Do molly fish sleep on their sides?

Answer 1

Contrary to what many believe, most mollies that you will get in a pet store are hybrids and don't actually need any salt in their aquarium. While there may be some that could use some aquarium salt in their water, in most cases, it's not necessary as chances are the mollies you bought have already been over-bred and are not as hardy as they should be.

Make sure that you are testing your water for ammonia, nitrates and nitrites as these should be zero, less than 10, and zero respectively. In addition, make sure that when you do your at minimum 50% weekly water changes, that you add in the correct dosage of water conditioner per the instructions on the bottle.

Finally, also test your PH, KH, and GH (all of these tests are available in kits - get the bottles, not the test strips) as you want to make sure your PH is anywhere between 6.5 to 8 (they can handle anything in between), but that it's stable, which is why you test your KH & GH to see if your water is soft or hard - soft water can cause the PH to be unstable, and you will want to use some crushed coral to raise it (if too low), or peat to lower it (if way too high).