balloon belly molly

[Mollymomma]

I am so new to fish keeping that I need all the help I can get..
First - How reliable are pet stores for information for beginner's?
Second - How do you tell male/female mollies
Third - What would be the best set up conditions for 3 ballon bellies..Tank size, temp,plants,filtration...
Right now I have 3 in a 2gallon explorer tank with a bio wheel..temp ranges in the 75-80 range...I know this tank is to small now but don't want to go too large at first...
Any help for my funny babies will be greatly welcomed

 

[William]

Pet stores vary from place to place and store to store but too often the advice they give out is not correct either through lack of knowledge or because they are trying to sell you some products.

Male and Female mollies can be distinguished in the same way as guppies and platies; http/fish.orbust.net/livebearers.html written by me has pictures - the male has a gonopodium - spiked anal fin and the female has more of a fan for her back fin.

For baby fish its inadvisable to get a new tank which has not been cycled because they are very susceptable to water change for this reason many people simply use a "net breeder" in a corner of the tank; Leave the fry in the Net Breeder and feed them finely crushed flake food (as fine as you can crush it, use your fingers and rub them together really grinding it up very finely because any large bits will remain uneaten and will rot polluting your tank. When your baby fish have grown to about one inch, normally they can be released from the net breeder into the aquarium with the other fish.

Or if you have a cycled tank ready then a 10gallons will be good for a fry raising tank note you'll have a lot more than 3 in a couple of months They grow quite rapidly and to begin with can be fed three times a day but make sure you don't over feed during the regular feedings because it will pollute the water rapidly!

Keep the temperature constant anywhere between 75-80 is ideal - the closer to 80 the faster they will grow. But keep it constant or else it will upset them.

I think thats about it
Best of luck and keep us posted!!

 

[StiX]

Hi, Check out this for info on sexing them (and all livebearers)

Some pet stores are more interested in making money than giving good advice and keeping good quality stock, but most are pretty good.

I would suggest around a 10gal tank, planted always makes it look better (in my opinion), select a suitable filter for the tank size, temp is ok as it is. If u did get a 10gal, then u have room for some more fish

Mollys (and all livebearers) are easy to breed, so if ur not carefull u'll be over run with babies

 

[Mollymomma]

Thanks so much William... I am so excited about these fish..driving my family crazy talking about them,finding yet another reseach site
I think I will be off soon to get a bigger tan, but am glad to hear I'm not starting off too badly
With my 2 gallon tank w/bio wheel how big of a water change should I be doing each week? I do about a 50% change at the moment..is this too much?I don't want to put undo stress on the fish.

 

[William]

I think I will be off soon to get a bigger tan, but am glad to hear I'm not starting off too badly
With my 2 gallon tank w/bio wheel how big of a water change should I be doing each week? I do about a 50% change at the moment..is this too much?I don't want to put undo stress on the fish.

Well a 2 gallon tank is quite small but 50% is quite a lot for any tank, 20% is the norm. Do you have a gravel vaccumer? I recommend the manual ones rather than electric as obviously nothing can go wrong with them and they are reliable the downside is there is a possibility of getting a mouthful of tank water!

Its always a good reassurance when two fish keepers say the same thing sorry stickle for answering first

 

[Mollymomma]

Thanks!
20%it is from now on.
I also now know I have 2 males 1 female...she's gonna be busy!Will definatly get the bigger tank and start the cycling process..How long will it take under the best conditions? I know that cycling is the most important thing's to do to insure healthy happy fish

 

[William]

About 4 weeks minimum although you can use gravel /filter squeezings or even a little bit of filter foam from the established tank into the new tank, try this article: http/fish.orbust.net/cycling.html

 

[Mollymomma]

Thanks once again
I will be doing a lot of researching lol...Never knew there was sooo much involved in fish keeping. Promise to my fish... I will learn as much as I humanly can so you will be happy