Skittish molly darting around tank?

5556 Views 4 Replies 3 Participants Last post by dollyhorse101, Oct 8, 2016

dollyhorse101

Discussion Starter · Oct 7, 2016

I just got a couple of Molly fish for my community 30gallon. It's very well established, is over a year old, and I tested the water before putting them in. No ammonia, nitrites or nitrates. pH right around 7. The one Molly looks perfectly content and is happily swimming around and healty. However the 2nd Molly is extremely skittish and anytime I walk past the tank or go up to look at it she'll dart around the tank extremely quick then find a corner or plant to hide behind and won't come out until she seems to feel safe. As soon as I move again she darts back to hide. This to me is definitely not molly behaviour. Considering the other Molly is just fine I don't understand what is up with this one.

Any ideas? Or advice on what to do? I've NEVER seen this happen in my fish before and I acclimatized them as I do all my fish and very gradually. When I do get a chance to look at her I can't see any signs of disease but she seems stressed to be doing this and I can't figure out why. Thanks

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Platy Lover

· #2 · Oct 7, 2016

1. What other tank mates
2. What gender is the Molly
3. How often, how so, and do you add dechlorinator to waterchanges
4. What's the temp
5. How did you acclimate
6. How many times have you netted the Molly
Just a few questions to see what could be going on.

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dollyhorse101

Discussion Starter · #3 · Oct 7, 2016 (Edited by Moderator)

Platy Lover said:
1. What other tank mates
2. What gender is the Molly
3. How often, how so, and do you add dechlorinator to waterchanges
4. What's the temp
5. How did you acclimate
6. How many times have you netted the Molly
Just a few questions to see what could be going on.

1. Cardinal tetras, 2 siamese algae eaters, 1 red tailed shark (he bothers the SAE but not the molly's because they're bigger), an oto, and 2 ammano shrimp.
2. Both are female. Planned on getting a male a little later.
3. Add prime at each water change. 40% water change the day before I added the Molly's and I do water changes every week.
4. Temp is about 79-80 F
5. Floated the bag for about an hour, then dripped tank water in with a syringe every 15 mins or so over the course of another hour or 2 until the bag was 75% tank water.
6. Only netted once when moving them from the pet store bag into the tank. Pet store water did not enter my tank.

Thanks for the reply. Other things to be noted are I have 2 26watt CFL's over the tank which I turned off during acclimatizing and moved further away from the surface to avoid stress while they adjusted. 1 HOB filter which produces light to moderate current, and 1 in-tank filter which produces light current. 2 airstones and a heater as well, plus moderately planted.

Quick update just from this morning:

She actually seems to be improving a bit. After the lights came on I watched her for a little while and she's swimming around the tank more. Still hiding a bit but she comes out quicker and doesn't dart as much. Also managed to get her to eat some bloodworms today. Maybe she'll just need more time to adjust hopefully.

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PlantedRich

· #4 · Oct 7, 2016

You know how some people are just a bit more bold? Fish act quite the same at times. Some are a bit on the dull side and don't really react to things that scare other silly. Perhaps this fish tends to be a bit more on the smarted side and knows people can be really scary. That may leave this fish thinking it over for a bit longer than some of the slower, duller friends.
Of course it is wise to look the fish over for some time and do look for signs of disease but at the same time, giving them time to settle in will be good.
I just got 6 rainbow cichlids and three were extremely shy, while three were semi okay. Now that they have been here three weeks, I am really glad for the QT I did as three are bold and healthy, two are spooky and hide with a couple ich spots and one is dead. I'm certainly glad they are in a ten gallon where I can treat them and they are not exposing a whole tank of fish for me to treat.

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dollyhorse101

Discussion Starter · #5 · Oct 8, 2016

PlantedRich said:
You know how some people are just a bit more bold? Fish act quite the same at times. Some are a bit on the dull side and don't really react to things that scare other silly. Perhaps this fish tends to be a bit more on the smarted side and knows people can be really scary. That may leave this fish thinking it over for a bit longer than some of the slower, duller friends.
Of course it is wise to look the fish over for some time and do look for signs of disease but at the same time, giving them time to settle in will be good.
I just got 6 rainbow cichlids and three were extremely shy, while three were semi okay. Now that they have been here three weeks, I am really glad for the QT I did as three are bold and healthy, two are spooky and hide with a couple ich spots and one is dead. I'm certainly glad they are in a ten gallon where I can treat them and they are not exposing a whole tank of fish for me to treat.

I do agree. After today I'm thinking she'll need some extra time to adjust, but I'm seeing improvement. Not darting quite as much. I do worry though that despite being healthy she is stressed for some reason. I don't want her to be so stressed that it will ultimately end with her dying or being prone to disease. Guess I'll keep an eye on her for now, move slowly around the tank so as not to spook her too much, and do a good water change tomorrow. Thanks!

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