First Baby After 1 Day - Any Advice?

[Charlie06]

Hi all

Just joined the forum.

We finally got our fish yesterday after setting up the tank last week. We have Guppies, Mollies, Platties and Swordtails. We live in Bulgaria in a small town so choice is a little limited. We bought a male and female of each species and were told that all the females were pregnant. (I have been reading up on the internet and believe it is very hard NOT to buy a pregnant fish!!). Anyway, only 2 hours ago we see a baby swim up the tank and into one of the mollies mouths. I was devastated. We missed the birth. (Actually we're not sure who the mother is!!). We found another hiding a half an hour later and have had to construct a make shift home for it from tupperware. What else can we do? We got told we had about 1-2 weeks before we saw babies. We did ask today about a breeding box/net and the guy said he would try to get one next week for us. Will this poor little fish survive till them? He's an only child.

We also had one of the fish get ill on us yesterday after only 1 hour of being in it's new home. It had the white cotton wool effect. Anyway, we added salt to the water and prayed. This morning it seemed a little livelier and looking healthier. Got some stuff (in Bulgarian so can't tell you what it is, blue though) and 1 hour after putting it in the tank, he's bombing around the place and looking great.

We have had a very traumatic 24 hours, 1 near death and 1 birth.

Any advice would really be appreciated.

Charlie

 

[n3ont3tra]

First of all, and I hate to say it, but if the tank has only been set up for a week, all of your fish are at risk of dying. Heres somre info on that:
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=10099
Second, mollies like salt, but none of your other fish will appreciate that. Third, did you add the blue medication to the tank with all of the other fish in it? That may not have been the best choice, you would have done better to isolate then medicate it. And what size tank are all these fish in? You have a few other problems in your tank as well, but I don't know quite enough to answer them, and I'm sure many other people will go further into depth about what I said. Congratulations on your baby fish, though!

 

[Charlie06]

I read on different sites about the setting up etc and they all said once the heater, filter, etc have been working for a week then add a few fish.

We got the tank off a friend of ours that has kept aquariums for years and have had a lot of tips off him but he wasn't available last night for instant info. The tank hold approximately 23 gallons of water and at present have 8 fish.

We added the salt because the guy at the shop said to do it anyway (only 1 1/2 teaspoons as wasn't sure how much so didn't want to go over board) and it was the same guy who told us to put the whol bottle of blue stuff in it. We put in 1/2 only. All the fish are doing great and it's now been 2 days.

The sad news is that the baby has gone. The box we made had fallen down. The good news is that the guy we got the large tank off has a small tank that we can use for the fry, when they arrive.

We are awaiting some new plants also which is probably why the babies didn't survive. Also here in BG the supplies and accessories for pets are not very common but I know the fish are better off at our house than in any of the pets shops around here.

Fingers crossed all is looking well.

Thanks for the advice

 

[Annastasia]

First off, welcome to the forum.

There are a few potential issues with your tank.

First - the ratio of males and females. You should have 2-3 females per male, since male Livebearers are very mate-crazy. They'll drive the females nuts. When you have 2 or more, each female gets a chance for a break from the male's attention, so they won't get stressed out. When the females are stressed out, you have a larger risk of them aborting their fry, having stillbirths, dying while birthing, getting sick, etc. With your tank size, you won't be able to upgrade all the fish into the correct ratios. I'd suggest either getting another tank, or getting a larger tank.

Second - Aggression. Swordtail and Molly males can be especially aggressive sometimes, and with only one female each, the aggression may carry over on to the other fish. Ideally, it'd be best if you could separate these two, and get them more females.

Third - Salt. What kind of salt did you add? Aquarium salt, marine salt...? Either way, you should add marine salt for the Mollies, to make the water slightly brackish. Check out the pinned topic on that for more information. And the other Livebearers should be fine with some salt in the water.

Fourth - The babies. All those fish will probably have babies. Some may get eaten, in fact most probably will. But I'm guessing you'll want to save some. Your fry tank will be great for that. There's a pinned topic on fry tanks too.

Fifth - Cycling. Most sites say that you can add fish after one week, heck, most fish stores do! However, it's not quite that simple. You need beneficial bacteria in your filter and tank to support the tank. These bacteria need food to grow. Setting the tank up and letting it run will do nothing for the bacteria, as they have no food. Adding all those fish in at once will provide a surplus of food for the bacteria, so the water will become very dirty, because there will not be enough bacteria to keep up with all the waste. Do you have a test kit? If not, I'd suggest you get one. And you'll probably have to do frequent water changes to keep the toxins at a safe level. We have a bunch of links and info for cycling here

Also, I'd suggest you check out the FAQs, and other pinned topics.

Best of luck.

 

[Charlie06]

Thanks for the info, that's great.

Like I said we did the research on so many different sites and it all seemed to be the same. We are planning on getting a few more females. We have got the kits to check the water and all is at a safe level at the moment. Our friend gave us the tank as he has had 6 big ones so this one was spare. He has given us alot of advice, but it's hard to get hold of him and this site is full of info, hands on info.

Yes we do want to save all the fry (if that's possible) and our friend has a proper fry tank we can use, the type that the mother stays in the top and the babies go through to the bottom. Perfect.

I'll keep an eye on the whole situation.

Thank you again

 

[Annastasia]

Well, just keep an eye on the levels. What are they at now?

Oh, you have a breeder trap. Be careful with those. While they are great for saving fry, they can also stress the mother out very much, from being in such a small space. I'd only put a Guppy or possibly a Platy in there, if you decide to use it. Mollies and Swordtails are too big for those kinds of things. Another option is to just let the mother give birth in the tank, and move the fry in to the trap afterwards. If you add in lots of plants and decorations to your tank, then some fry should survive. This way, you don't get the stress on the mother, and you get to raise the fry.