Mollies

[Joanne_]

Hi,

I was just wondering, do you think these two mollies are pregnant and if so, how long do you think they have to go ?
Molly 1 last gave birth in the last week of February but now doesn't look as big as she was back then.

I have looked at Oldman47's pages, but I just can't tell, sorry !

Molly 1 (The first time she gave birth she wasn't overly big, that's why I missed out as I was expecting her to get as fat as the guppies do.) :

Molly 2 (I don't think she is ready yet as she isn't square shaped, but I could be wrong !) :

Thanks

 

[Neptune54]

To be honest, they both look squared off to me! I think that you'll have fry soon!

 

[OldMan47]

Molly 1 is within a very few days. Molly 2 is at last a week from a drop and maybe even a bit more.

 

[Joanne_]

Thanks Neptune and OldMan.

I can't wait !

 

[Joanne_]

I checked on the mollies tonight and I noticed that Molly 2 had a bump near it's rear end. I watched but couldn't look at it properly as she kept swimming around. So I got a small tank to put her in so I could have a closer look. By the time I got back with the tank there was half a baby molly hanging out of her ! So I quickly got her out and into the small tank for her to continue giving birth. There are now 11 molly fry but they aren't very active. Is this normal ? They are just sitting on the bottom of the tank not swimming very much at all. I accidently bumped the tank and they moved very quickly but then they just sit. Just wondering if it's normal.

Thanks !

 

[OldMan47]

They will seem stunned for a short time. It won't take long for the fry to start acting like tiny fish though.

 

[Joanne_]

Thanks OldMan, I checked them this morning, I put them in with the baby guppies that were born just the other day.

They are swimming better than they were last night but still not as good as I thought they would. They aren't swimming like the baby guppies. The mother did nibble on a few of them when she gave birth to them, she might have injured them ?

I will check on them this afternoon !

 

[Joanne_]

Oooh, they are swimming around quite well now ( The really little uncoloured ones are guppy fry )

Here is a picture of a few of them:

 

[littlenemo]

my mollie dropped last night. got 10 fry saved.

old man i have a small tank not set up yet can i
1. take my canister filter off my sump and use that on the tank or
2. by a filter and take some bads out of my sump and put them in filter = instant cycle???

as 3 other mollies are preg to

 

[OldMan47]

If you use your filter from your sump, be sure to get some fry protection. Canister filters are often quite high in flow for a small tank. I use a filter sponge on mine by slitting one end of the sponge and slipping it up over the inlet tube like this.
New sponge

Sponge in place about a month.

 

[littlenemo]

so thats over the end out your intake pipe on your canister filter. plus also if i take it off my sump my main tank wont crash will it. still have all the bio balls etc in there

 

[OldMan47]

The main tank gets treated by the water flowing through the sump. A filter running on the sump should be providing very little of the total filtration of that sump. The main sump filtration will be the filter pads, sponges and biological media in the sump's first chamber. The return chamber houses a pump and provides water expansion space. Running a canister on that part may well get your canister filter cycled but won't provide near as much of the cycled bacteria as the main filtering part of the sump.

 

[littlenemo]

thank you oldman i will take my canister off then and use that with a pad like you suggested