Baby fish?!?!

[BlueSarcasm]

i just bought fish yesterday and when I woke up this morning there were 7 little fish swimming away from my betta (for obvious reasons) I'm not sure where these fish came from or what kind of fish they are, one day is certainly not enough time for eggs to hatch. Can anyone tell me why?

Also, I currently have them in a seperate container so my betta wont eat them, I'm planning on keeping them so tips would be helpful

 

[Essjay]

In another thread ( http://www.fishforums.net/threads/shrimp-died-overnight.449039/ ) you mention having mollies. What sex are they? Mollies are livebearers - they give birth to fry rather than laying eggs - so if at least one is female, that is the most likely source of the fry. Livebearer females like mollies can store packets of sperm so if they've ever been in a tank with a male they can continue having fry for around 6 months even with no males in the current tank.

Livebearers need to be kept with at least 2 females for every male, so with 3 mollies (2 balloon, 1 black) you need either all females or 1 male, 2 females. Male livebearers constantly pester females so there need to be a lot more females than males so each female gets time out while the males chase another female.
Do you know how to tell males and females apart?



Did you buy all the fish and the shrimps yesterday? And did you cycle the tank by adding ammonia before getting them? If you didn't you need to change 50% of the water every day, and buy a test kit asap. Liquid testers are better than strips and strips don't test for ammonia which you need.
Once you have the testers, test every day and do a water change whenever you see ammonia and/or nitrite higher than zero.

 

[Colin_T]

If you can post a small picture of each molly, we can tell you whether it is male or female.

To sex livebearers like mollies, guppies, swordtails & platies you look at the anal (bottom) fin. Male livebearers have a long thin straight anal fin called a gonopodium. Female livebearers have a fan or triangular shaped anal fin.

 

[BlueSarcasm]

Here are pictures of the mollies and very blurry pictures of the babies, I'm suspecting the black one is the mother because of their shape and color. I have noticed the white balloon molly has been chasing and pestering the orange balloon molly.

 

[Colin_T]

1st pic is a male black molly.
no idea what's in the 2nd pic.
3rd pic is a female yellow/ gold balloon molly.
4th pic is a gold marble balloon molly but no idea what sex because it is holding its anal fin close to the body.

 

[BlueSarcasm]

1st pic is a male black molly.
no idea what's in the 2nd pic.
3rd pic is a female yellow/ gold balloon molly.
4th pic is a gold marble balloon molly but no idea what sex because it is holding its anal fin close to the body.

The second picture is of the babies, and I've noticed that the other molly has a similar shaped anal fin as the gold one, but i cant get a good picture because its almost always close her(?) Body

I also noticed that the gold balloon molly seems to have a much larger belly than the other

 

[Colin_T]

The gold balloon molly looks pregnant.

If the gold marble balloon molly has the same shaped anal fin as the gold balloon molly, then they are both females.

 

[BlueSarcasm]

On a different note, the gold molly's poop has been a mix of green and white, and i know this is concerning, what does it mean and what should i do?

And also a huge thank you for helping me out

 

[Colin_T]

The fish's poop can vary in colour depending on what the fish eats. If they eat a lot of plant matter (algae or plants based fish foods) their poop is usually green. If they eat a lot of protein it will be darker, usually black or dark brown.

If it's white then it can be internal parasites like tapeworm or thread/ round worms, or an internal protozoan infection. The internal protozoan infections usually cause the fish to stop eating, lose weight and die within a week or so of producing the stringy white poop.
Thread/ round worms can live in fish for months or even years and the fish can actually gain weight and look pregnant but never produce any babies. The fish get fatter because their digestive tract fills up with parasitic worms.
Tapeworm usually causes the fish to lose weight over a period of months.

Tapeworm is treated with Praziquantel, available from any pet shop. Thread/ round worms are treated with Levamisole. Some shops sell it and some don't.

 

[BlueSarcasm]

The fish's poop can vary in colour depending on what the fish eats. If they eat a lot of plant matter (algae or plants based fish foods) their poop is usually green. If they eat a lot of protein it will be darker, usually black or dark brown.

If it's white then it can be internal parasites like tapeworm or thread/ round worms, or an internal protozoan infection. The internal protozoan infections usually cause the fish to stop eating, lose weight and die within a week or so of producing the stringy white poop.
Thread/ round worms can live in fish for months or even years and the fish can actually gain weight and look pregnant but never produce any babies. The fish get fatter because their digestive tract fills up with parasitic worms.
Tapeworm usually causes the fish to lose weight over a period of months.

Tapeworm is treated with Praziquantel, available from any pet shop. Thread/ round worms are treated with Levamisole. Some shops sell it and some don't.

It was only green and white one time and now its back to its usual pink color (i feed them tropical flakes which are mostly pink and orange) should i wait and see if anymore white appears? because she usually sits in the back of the tank so i could have seen it as white if it was just pink in contrast with the dark green appearing white.

 

[Essjay]

You mentioned in your other thread that this tank is 10 gallons, and the fish are 3 mollies and a female betta. I'm afriad the tank is just not big enough for mollies, though it is fine for the betta.

 

[Colin_T]

most of her mollies are balloon mollies so the tank should be ok.

------------------
Most fish have intestinal worms and it's a good idea to treat them as soon as you get them. Whether or not you want to is up to you, but I use to treat all new fish for worms as soon as I got them.

If the fish is still eating it's unlikely to be an internal protozoan infection.

 

[Essjay]

Personally, I would not keep even 3 balloon mollies, plus a betta in 10 gallons/37 litres!

 

[BlueSarcasm]

I couldnt remember how many gallons, but i ended up finding a similar tank model and its 20 gallons or more, the tank is about 2 feet long, 1 foot wide, and 1 foot tall, and im taking the water to the pet store like you recommended to get it tested.

And some exciting news, the molly is giving birth again and a second tank is being shipped tomorrow

 

[Colin_T]

To work out the volume of water in an aquarium:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.

When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.

The is a calculator/ converter in the "How To Tips" at the top of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons.