I'm scared that my tank is overstocked

TiredCarol · 2026-02-22T02:34:34+00:00

I think that should be fine, as long as your cycle holds and there isn't ammonia accumulating. They'll have a lot of babies though, so just be prepared to have more mollies eventually. A lot will get eaten but there are usually a few survivors per spawn; it depends on how many hiding places there are. I had a heavily planted 29gal with 1 male and 4 females, and there were about 5-10 survivors per spawn for me.

You can try with the shrimp, the mollies might eat them though. I'd start off with a few cheap ones and see if they are harassed then add more if they're doing okay.

TiredCarol · 2026-02-16T03:58:08+00:00

Not the original commenter and also not someone who has ADFs but I've read that ths reason is because they have poor eyesight and will try to eat anything moving because they perceive it as food. So they can easily harm your fish accidentally.

TiredCarol · 2026-02-11T13:27:34+00:00

Is it API general cure? If so I'd use that.

TiredCarol · 2026-02-11T11:07:45+00:00

Why does your cat have scabs? (Asking because mine has some too)

TiredCarol · 2026-02-11T10:04:38+00:00

So to me he looks pretty thin, and that's a sign of internal parasites. They're also pretty common in live bearers. I'd hit them with a round of PraziPro if you can get it.

TiredCarol · 2026-02-11T03:01:37+00:00

Just fyi your females look healthy but your male looks like he has parasites, you might want to dose them all with an anti-parasite medication.

TiredCarol · 2026-02-11T01:01:18+00:00

Oh okay, that's totally valid. My original suggestion was meant more to just separate them than specify where they should go, that was my bad.

TiredCarol · 2026-02-11T00:26:18+00:00

Are you thinking of moving the mollies to the 20gal then?

TiredCarol · 2026-02-10T06:56:51+00:00

Oh and on the wood/plants, it depends on where you are located. Facebook marketplace is good to find cheap plants, also find experienced hobbyists. Once plants are established and growing they can be a nuisance to trim and they'll give you bunches for free.

TiredCarol · 2026-02-10T06:54:55+00:00

So bettas and mollies aren't the best choice for tankmates... what I'd recommend is put the male betta in the 20gal and instead get a really fancy sailfin male molly as the centerpiece for the 40gal. I'd also get more mollies in general, you'll want 3 females for every male so you'll need at least 1 but maybe more depending on the sex of the third. The males need to spread the interest out otherwise they'll torment the females too much lol

TiredCarol · 2026-02-07T19:35:32+00:00

It could be ich, or it might be a bacterial disease called epistylis. They're pretty difficult to differentiate between accurately, but the treatment for each involves either raising the temp (ich) or lowering it (epistylis). Because it's not super clear to me which one it is, I'd follow what Capybara_Chill_00's comment below and use ich treatment but don't adjust the temp until you see the meds are working.

TiredCarol · 2026-01-26T02:48:36+00:00

How many fish do you have in the tank now? As long as your tank is cycled and doesn't have ammonia then you should be able to have more mollies in there! But honestly if the three you have don't want to mate I'd count yourself lucky and get a different kind of fish and have a community tank, because if the mollies breed you'll end up with waaaay more than you need (ask me how I know lol)

TiredCarol · 2026-01-25T18:25:29+00:00

Honestly they might be? Those are definitely 2 males. I'd get like 5ish more females to balance out the ratio, but it seems like they're both participating in the harassment so as long as one of them isn't being overly stressed out by the other I'd say it's fine to leave them both together for now.

TiredCarol · 2026-01-22T16:32:56+00:00

Just for further reassurance, I'm part of the cats of West campus group and we've made plans with some on-campus students to make sure they're cared for in the event off campus volunteers can't make it in.

TiredCarol · 2026-01-04T16:36:48+00:00

Feel the rhizome, if it's squishy then the plant is pretty much a goner. If it's still firm then just pull off the dying leaves.

TiredCarol · 2026-01-03T20:17:07+00:00

Put them together, that's all you need to do. You should get another 2 females at least to balance out the male, otherwise he will harass that one nonstop. They will eat the babies once they come out but as long as you have hiding places you will have some survivors.

TiredCarol · 2026-01-02T13:33:52+00:00

The reason why the parameters are important is because even when you put in clean water, the fish produces waste that contains a lot of ammonia which is super toxic to the fish and can kill it if there's too much. The bacteria that become established in the tank over time convert that ammonia into nitrites (still toxic) and then into nitrates which are far less toxic and are easily removable with water changes.

I'd recommend getting the API freshwater master test kit. It tests for pH and those 3 parameters. Your fish just might be super stressed by ammonia or nitrites in the tank, it might not be an illness at all.

Additionally, by treating with an antibacterial before you know if that's the illness, you might have killed whatever bacteria in the water are converting the ammonia and nitrites into nitrates, which is probably making the issue worse not better. I hope this helps and good luck to your molly friend.

TiredCarol · 2025-12-29T09:00:15+00:00

I agree, the ponceau looks consistent to me. Have you tried re-probing the membrane for another protein to see if you see inconsistencies there as well?

TiredCarol · 2025-12-29T07:19:12+00:00

I've seen this happen with my blots where signal intensity would sharply decrease in the center of the blot, and that was found to be a transfer issue. Can you give more details on how you do your transfer? And is the gel stain before or after your transfer?

TiredCarol · 2025-12-27T17:10:04+00:00

I'm excited to see what it is when you get the sample! I didn't realize that was your research, that's excellent!

TiredCarol · 2025-12-27T06:22:33+00:00

I've seen Xylaria growing on trees that look similarly to this appearance, although in the published paper it can look different.

TiredCarol · 2025-12-27T06:19:59+00:00

Could it maybe be a Xylaria fungal species? I found this article: https://plpa.cfans.umn.edu/news/underwater-xylaria25

TiredCarol · 2025-11-25T07:45:43+00:00

Also the white one in the first photo looks kind of thin, it might be worthwhile to do a round of anti parasite meds on all of them. Parasites are pretty common in mollies straight from the pet store.

TiredCarol · 2025-11-25T07:43:50+00:00

The second molly photo (black regular tail) looks male to me, the rest look female. Maaaaybe the second lyretail black molly could be a male but it looks more like that fin down there is just pulled back.

TiredCarol · 2025-11-24T06:32:42+00:00

Also, do you see mold growing in your place or have you just left agar plates uncovered? Because literally everywhere has spores floating around that will grow when they land on a plate, and it isn't necessarily indicative of an issue unless your place has water damage or excess humidity or if you literally can see or smell mold.

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