ballon mollie look's ready?

[izzycomosy]

Hi, Could any one tell me if I should move my ballon mollie into my small tank as she looks about reqady to deliver her fry I have put a lot of allies at the bottom of the tank and she looks to be getting pestered by all the other mollies,the reason for asking is I have a number of clown loaches and a red tailed shark and a number of different type mollies in a 5 ft tank
also I have some kissing fish, what are the chances of them surviving with all these other type fish in the tank,I have a hospital tank on standby and poor thing she is having difficulty swimming she is so big but I think she might be hanging on to them,maybe she feels threatened?
what do you think...anyone help me with this problem please

[Zagz]

She could very well be holding, I'd move her to the QT tank as gently as you can. It generally isn't recommended to move a very pregnant fish, but it sounds as if she is stressed too much in her exsisting tank. Move her over and keep an eye on her. How long has she been pregnant by your best guess?

[izzycomosy]

I think about 3 weeks maybe a bit more,its hard to say but I was concerned about moving her as I didnt want her to abort her fry
how would I move her without stressing her to much,I thought maybe a large jug which means I would'nt have to handle her to much,and I dont want to put her in a net as this would frighten herand maybe bring her on when she isnt ready.
Thanks for the reply

[Zagz]

I'd try the jug as it would be less stressful than a net. I just meant not to chase her around the tank with a net, that stresses all the fish. I used a floating breeder tank to catch my molly when she was almost ready. Is your molly gravid? Might be hard to tell if she is a black molly.

[izzycomosy]

how do you mean gravid? she is orange with a white belly and I can see the fry through her tummy,she is a ballon molly

[Zagz]

That's gravid, when you can see the fry in the belly, she is close for sure.

[izzycomosy]

its quite hard to say how long she has been pregnant as I have been in america for 2 weeks visiting relatives and I asked my husband how long she had been this large and he didnt know he said he had been feeding them and didnt take any notice...lol but thats my husband for you

[Zagz]

LOL non fish addicts. They aren't really helpful are they. Well good luck with the birthing and keep us posted on how it goes!

[RoK]

There isn't a good chance that you'd have surviving fry with those fish in the tank, unless they could find some really good hiding spot. Try moving her into the other tank with the jug.

[izzycomosy]

Hi, Anne,thanks for the help....well I got her into the other tank without any problems she almost jumped into the jug without having to chase her ,most of the fish eat from my hand when I give them blood worms so I think they trust me anyway she is now safely housed in my hexagon hospital tank she is still eating quite well but she has found a nice quite place behind the rocks and plants and only comes out when I go over to see how she is,I dont think she will be long as she lost a little white stream from behind she is so large now,I really feel for her...been there done that..lol so maybe some small fry tomorrow,I only hope she is not to lonely in there on her own .
anyway I will keep you updated on her birth OK.
once again thank you for all your advice anne

[Zagz]

Glad to hear she is in her own tank. It does sound like she trusts you, that and she is probably anxious to get rid of the babies. LOL, I've been there and done that! Nothing better than finally giving birth!
Thanks for keeping me posted, I love happy stories about fish.

[izzycomosy]

I thought you were a night bird like me ...lol it is 1.55am here in the UK and then I saw you live in Canada, so you are daytime ...yes?
I am still suffering from Jet Lag.... 8O from being in America.(California)
I cant sleep anyway I keep popping down stairs to peek and see if there is any new additions.... is everyone as anxious over their fish as I am...lol

[Zagz]

It's evening here, I am a night owl LOL, work doesn't usually like me being a night owl. Or should I say I don't like work when I've been a night owl. :rofl:

I was that anxious with my mollies when they were birthing, I sat at the tank for hours watching to see the fry come out. Anytime anyone bothered me, I said not right now, wait until she has her babies.

[izzycomosy]

I had one female dalmatian mollie give birth in the big tank and only 2 survived for a while and I lost them I tried everything to get them out but they were to quick and I didnt want to stress them so I had to leave them to their fate....but not this time I am ahead of myself....I do a water change on my tanks every sunday and hoover...I am quite tank proud....rofl then they all get a treat for being well behaved..lol either blood worms or brine shrimp(crushed) for the mollies ect and for the cichlids whole one's, but I tested all the tanks yesterday for the ammonia and nitrite and nitrate and ph, and everything was fine so iI am glad I tested it yesterday so I didnt have to mess around today so I could just put the mollie straight into the QT tank
anyway anne I will let you know how she gets on tomorrow Ok
goodnight for now,really nice talking with you anne,hope to catch you again for a chat soon
bye for now
Irene

[izzycomosy]

Hi again Anne,
I wonder if you can help me some more please...nothing on the fry yet..
but I have 2 flag cichlids and 1 angel fish and 1 parrot cichlid in my 3ft tank but they are not happy fish I have had them about 5 days and they are eating very small amounts of food but dont seem to be very happy in there at the moment,I have 2 internal filter but they dont seem to be coping very well I have just bought a 104 fluval from ebay that will be here tomorrow ,but my query is shall I put them in my 108 bow fronted tank with all my mollies ect that are in my listing as I am getting a bit worried about them
thanks
Kind regards
Irene

[Zagz]

What are the parameters on that tank? It could be as simple as needing a water change. I know my fish act like that if there is ammonia or nitrite in the tank.

[izzycomosy]

I tested the water parameters are they are all good water conditions,my fluval came this morning and I have connected it all up and they seem to be more active..although I think I have a problem now with the red parrot fish, fighting for the attention of the female Flag cichlid...lol and the thing is she seems to be liking it... .ROFL.
The male Flag is not very pleased as he keeps chasing her off, since she seems to like being on the other side of the tank with the parrot,but I am getting a female parrot on friday so I am hoping the male flag will woo her back .
well if he doesn't ........ if he he loses...lol
thanks Anne

[Zagz]

Glad to hear things are working out well. And believe, no problem for the help. This site has been a godsend for me and I can't help but pass on what I have learned here!

[Scooterbug]

Wow..sounds like you are in the same boat I just got out of

We have a dalmation molly that got pregnent shortly after giving birth to her first batch This past weekend (Friday night actually) my wife noticed that she started "squaring off". We decided to move her to the fry tank. I used the net, but the tanks are right next to each other. When I went to turn off the lights that night (I keep them on as a kind of night light for my 5 yr old son) low and behold, approx 40 new fry were swimming around!

I moved her to the 55 gallon after that, since I now have enough baby mollies to fill several large tanks

I'm not sure if she was waiting for a more peaceful enviroment before spitting the little guys out or not. She was housed with 3 pink gouramis, 1 black molly (he's the daddy), 1 other dalmation molly, 1 pleco and a orange and white lyretail molly.

Steve

[izzycomosy]

well anne balloon mollie has still not had her fry???? I had to move her back to her large tank as I had a cloud emplotion in the QT tank I think it was an algae bloom..any way put her back in tank ..Jug method..again no stress that I could see anyway,but she is still very large,so yesterday I put her into a breeding net in the large tank and she is still there and no fry???that makes it about 4 maybe 5 weeks!! I know that they can take up to about 40 days ,but she is she hanging on to them? I have feed her frozen black worms,as they say it entices labour...my question is how long shall I keep her in the breeding net?
izzycomosy