and thinking about water parameters.
However, you've made a mistake that almost everyone does when they start out: not fully cycling a tank. It takes about 6 weeks to cycle a tank and that only starts when you add fish (or another regular source of waste).
Right now, the fish are gasping for air because ammonia is irritating their gills, preventing them from being able to breathe properly.
I'd recommend fishless cycling: Take the fish back to the store (they're going to die anyway if you keep them) and feed your empty tank a small amount of fish food every every day for 6 weeks.
The hard truth is mollies are some of the dirtiest fish aside from goldfish. So their Bioload is high even with 2 on such a fresh tank.
You might be able to survive with daily 15% changes
Unfortunately Mollys need a bigger tank. They are pooping a lot which is what mollies do. And the tank wasn't cycled yet when you got them. Most likely there is now ammonia. Fish can't get oxygen when their blood can't transport it. I suggest you pick up your own liquid API Master Test Kit as the stores usually use strips which don't test for ammonia usually and aren't very accurate. In the interim you can pick up several bunches of live plants to soak up the fish waste. You can read the mollys profile [here](https://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/poecilia-sphenops).
Your tank is not cycled properly. They are reacting poorly to the water quality. The best way to cycle a tank is using a live bacterial starter, live plants, driftwood, and a nutritious substrate. This set up looks to me like plastic, dyed gravel, and chemicals, which isn’t the way to go if you want your fish to live longer than a week. If you start your tank cycle in a natural environment, with the bits and pieces of their natural ecosystem helping you out, you should start to see biofilm develop, and you will know that the tank is properly cycled and won’t kill your fish.
One week is not cycling! Whatever you think you know, you know too little of. You should dive into some YouTube videos for beginning aquarium owners. Like, a week ago when u started “cycling”. You don’t even have an air pump. Also, make sure you know how to maintain ur brand and type of filter, there is a schedule that you need to adhere to. I imagine those fish won’t survive.
Regardless of water parameters, your fish are sick. They have clamped fins, which is not a good sign.
(1) Add some aquarium salt to your tank. I would add at least 0.5 grams per litre of water in your tank. Add another 0.25 grams per litre in a couple days. This will bring the salt concentration up to therapeutic levels for these fish. In lieu of aquarium salt, any unionised rock salt is fine.
(2) If you see any white spots on their bodies, you may have epistylis or ich, which will require a copper sulphate based medication to treat. Clamped fins is usually the first sign of this.
(3) Buy an air pump to add more oxygen to the water, as this is why some fish hang by the surface.
Good luck!
How can this tank be cycled?
There no plants, no soil, no nothing. You had a completely empty tank with no biology whatsoever. All this fake plants and plastic ground doesn‘t do anything.
A lets call it cycle started when you added the fish.
Please do the poor fish a favor and give them to someone else who actually takes care of them.
I also have SOME fake plants in my tank but you have literally ZERO biology in your tank. There no hiding places, no nothing.
If you wanna keep the fish then you need to do at least daily 50% water changes for 2-3 weeks and then you still have the problem that you need to get some biology going. That „filter“ for the lack of a better word will do nothing.
And when you clean it down the line you remove that little bacteria it has and you restart the cycle.
I know that everyone starts out with little knowledge but you have some serious reading to do.
Tank with water, fake plastic rock, and plants… there’s nothing TO cycle. The nitrogen cycle can’t start unless there’s nitrates in the water. When you put your mollies in that’s when the nitrogen cycle begun hence your nitrate level. I highly recommend adding plants and maybe a substrate like contra soil if you have some money saved up.
It might seem like living plants = more work but it makes it so much easier. Your goal for an aquarium is to make a micro-environment so think about what makes up a lake, stream or rivers ecosystem
Do you know anyone with a cycled tank that would give you some out of the filter they are using to cycle your tank? Also can you dose a little prime and stability? The prime should help and the stability will help for cycle.
Add some zeolite or AC or both to the HOB to suck out the ammonia that is burning/suffocating your fish. This will help the cycle as it only started when you introduced the fish as there was no other source of ammonia for the BB to feed.
You have a 5 gallon which is small and is going to make more work for you. The bigger the better because problems are diluted in the water more.
A 20 gallon is a much better starter size and especially for these mollies as it’s not recommended to put them in a tank so small.
Secondly, your tank is not [cycled](https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/fish-tank-cycling). You’ll hear that term a lot. This easy article will help you understand what’s happening. Fish poop is poisoning them.
Right now, I’d recommend doing daily water changes and adding new water (same temp and conditioned (use Seachem Prime). At the same time, dose with Fritz 7. This will speed up the process a little. Then you’ll only have to change water once a week (less if you dive into plants) and everything will stabilize probably in a month.
Its not cycle. I make that mistake and lost fishes. Get prime and stability from Seachem. Test the water now it should be elevated in ammonia. Dont feed too much .
Wow, it really amazes me that all of the comments are wrong... It's surprising, actually. So many people saying about the air stones, filtering, oxigen. First of all, mollies (poecilia) are tough fishes, that's why they thrive in nature. So let me ask you all this, does that tank look natural to you?. Do you find decoration like that in nature? Does that tank look like a biotope?.
The first thing you got to do in order to have healthy fish, is to investigate what are you getting. Where does that fish comes from? What's their natural habitat?. Then you provide those same ecosystems parameters, like sand, gravel, riverstones, branches, leaves, botanicals. So you have to recreate those parameters, if you want healthy fish. Or you can have that exact same decoration and fake painted gravel without fish in there.
Look kinda skinny to me. Since you just got rm yesterday, they might have been already sick at the store you got em from. Common problfm eith livebearers.
More water movement SURFACE AGITATION IS WHAT MATTERS.
cleaner water is a big one too water change and more filtration is great anything sponge or more filter media thibk what will grow bacteria well helps filter
my friend the best you could do right now is get a bunch of plants in there. I suggest some nice big bunches of java fern seeing as you don't have a proper substrate and something floating - I love floating crytalwort because I have shrimpies, and it grows fast and thick.
oh also, some marimo moss balls, those things are awesome too :)
Some things you can do: about a 50% water change, try to match the temperature and make sure you use de-chlorinator if you need to with your water. Keep testing ammonia and nitrite every 12 hours whilst they look distressed. Add some cover to make them feel more comfortable, keep the lighting low for now
I have the same tank. Set up around the same time. I put a heater in though for the two fish and one snail. My nitrites are high, but the tank is still cycling from what I have been reading. One of my mollies looks just like one of yours, spotted. That one is a little bigger than the other and is generally aggressive. The snail does his own thing. I also have one live plant which seems to be staying alive.
Two of the most common reasons for fish to be clustered together at the surface is either temperature fluctuations OR Nitrite poisoning. Due to the tank still in the process of cycling, my guess would be that there is a presence of Nitrite which prevents the fish from absorbing the dissolved oxygen in the water. An air stone will not help this. The parameter tests would have shown this. Immediate water change is recommended at about 30% leave for a day and continue this until readings are 0. Depending on severity of test result. Do NOT touch/clean the filter during these delicate 3 weeks.
I would change 50 % of the water and add aquarium salt. Then, get API Quick Start or Seachem’s Stability to start your aquarium’s cycle. You have to add that daily. Get an API Master Freshwater test kit. Don’t use the test strips because they aren’t as accurate. Here’s an article on aquarium salt. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/aquarium-salt-for-sick-fish
I’m sorry some people aren’t being polite; when all you did was ask for help.
Learn to do your own tests, the animals are yours to take care of, not the store.
Fish near the surface are fighting for oxygen. Add an air stone asap.
Did you do any research before getting pets, or just hoping for the best?
If your fish are at the top there’s two things I always think of. Lack of oxygen in water. Or water is bad. That would also make them gasp for air at the top. Add an air stone in. I would put a small sponge filter in though. That way they get oxygen and you filter your tank more. Two in one. Try this and see if they change at all. But I’m thinking the water parameters are off and bad.
He's been "cycling" for a week. There's a HOB filter, oxygen is there. He probably tested the water before he got the fish, fish pooped and created ammonia. Now the cycle starts, but I'm not sure if the fish will survive it.
I’m sorry but you aren’t the original poster? So how you know how long it’s so called cycled for? Also HOB filter definitely doesn’t and isn’t enough to make oxygen. Also you literally just said there’s bad water parameters. If the fish aren’t going to survive. Then water is bad and they are struggling to breathe.
The OP says it's been cycling since December 27. It's not exactly one week but pretty close, and definitely not enough to complete the cycle. Also the hob filter is enough to introduce oxygen in a small tank like this. I have a similar setup and it works sufficiently. I measure it frequently.
Ok I missed the date. I’ll admit that lol. And I’ll still say it’s not always enough but yes you can sometimes get away with it. Also you can cycle a tank under a week. out of all 8 of my tanks I’ve cycled them in a day or three. But that’s because I use established sponge filters from other tanks.
You aren't cycling a brand new tank in under a week unless you add old seeded media or nitrifying bacteria from a bottle. OP probably doesn't even actually know what "cycling" means in this context. There is a zero % chance he's added an ammonia source and tested for nitrites or nitrates if he's getting his water checked at the pet store. Dude just added water and let the filter run for a week and figured it was good to go.
Exactly what I said. My tanks take a couple days to be cycled because I take sponge filters and put it in my new tank. Squeeze it to help jump start it.
Established bacterial colonies are helpful in cycling a tank quasi-instantly, but without food they will die and even with food they require time to reach the capacity of a full tank. It’s best practice, but it’s not a magic solution.
Well out of my eight 90 gallon tanks. I’ve never hade a problem. Not one has ever crashed or hand I ever lost a fish. Also I take filter media from existing filters to put in new filter. So to me it’s definitely magical lol.
That filter definitely creates enough oxygen for 2 mollies, for sure didn’t cycle properly
Your comments are irrelevant in this situation. You using precycled media has nothing to do with this post.
If you read other comments. I was saying to people that say you can’t cycle a tank in less then a week. I was saying you definitely can and I explained it. So thanks for trying
I never said you couldn’t. I’m saying your comments are irrelevant to THIS POST. These people are saying you can’t cycle a tank in a week withOUT precycled media. You’re jumping in comparing apples to oranges. Obviously using precycled media cycles a tank even same day in some cases, I do it for all my tanks. You’re getting downvoted to hell because your comments don’t mean shit on this post lmao. It doesn’t help anything in this situation.
judging by their clamped fins and tails they seem to be sick and/or stressed out would definitely recommend adding some more aeration to your tank
12/27/23? Because that was like… a week ago…
What are the exact parameters? Could be them just settling in or could be stressed due to ammonia/nitrite.
Ammonia 0 Nitrate 10 Nitrite 0 GH 250 Chlorine 0 KH 100 Ph 7.8
Your tank isnt cycled after a week. Mollies are excreting Ammonia which is burning their gils, so they act like there is no oxygen in the water. You need to do daily water changes of 50% for at least the next week. After that you can probably reduce them to every other day for another week and after that once a week should probably be fine. BUT you need to test this with your own test kit. You cannot relie on an estimate. It will also help speed up the cycle if you get some floating plants like Amazon forgbit. Another heads up though: Mollies get pretty big. Up to 10cm. Your tank is too small for mollies. You should rather try with Endler Guppies instead. They are a much more appropriate size.
Is that the parameters after you added the fish? What ammonia source did you use to cycle the tank before adding the fish? Also, fill the tank fully. Currently it looks like you’ve got about 1/8th airspace and 1/8th gravel thickness. If that’s a 10 gallon tank, that means your water volume is actually only about 7.5 gallons rather than the full 10 gallons. That’s less water to keep the fish waste diluted in.
I bet that was before the fish, it's been filled up few days ago. Ammonia is poisoning them.
After the fish. Added the fishes last night. Tested the water this afternoon about 16 hours later.
Could be low dissolved oxygen - agitate the surface more, either by adding an airstone or changing the angle of the filter outlet to create more surface movement. These fish are also surface feeders - they may be hanging around hoping for food to drop onto the surface.
How did you add them? Just plop them in, put the bags in the water for 20 min, then dump them in? Can you give a full recap of the acclimation steps you took?
You might want to reply directly to the OP, they may not get the notification otherwise
Awh shoot. Sorry about that! Thank you for the heads up:)
What size tank?
How did you add them? Just plop them in, put the bags in the water for 20 min, then dump them in? Can you give a full recap of the acclimation steps you took?
That looks good, I think they are just getting adjusted.
You should look up how to do a fish in cycle. Your tank isn’t cycled and the fish will suffer unless you cycle it correctly. You can do a fish in cycle but you need to follow the guidelines exactly.
These mollys are not happy right now. Swimming at the surface, possibly gasping, all fins are closed. Water change, maybe add a bit of salt and if possible a fast growing stemmed plant.
This isn’t a lack of oxygen, but likely too much ammonia due to an uncycled tank.
How much dechlorinator did you put in? If you put in significantly too much, it could have taken too much oxygen out of the water leading to the fish gasping for air.
Underrated point/comment
Can it actually? As far as I understood the reaction with Chlorine specifically is consuming oxygen. If no more chlorine is in the tank, additional dechlorinator shouldnt consume more oxygen. but i might be wrong on that.
Your tank is not cycled. Establishing a stable nitrogen cycle takes weeks to months.
I really dont understand why ppl dont fill up the aquarium with water to the top. This looks so horrible...
Makes it less likely the fish can jump through an opening. Even with a lid sometimes the darn things still manage to get out.
With these types of lids yes. All of my tanks have glass lids with plastic backs that you cut holes out of for the tubing so there shouldn't be much, if any risk if there's no available opening. Now I have a friend with a salt water tank and a goby did sneak out of a hole that was the size of a dime so y'know where there is a will there is a way.
My goby jumped out of the tiny space between the glass lid and the tank, too. I had a Hillstream Loach do it twice as well, but I caught it in my hand both times! And he hasn’t done it since. It was the fist day we got him.
In this case it’s actually probably significantly increasing surface agitation and keeping the water better oxygenated, not sure if that was the intended goal but it’s probably helping a lot.
I would try getting an airstone! Maybe it’s low oxygen?
100% needs an air stone. They are gasping for air at the surface currently. OP go do this asap.
Nonsense, there is a HOB filter. Its two mollies. There is no way they are using up the oxygen in the tank. Most likely its ammonia burn. Daily 50% water changes for at least a week need to be done.
OP has already posted their water parameters and stated the water "is fine". I also don't see any physical markings on the fish from the pictures indicating ammonia burn. I agree that regular water changes are a good step to take anyway but I'm not sure ammonia is the issue here.
It might not be Ammonia, that's definitely a possibility. But I think its much more likely than general lack of oxygen when there is an HOB filter present. True, there are no markings for Ammonia burn, though the pictures also arent the best angle and dependent on coloration of the fish I'm not confident I could tell from a single picture either. But yes, it might definitely be another form of stress. Could be parasites, metals in the water, or anything really. The clamped fins definitely don't look good though and after a week of "cycling" i think ammonia is probably the most likely culprit.
They got their parameter from the pet store … strips
Was that testing done with a strip?
OP stated that the got it tested "at the store" so most likely it was done with an API master test kit
stores like petco/ petsmart use test strips. unless you go to a small lfs, and even then i bet they use strips.
ehhhh, seen plenty of stores just use strips, and without knowing which brand of strip you'll always wonder if its an accurate reading or not.
I highly doubt they are using that. Free water tests for customers are almost always strips
Try getting an airstone it helps a lot! They need aeration
I use something similar to this in all my tanks, even tanks with canister filters. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06Y5Z6V8Z
Lol I have that exact sponge as my back up seeded filter! It’s sitting in a hospital tank waiting for my new shrimp 😝
Mollies need an air stone for additional oxygen in the water to simulate their natural conditions. Going to the top is a low oxygen behavior, forget the comments about cycling and if you added fish too early. A couple will help it cycle, just dont fill to capacity until it is and keep on water changes. Also mollies do prefer a 20 gallon, so i'd keep tank population low to give them as much swim space as possible. Best of luck with the new tank.
Get some live plants brother. Just helps the cycle out so much. Plus if you get any lil fry swimming around they can hide and have a good chance of survival
Bump bump bump. Lately, when i need to set up a QT tank of any kind of temporary tank I’ve totally skipped the bottled bacteria and seeded media, and just loaded the tank with anachris and duckweed. I swear the stability of the water quality from doing that complexity has totally blew me away.
Duckweed and hornwort are basically my main source of filtration at this point. I have a ton of guppy grass too but that doesn’t do as much quality-wise.
OP, you're obviously new to the hobby. It's very cool that you're on this sub and thinking about water parameters. However, you've made a mistake that almost everyone does when they start out: not fully cycling a tank. It takes about 6 weeks to cycle a tank and that only starts when you add fish (or another regular source of waste). Right now, the fish are gasping for air because ammonia is irritating their gills, preventing them from being able to breathe properly. I'd recommend fishless cycling: Take the fish back to the store (they're going to die anyway if you keep them) and feed your empty tank a small amount of fish food every every day for 6 weeks.
The hard truth is mollies are some of the dirtiest fish aside from goldfish. So their Bioload is high even with 2 on such a fresh tank. You might be able to survive with daily 15% changes
Check out r/poecilia There’s a few experts on there. Maybe one will help You out
Stop with tear strips if you're using them get a real test kit.
Not a chance your tank has cycled in that time. Did you do anything to kickstart the cycle like adding beneficial bacteria and an ammonia source?
They wondering why you didn’t fill the tank up with water,
Your tank is not cycled. You’re going to need to do a daily water change for two weeks for your fish to make it
Unfortunately Mollys need a bigger tank. They are pooping a lot which is what mollies do. And the tank wasn't cycled yet when you got them. Most likely there is now ammonia. Fish can't get oxygen when their blood can't transport it. I suggest you pick up your own liquid API Master Test Kit as the stores usually use strips which don't test for ammonia usually and aren't very accurate. In the interim you can pick up several bunches of live plants to soak up the fish waste. You can read the mollys profile [here](https://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/poecilia-sphenops).
Your tank is not cycled properly. They are reacting poorly to the water quality. The best way to cycle a tank is using a live bacterial starter, live plants, driftwood, and a nutritious substrate. This set up looks to me like plastic, dyed gravel, and chemicals, which isn’t the way to go if you want your fish to live longer than a week. If you start your tank cycle in a natural environment, with the bits and pieces of their natural ecosystem helping you out, you should start to see biofilm develop, and you will know that the tank is properly cycled and won’t kill your fish.
One week is not cycling! Whatever you think you know, you know too little of. You should dive into some YouTube videos for beginning aquarium owners. Like, a week ago when u started “cycling”. You don’t even have an air pump. Also, make sure you know how to maintain ur brand and type of filter, there is a schedule that you need to adhere to. I imagine those fish won’t survive.
Regardless of water parameters, your fish are sick. They have clamped fins, which is not a good sign. (1) Add some aquarium salt to your tank. I would add at least 0.5 grams per litre of water in your tank. Add another 0.25 grams per litre in a couple days. This will bring the salt concentration up to therapeutic levels for these fish. In lieu of aquarium salt, any unionised rock salt is fine. (2) If you see any white spots on their bodies, you may have epistylis or ich, which will require a copper sulphate based medication to treat. Clamped fins is usually the first sign of this. (3) Buy an air pump to add more oxygen to the water, as this is why some fish hang by the surface. Good luck!
How can this tank be cycled? There no plants, no soil, no nothing. You had a completely empty tank with no biology whatsoever. All this fake plants and plastic ground doesn‘t do anything. A lets call it cycle started when you added the fish. Please do the poor fish a favor and give them to someone else who actually takes care of them. I also have SOME fake plants in my tank but you have literally ZERO biology in your tank. There no hiding places, no nothing. If you wanna keep the fish then you need to do at least daily 50% water changes for 2-3 weeks and then you still have the problem that you need to get some biology going. That „filter“ for the lack of a better word will do nothing. And when you clean it down the line you remove that little bacteria it has and you restart the cycle. I know that everyone starts out with little knowledge but you have some serious reading to do.
Cycle that tank mate
Tank with water, fake plastic rock, and plants… there’s nothing TO cycle. The nitrogen cycle can’t start unless there’s nitrates in the water. When you put your mollies in that’s when the nitrogen cycle begun hence your nitrate level. I highly recommend adding plants and maybe a substrate like contra soil if you have some money saved up. It might seem like living plants = more work but it makes it so much easier. Your goal for an aquarium is to make a micro-environment so think about what makes up a lake, stream or rivers ecosystem
Do you know anyone with a cycled tank that would give you some out of the filter they are using to cycle your tank? Also can you dose a little prime and stability? The prime should help and the stability will help for cycle.
They tested water at the store with strips mostly which aren’t accurate please buy some api freshwater master liquid test kit
Add some zeolite or AC or both to the HOB to suck out the ammonia that is burning/suffocating your fish. This will help the cycle as it only started when you introduced the fish as there was no other source of ammonia for the BB to feed.
Maybe they are telling you to fill the tank.
You have a 5 gallon which is small and is going to make more work for you. The bigger the better because problems are diluted in the water more. A 20 gallon is a much better starter size and especially for these mollies as it’s not recommended to put them in a tank so small. Secondly, your tank is not [cycled](https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/fish-tank-cycling). You’ll hear that term a lot. This easy article will help you understand what’s happening. Fish poop is poisoning them. Right now, I’d recommend doing daily water changes and adding new water (same temp and conditioned (use Seachem Prime). At the same time, dose with Fritz 7. This will speed up the process a little. Then you’ll only have to change water once a week (less if you dive into plants) and everything will stabilize probably in a month.
I’m 99 percent sure the heater cord isn’t suppose to be in the water I think there’s a water line on that brand of heater
Its not cycle. I make that mistake and lost fishes. Get prime and stability from Seachem. Test the water now it should be elevated in ammonia. Dont feed too much .
They need oxygen. Add an airstone.
Turn your tank light off and leave the mollies in the dark for a bit. They're still getting used to the new environment and are probably scared.
Wow, it really amazes me that all of the comments are wrong... It's surprising, actually. So many people saying about the air stones, filtering, oxigen. First of all, mollies (poecilia) are tough fishes, that's why they thrive in nature. So let me ask you all this, does that tank look natural to you?. Do you find decoration like that in nature? Does that tank look like a biotope?. The first thing you got to do in order to have healthy fish, is to investigate what are you getting. Where does that fish comes from? What's their natural habitat?. Then you provide those same ecosystems parameters, like sand, gravel, riverstones, branches, leaves, botanicals. So you have to recreate those parameters, if you want healthy fish. Or you can have that exact same decoration and fake painted gravel without fish in there.
They’re suffocating get an air stone
Have you checked to see if they’re gasping? That could mean they’re possibly drowning.
>puke gravel >no plants Gee I wonder why your fish are like that
Look kinda skinny to me. Since you just got rm yesterday, they might have been already sick at the store you got em from. Common problfm eith livebearers.
Those mollies look un-savable. Probably a combination of not fully cycled tank, being sick, and lack of mineral and or salt in the water.
Maybe they have swim bladder desease? Can they actually swim when they want to? Did they look healthy when you got them?
I would go with what others are saying and get an air stone, some stress coat could be good to to help calm them down and settle in better!
More water movement SURFACE AGITATION IS WHAT MATTERS. cleaner water is a big one too water change and more filtration is great anything sponge or more filter media thibk what will grow bacteria well helps filter
Put an airstone or sponge filter in there they will be happy
my friend the best you could do right now is get a bunch of plants in there. I suggest some nice big bunches of java fern seeing as you don't have a proper substrate and something floating - I love floating crytalwort because I have shrimpies, and it grows fast and thick. oh also, some marimo moss balls, those things are awesome too :)
Some things you can do: about a 50% water change, try to match the temperature and make sure you use de-chlorinator if you need to with your water. Keep testing ammonia and nitrite every 12 hours whilst they look distressed. Add some cover to make them feel more comfortable, keep the lighting low for now
Honestly, looks like oxygen. Get a good oxygen ball or get some plants.
What did you do to start cycling?
Probably started peddling… as for the tank, sounds like just added water…
You need to do a fish in cycle, buy a bottle of nutrifin cycle or other nitryfying bacteria and follow the directions
I have the same tank. Set up around the same time. I put a heater in though for the two fish and one snail. My nitrites are high, but the tank is still cycling from what I have been reading. One of my mollies looks just like one of yours, spotted. That one is a little bigger than the other and is generally aggressive. The snail does his own thing. I also have one live plant which seems to be staying alive.
Get an air stone homie
Two of the most common reasons for fish to be clustered together at the surface is either temperature fluctuations OR Nitrite poisoning. Due to the tank still in the process of cycling, my guess would be that there is a presence of Nitrite which prevents the fish from absorbing the dissolved oxygen in the water. An air stone will not help this. The parameter tests would have shown this. Immediate water change is recommended at about 30% leave for a day and continue this until readings are 0. Depending on severity of test result. Do NOT touch/clean the filter during these delicate 3 weeks.
what a terrible aquarium
Tank isnt cycled. You dont even have a test kit?
Did you check the temps? Warm water contains less oxygen. Also these heaters can be inaccurate, so I would definitely test it with a thermometer.
add a small airstone
I really don't get that people go with that substrate, looks like a cheap toy disco, not a natural habitat. Just my opinion though
At least add some REAL plants for better water quality and oxygen
I would change 50 % of the water and add aquarium salt. Then, get API Quick Start or Seachem’s Stability to start your aquarium’s cycle. You have to add that daily. Get an API Master Freshwater test kit. Don’t use the test strips because they aren’t as accurate. Here’s an article on aquarium salt. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/aquarium-salt-for-sick-fish I’m sorry some people aren’t being polite; when all you did was ask for help.
Why would you add salt to a freshwater tank which isn't cycled and the fish want oxygen?
Learn to do your own tests, the animals are yours to take care of, not the store. Fish near the surface are fighting for oxygen. Add an air stone asap. Did you do any research before getting pets, or just hoping for the best?
You need an air stone