I just bought a marble molly and a silver molly, both are swimming weird. They're swimming with their bodies up towards the top of the water. I have had my water check and its perfect and there are no other fish in the tank. Are they ok? My tank is also a 10 gallon.

Updated On July 13th, 2017

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Answered By Patrick Largey

Aquatic expert

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Erratic swimming behavior is often a symptom of one or more water parameters being outside the normal range of what a particular fish can tolerate. Molly fish (Poecilia latipinna) prefer to be kept at a slightly elevated pH of 7.4-7.8 and can tolerate a pH as low 7.0. Mollies prefer to have aquarium salt in their water, ranging from a teaspoon per gallon all the way to a full marine environment. Another reason that your mollies may be hanging out towards the top is they upturned mouths and can draw from the upper layer of oxygen rich water.

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