Are your Mollies are dying suddenly? Are you unsure about the cause of your Mollies’ death?
In this article, I will explain to you all the possible reasons why your Mollies are dying suddenly.
Why Are My Mollies Dying? The most likely reasons that your mollies are dying include, bad water quality, tank cycling issue, high ammonia levels, disease and water temperature issues.
Below I will go through each issue and advise you what you should do.
Top Reasons Your Mollies Are Dying
One of the main reasons why your Mollies are dying could be due to their current living conditions. Interestingly, Mollies can thrive in a wide range of water conditions because of their hardiness and unpretentious nature.
For this reason, many aquarists don’t pay keen attention to the conditions of the water where their Mollies are bred.
Over time, these Mollies develop illnesses and die suddenly. Apart from poor keeping conditions, several other factors can influence the sudden death of your Mollies.
If you are wondering why your Mollies are dying, here are three major factors to consider.
1. Bad Water Quality
The leading cause of most Molly fish death is poor water conditions. This leads to the accumulation of toxins in the water or changes in water parameters.
If not treated, it could cause diseases that will eventually lead to the death of your Mollies. Also, bad water quality causes low oxygen levels in the water, resulting in the death of your fish.
2. Aquarium Cycling Issues
If you’ve recently moved your Mollies to a newly set up tank, you need to observe them for a while. If the conditions in the new tank are not right for their survival, they will start dying.
Once you notice sudden deaths in your aquarium, check the water parameters to ensure that it’s fine for your newly moved fish.
3. High Ammonia Levels
Sudden spikes in ammonia levels in the water could become toxic to your fishes and lead to their death. Ammonia is increased in the water from decomposing food, dead fish in the tank, dirty substrate and filter, as well as waste products from your fishes.
Once this accumulates, it becomes a poison to your fishes and kills them.
4. Other Reasons
Other reasons for your mollies dying include;
- Aquarium Stocking Issues
- Overfeeding
- Water Temperature Issues
- Poor Genetics
- Disease and Parasite
How Do You Keep Mollies Alive?
Investing time and resources in raising healthy Mollies will help you prevent common causes of death for your fishes and remain the best way to keep them alive.
With the right keeping conditions, your Mollies will live a disease-free prolonged life.
Raising healthy Mollies and keeping them alive is not as difficult as it seems. However, if you are a beginner aquarist, you will have to undergo several training sessions so you can cater to your mollies by yourself.
If this would be a problem for any reason, you may have to employ an expert to help you raise your Mollies right. Below are some useful practices that will help you keep your Mollies alive.
- Balanced Diet
- Frequent Water Changes
- Tank Maintenance
- Disease Prevention and Early Intervention
1. Balanced Diet
A nutrient-rich diet in the right proportion promotes a strong immune system in Mollies. It also helps them grow and develop healthily. You should be aware that Molly fish are omnivorous and thrive best on an omnivorous diet containing plant-based and meat-based, and plant-fish foods.
2. Frequent Water Changes
Ensure you change the water in your fish tank weekly. The water level changes should be around 20 to 30 percent, depending on the number of fish in the tank and the tank size. Also, frequently test for toxin levels in the water to know when to take proper action.
3. Tank Maintenance
To maintain your fish tank appropriately, cleaning the water is not enough. Ensure that you also spend some time cleaning the substrate, inner surfaces, and decorations of your aquarium. Also, rinse the filters of your fish tank at least monthly. Always avoid using chlorinated water to clean the filters, plants, and decorations to not kill healthy bacteria on them or harm your fish.
4. Disease Prevention and Early Intervention
Another crucial way of keeping your Mollies alive is to ensure that disease prevention or early intervention measures are implemented. Although not all diseases can be prevented, putting the necessary measures in place will help keep your fish healthy and prolong their life.
Why Is My Molly Laying On The Bottom Of The Tank?
Your Mollies could be laying on the bottom of the tank, maybe because it is stressed. Another possibility why your fishes are laying on the bottom of the tank could be the level of light penetration in the tank.
When Mollies are newly introduced to a new tank, you may observe such behaviors. This is because moving your fish around could get them exhausted and stressed, causing them to move to the bottom of the tank.
Some are also usually afraid of the new lights and settings, leaving them with no other option to hide on the bottom. Over time, this behavior would change as they get used to the new tank.
However, if this persists over a long period, then you should consult a specialist. At this point, there is a possibility that your fishes have some internal parasites affecting their well-being.
It could also be due to swim bladder malfunctions. In this condition, the fish may not be able to maintain its usual level in the water. This would, in turn, cause the fish to sink to the bottom of the tank.
Why Did All My Mollies Die At The Same Time?
If all your healthy Mollies suddenly die simultaneously with no visible explanation, it is most likely due to environmental poisoning. This could result from poor keeping conditions, excess nutrients levels like nitrates and ammonia.
For example, high nitrate or ammonia levels in the water could act as a poison and disrupt your Mollies’ metabolism, as well as being toxic to their systems, and eventually kill them.
Other conditions like incorrect pH levels and extreme temperatures could also be reasons for the sudden death of all your Mollies at the same time.
First, you need to find out the root cause of their death. Ensure you subject the water to chemical tests, including ammonia, nitrate, and pH tests.
Also, check the water temperature to ascertain if that is the cause of the sudden death. If there is no solution, subject the dead fishes to further laboratory tests to check for viral, fungus, or bacterial diseases.
How Do You Save A Dying Molly Fish?
Treating your dying Mollies in saltwater may be the solution to saving them when dying. This is because saltwater helps improve the gill functions in your fish. With this, your Mollies will be able to breathe better.
It also provides the needed electrolytes that help your fishes perform at optimum vitality. If Mollies are dying because of poison, saltwater has been proven to help remove toxins and waste materials from their bodies, thereby helping them fight the effect of the poison.
However, it would help if you were careful with the quantity of salt put into their water.
To effectively use salt to treat your fish, add your salt at a ratio of a teaspoon of salt to one gallon of water.
Ensure you mix the salt properly into the water until all its granules are completely dissolved. Put the dying fish in the container of saltwater, and leave it for one to three minutes.
It would help if you observed the fish during the salt bath. The fish should respond positively to this treatment. If this fails to work, immediately reach out to a professional for help.
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