FishProfiles.com Message Forums

Hi All,
Wonder if you can help, i have a 62l tank which i have had for about 5 months.

It has
6 neon tertas
1 dalamtion molly
2 wagtails
1 kissing gourami
2 golden loaches
7 goupies
1 frog
4 cherry shrimp

The water ph is 7.2 and the nitrate and amonia leavels are zero.

This afternoon i noticed my gourami and molly hassling the black molly on closer inspection i could see that the molly was very weak and floating around. i put him in a QT to observe. He was struggling to breath and laying on his side, he wouldnt move, but i could see his gills still moving so assumed he was alive. he died about 15 mins later.

He looked really skinny, must of lost the weight in about 4 days as he looked fine last week. he had a slight discolouration white hazy patches on his body, near his head. i have looked at loads of pictures of white spot and not sure of this is as the white spot look more like grains of sand and this didn't His fins esp his tail where stuck together.

I really dont know what was wrong with him and have been looking on the internet for ages and dont know if its contagious and could spread. i havent put any new fish into the tank for about 7 weeks now.

Please help me!!!!!

Whats the current readings for nitrIte in the tank?
NitrAte levels shouldn't be zero in an established tank, can you retest to confirm?

What type of frog?

Also, you mention the tank is 5 months old, was the molly also about 5 months or did it come from a different tank that you already had running?

Fins sticking together or 'clamped' is a general sign of stress among fish. Grans of sand or salt is a sure sign of a condition known as ich or ick. In the case of ick it needs to be treated for ASAP, you need to fully follow the directions on the medication bottle and not stop just because it seems to be getting better, and you need to treat the entire tank.

Welcome to the site sorry it's under such sad circumstances

^_^

your black molly may have been harassed by the other fish and died of stress.

are you aware that kissing gouramis reach 30cm? imo 62 litres is way too small for a kissing gourami. here's some info from the fishprofiles page on kissing gouramis:

"Kissing gouramies are not particularly well equipped to cause bite damage on other species, but their persistant aggression and multiple attemps to attack may cause delicate fish to wane, and stimulate other aggressive species to fight."
http://fishprofiles.com/profiles/freshwater/Labyrinth_Fish/Helostoma_temminckii/