silver mollies

are silver mollies a good beginners fish as i got some from my local pets at home and they don't seem to be doing well in my tank out of a group of 5 (4 females 1 male all i have left is two females all the rest have died)[!]

there might be a few reasons for the failure of these mollies to thrive.
1/ the place u bought them from is not renowned for selling quality fish. they seem to know little about fish husbandry and often the fish are of a poor quality.
2/ most mollies prefer some salt in the water, indeed, they can be kept in marine tanks, many people use them to mature marine tanks.
try adding some aquarium salt to the tank at the rate of one teaspoon per gallon.this can be increased gradually to double this amount.
what are your water readings, are there any other fish in the tank. how did the others die?
mollies are vegitarians so like lots of veggie matter in their diet.
let us know how the last 2 get on.
they are fairly hardy fish if kept in the right conditions.

[ph of 7 temp 75]

they are in my main aquarium (3ft) with general tropicals(siamese fighting fish  glowlight tetras)  and the water has a (ph of 7 temp 75) if they do survive i will go somewere else for some replacements do any of you no of any good quality fishshops around chesterfield/sheffield??

Almost all mollies being farmed is done in a braskish soluation, this is why a lot of people have problems.
As most shop will place these fish straite into freshwater causing the first problems, which then when some buy's then these fish are not a good as what they should be.

The best plave for mollies used to be Pet City!!!
This is only as they pollicy was to add salt to the water to reduce the stress levels of all thir fish.

How ever if you come to an auction, you'll know that all our fish will be the very good condation, and will live happile in freshwater.

Perhaps we sould start a place where we could rate shops for the helpfulnes, and quality.

Alan

sounds like a good idea to rate shops so other people who read a bad review on a particular shop can avoid it and only use quality shops that get a good review

we would need to be careful in what is said as there is always the risk of legal action if comments can be seen as slanderous or deflamatory.

the mollies i added to my set-up have picked up over the weekend at first they were lying on there side's and i thought they were all dead but on inspection they were all breathing so i left them alone and today they are all swimming about in a group [] is this normal for mollies as i no that some fish sulk when moved about

Well it good to here that they are doing better, did u add any salt?
Like we said above, it's a resualt of them being imported and being packed very heaverly that causes the problems, and by the time the problem shows there in your tanks at home.

Alan

no all i added to my tank was a ph 7.0 buffer

lets us know how they do.
what was ur ph. to use a buffer of 7, was it to low.

I thought that, but I thought it was a stupid question so refrained from asking.

You said your pH was 7 and then you said that you used a pH 7 buffer?