Need advice on molly fry care. urgently!

[sami the cichlid]

Well, i bought 3 pregnant females on the weekend, 2 gave birth on sunday. The black molly had only 8 babies in the morn and the multicolured molly had 20.
I put them in a seperate 2 gallon tank with no filter. on tue and wed 3 babies died altogether (only the multicoloured mothers babies) so i added a filter (fluval U1).
The next day (2day) i found 4 dead babies (all multicoloured mother again) so i thought the filter pressure/current was too high fo a smallmoved them into a larger tank. During the move 12 multicoloured babies died!

i think it was the stress of the move. the the next day 8 more died so i only have 1 left in a net in the main tank. all ths happened over 5 days! Was it the sudden filter current?? Or the change of tanks?? here r some test results after i found 1 living 2day....:

ph = 7.2 - 7.6
Nitrates= 5.0 - 10ppm
Nitrites= 0ppm
Ammonia= 0ppm

well here we go! any advice greatly welcome. i need advice as i have another pregnent molly who will blow soon!!!!

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

I have been successful in keeping almost 100% of my live-born fry alive, except for a few stupid ones so got sucked on to the filter intake after they were big enough to get transferred to the main tank.

If I had to take a guess from what you've told me, I would say that the babies could have been dropped a little prematurely due to stress on the mother during the move from the LFS (if that's where you got them) to your tank, and then again to the other tank, and then again to the larger tank.

Also, having no filtration on the 2g tank is not good, unless you're replacing the water in large % once or twice a day using established water drawn from the larger tank. Also fry that small need to be fed finely ground flake food about 3-5 times a day, and whatever gets to the bottom needs to be removed, or you need to get some snails to clean it up.

I started my fry tank as a bare 10g with a sponge filter/air pump, and I seeded the sponge by burying it in the gravel in my 55 when I had a UGF for a week, then I set it up in the 10g and drizzled some gravel over it. My ammonia got to about 1ppm and I was doing PWCs about 30-40% every other day, then my guppy dropped, molly a week later and I kept up and the cycle was pretty much done in 2-3 weeks, and they all survived. I had a big Mystery Snail in there and still sucked the bottom clean daily and did 30-40% a day during the cycle. Then I switched to about every 3 days, after about 3 months I took all the fry out and added a Flourite substrate and bought a Tetra EX20 HOB and rigged it with the sponge on the intake, took out the carbon after is cleared up the water, and dropped in a bag of Seachem Purigen because of the plants.

I have successfully kept and given away over 300 swordtail fry, raised the mollies and gave most of them away, same with guppies, etc. Except for a incident with the Purigen recharging, I haven't lost any fry that weren't stillborn. My swordtail drops every 28-31 days and the last 2 batches have been mainly stillborn, but getting 40 live and 80 dead is still a lot of live ones.

I recently read that Mollies, as far as livebearers go, are a little more difficult, but that's not my experience, at least for the one batch (I missed another she dropped in the big tank), but they like slightly brackish water (aquarium salt or Epson salts - same thing I heard) and you have to maintain temps, etc.

The basics you need are a heater, an established filter (shove a sponge in your canister in the bio-media compartment for a week, it'll be good to go), and some cover. I found that Hornwort is great because you can let it float and the fry will just hang in it, and they eat microbes on the plants, and the sponge filter as well once it gets established. Light would be good too for the plants, just a clip-on desk lamp with an incandescent or CF would do, hornwort is cheap so if it dies no biggie. Plus hornwort or most other plants usually come with a few snails for your clean-up crew.

As for cleaning, I would just take a airline hose or your siphon hose (just the hose, not the gravel-vac part) and run it along the bottom into a light colored bucket, if you suck up fry, just net them afterwards and put them back in before replacing the water.

Have fun, you'll have more than you can handle in a few month or so.

 

[sami the cichlid]

thanks!
i found nemo dead so more fry now but have set up the nusery tank ready to put mamma in tomoz, is it safe now tho cuz nowing my luck shell drop tonite!
its 1/4 main tank water mixed with 3/4 treated water with heater and used filter?

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

The thing you have to worry about when transferring the fish is the temperature and the pH. Both should be matched as closely as possible. If your tap water pH is different, then your 1/4-3/4 mix will be different. You will want to test both. Either way you will want to bag and float the mama in the big tank for a few minutes to let her calm down (try not to chase her around too much, be as gentle as possible), then transfer the bag and let it float to match temp (try not to have too much of a temp differential, maybe 4 degrees F or so max) and if the pH is different, take a little of the small tank water while she's floating in that tank and pour it in the bag every 5 minutes (like 10% of the volume of water inside the bag) and do that about 4 or 5 times, you can add a little more each time and pour some out into the tank so the bag isn't too full after each pour. The idea is to slowly acclimate her to the new water so she isn't shocked by the pH change. Of course the ideal is to have match water, but how big is your 'big' tank?

 

[sami the cichlid]

the tank they are i is about 20gallon, but the birthing tank shes now in is about 5 gallon with "tights covered" filter and heater and fake plant for fry.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Ok. Did you say that the filter on the 5g has an established bio-colony already?

Mollies like lots of fresh water, so what I would do after the fry are born is start changing about 40-50% of the water at least every 3 days in the 5g tank vacuuming up excess waste and detritus. Test the pH, ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates daily to make sure it isn't cycling. If the 5g tank is not cycled, do this every day, maybe twice a day (can't hurt).

As far as the water you use for the changes in the 5g, you need to test your tap water for all parameters. pH is the main one, but it may have some ammonia or nitrates, but probably no nitrites. You want to make sure you test the pH of water matched to temp also, don't just turn on the cold for 2 seconds and use that sample, let it run for a while so you get a representative sample (although it's probably not going to make a huge difference, it could in some cases).

Let me know what you come up with.

 

[sami the cichlid]

i plan to change the water 20-40% every day when the fry r born and test the water every other day. as for the water i will test the tap water either tonite or tomorow.

as for cycled....i sorry but bit of a newbie to that word even tho ive kept tropical fish for bout 5 years!!!!

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Read this ASAP

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/articles/articles/24/1/Nitrogen-Cycle-/Page1.html

That's why you are testing for Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate.

I fyou are using a "used filter" as you stated, you should be fine. But "used" is a relative term. Was it in use in another system and you transferred the filter (or just the media) into the 5g, or had you used it some time ago, and started using it again just now?

 

[sami the cichlid]

well, used as in used for past 5 days.....as in bought it a few days ago but have used it in those few days but when i cleaned it it was manky!

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Used = 3 months or more in terms of supporting a bacteria colony.

Tell me the exact brand and model of your filter for both your 5 gallon and your 20 gallon. We'll go from there.

 

[sami the cichlid]

thanks!

well, um the water rite now is:

nitrites - 0ppm
nitrates- 10-20ppm (bit high, may change her water tonite)
ammonia- 0ppm
pH- 7.0 - 7.2

so i think tis cycled, will do every other daily tests to make sure.

5g tank has new fluval u1, 20g tank has v old (defo 3 months running) fluval 3plus

can u help by also telling me how long until she gives birth

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

It doesn't look like it will be long before she drops.

As for your water parameters, it looks like yout 5g has not even started to cycle. It takes 6 weeks for a cycle to complete. First your ammonia levels will rise and drop over a couple weeks. Then your nitrites will do the same. Then your nitrate levels will rise. If you have nitrates already, it is most likely from your tap water or your 20g water.

Here's what you need to do right away: take apart both filters at the same time. Replace 1/2 of the Biomax Nodes in the U1 filter with nodes from the established filter (assuming this filter has been running for at least 6-8 weeks) and take the ones that you took out of the U1 and put them in the established filter. This should not cause a mini-cycle in the established filter, but will jump-start the bacterial colony in the U1. You may have a small cycle in the 5g, maybe a day or so, but it shouldn't last long and will not have any high spikes.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Also, do not clean any of the filter pads in the 5g for at least a couple weeks. The bacteria that build up on the foam pads will also assist in establishing a new bacterial colony.

 

[sami the cichlid]

so u want me to swap filter pads in other words??? for how long?

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

No, not filter pads, they probably aren't the same size. I looked up the 3 plus and it looks like there is a compartment inside that houses bio-balls of some kinds, plastic pieces that the bacteria adhere to. I'm assuming that the U1 also has a similar compartment to house the bio-media. That's what I'm referring to. if it doesn't, find a way to put some of the bio-media from the 3 plus right next to whatever bio-media is in the U1 so it can transfer the biological colony over time to the media in it, then once it's established (at least a month) you can take them out and put them back in the 3 plus.

 

[sami the cichlid]

um, i dont have bio-media in any of the 2 filters, cant i just cut a pice of filter pad from the established filter and add it to the U1?

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

my bad - I was looking at the wrong model. It looks like the 3+ and the U1 only have filter pads. How long has the 3+ been running in your 20g? If it's not more than a few weeks, then both you tanks are going to cycle unless you somehow 'seed' the filters with a biological colony. If the 3+ has been running for a long time and you've never run the pads under chlorinated tap water, then you should be able to cut one of the pads to size for the U1. You never should run dirty pads under tap water, only tank water or dechlorinated tap water, or you'll kill the bio colony and your tank will cycle again.

 

[sami the cichlid]

its been running for a few months but i cleaned it last week is it still worth a try?? cuz the molly is due to drop

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

When you say you cleaned it, exactly what did you do

 

[sami the cichlid]

um under tap rinse, se givin birth!