Molly Fry Maybe Not Ready

[basboi85]

I guess it come down to the point of people that don't look after or keep fish will never know and the easiest way of describing overcrowding is 1 adult and 20 kids and there's only going to be a certain amount that can be cared and kept happy before its to much of a problem that they'll die And you can never really know if they'll be looked after properly as you wont be there to make sure of it

 

[FishBlast]

I guess it come down to the point of people that don't look after or keep fish will never know and the easiest way of describing overcrowding is 1 adult and 20 kids and there's only going to be a certain amount that can be cared and kept happy before its to much of a problem that they'll die And you can never really know if they'll be looked after properly as you wont be there to make sure of it

My mother kept fish... but definitely not the right way (and my fail skills of keeping fish during the last 17 years till 2012 speak of that, I've learned them from mom...)
She used to have one tiny fish tank of maybe 40L, not sure exact size but it's definitely small and damaged. She had a crowded tank with angelfish, guppies, swordtails, mollies and platies. She described it as being FULL of fish, so I can only imagine. And... no filter. Water changes maybe once a week, maybe once every 2 weeks... She said she even left for a month or more and left her fish with no food or water changes or a filter. And yet somehow still found surviving fish in there. Maybe she didn't even count them.

Several years later, when I've received my second fish tank (first time it was a very VERY tiny tank with 4 male guppies in it and no filter and my mom killed them after putting a decoration in soap and not washing it properly), I had a tank similar to what my mom described... only with more fish and it was maybe around 50L... And probably 2 feet long.
I've kept 4 bettas (in pairs), a bunch of Zebra danios, guppies, swordtails, a platy, two black lyretail mollies, four baby angelfish, some gold-colored tetras with a black dot on their backs (no idea what they were), black skirt tetras, neon tetras... and my dad had to add 2 hoplos to that. -_________________-
Oddly, I managed to keep those alive by changing water 100% once a week, with no filter. But during the summer, all the sensitive fish died, leaving me with a bunch of swordtails, guppies and the hoplos. Some of the other fish died due to odd accidents such as when I put a frozen bloodworm cube and the fish died when touching them... they just flipped to the side and died next to the icy cube. Or when I fed the bettas catfish pellets and a pair of them got so inflated that they died... then the other pair that died when mom boiled some water and told me to mix it... being a kid, I didn't do well at that and boiled the bettas even though I did pour some cold water in it... -.- EPIC FAIL!
My hoplo has been witness to a lot over the past 9 years. He's one of my childhood pets, along with my turtle and my newt. And he finally got everything he needs barely in 2012: a bigger tank to exercise in, a filter, fish that he seems to socialize with and play with (including guarding the fry) and more food choices.

If only I had known what I got into when accepting my friend's fish tank... But at least it ended well. Somewhat.

 

[basboi85]

We're all learning on here. I myself is learning in the last couple months ive learned more than I have in the last 3 years of having my tank.
Im learning about compatabilitys and about all other fish I never knew existed.

which is bad really as I myself should've paid more attention/ read up more when I got the tank off my mate but weirdly I've never lost any fish besides to old age as I've always fed them and cleaned the water and tank.

But as the old saying goes better late than never if anything it's diverted my attention from the car drift scene which I never thought it would.

 

[FishBlast]

We're all learning on here. I myself is learning in the last couple months ive learned more than I have in the last 3 years of having my tank.
Im learning about compatabilitys and about all other fish I never knew existed.

which is bad really as I myself should've paid more attention/ read up more when I got the tank off my mate but weirdly I've never lost any fish besides to old age as I've always fed them and cleaned the water and tank.

But as the old saying goes better late than never if anything it's diverted my attention from the car drift scene which I never thought it would.

Yeah, same here, learned in 5 months what I didn't learn in 17 years of having a tank with fish.

Ah, yes... The compatibility issues... That one hit me. It hit me hard. When I had those 4 bettas, not only that the rule is to NOT keep them together, but to not keep them with guppies or fish with flowing fins.
Now, surprisingly, they formed a pack and got along very well... But they formed a pack to hunt and kill my Zebra Danios and to eat my guppy tails and bite their heads.
While they didn't kill the guppies, they killed my zebra danios (indirectly) by removing heir eyes. I had completely blind or one-eyed danios swimming around and then dying few hours later. I had no idea who was doing it until I saw the bettas teaming up to corner a poor guppy and biting its head. One of my hoplos had his dorsal fin torn to shreds. (Luckily it grew back.) That was what ticked me off the most, I love hoplos!
And then, more fail followed: I moved them all into a 25L bowl. Again, no problem between them, they shared the bowl just fine and even had some kind of bubbler with a sponge there, but no filter. So 100% water changes (and that incident with the boiling water and the pellets).
The funny part was that the last remaining pair of bettas spawned! The female laid eggs in the bubble nest. But nothing hatched out of them. -.-

I've lost fish to accidents, fighting, water quality (mostly when my dad was in charge, as he overfed them a lot and when I came back home after 1 week, I found some floating fish... my hoplos always survived that though) and sterility of a generation (my last guppy generation), coupled with old age.
But I rarely had to buy fish. Whenever I wanted something, I wanted swordtails but after a year, they either fought to death, or were left with my dad and... then they were gone. My dad used to buy fish I never asked for:
a fossilis - which is a venomous fish... every time that thing stung me, I was scared of it... so scared that I gave it to the cat because its sting hurt a lot! (I was trying to get it out of the net during water changes).
two or one hoplos (on more occasions). I had five hoplos, two at a time: Rex and Moustache, Moustache and Bitza, Seadra and Tzuppy. Out of them, Tzuppy is the oldest and only survivor (9 years), followed by Seadra (8 years), then Moustache and Rex (6) then Bitza (probably not even a year when I dropped her in that accident).

 

[FishBlast]

I lost my biggest fry, Pinky. She was so big (around 2 cm), I just can't find her in the tank. I guess she died because she ate 3 bloodworms and she couldn't digest them. She was acting kind of sluggish after that yesterday...

I didn't find the body, searched even outside the tank even though it's next to impossible for her to have jumped out because my lid is pretty much tight-sealing the tank, except for a 1-2 millimeter gap, which, unless the fish managed to somehow squeeze through, is impossible for her to jump through.

So I guess the verdict is that she died and got pecked till nothing was left. -.-
I even did water analysis though, but nothing turned up. No sign of ammonia or nitrite...

 

[basboi85]

OMG that's well bad and im sorty about your loss. Now I'm panicking about my fry as I've seen them eat blood worm that goes in my tank but they seem to be Bolton around the tank so im guessing they are fine and there getting bigger and more braver by the day

 

[FishBlast]

OMG that's well bad and im sorty about your loss. Now I'm panicking about my fry as I've seen them eat blood worm that goes in my tank but they seem to be Bolton around the tank so im guessing they are fine and there getting bigger and more braver by the day

Now another one of my fry that ate a bloodworm seems to be acting similar to Pinky. I'm worried about him.
He's just lying there on the filter... Not to the side, but sitting as if he's sleeping, with clamped fins.
But I wonder who ate Pinky in the end, because there's no sign of ammonia or nitrite in the tank so I guess she didn't completely rot away. She was a pretty big fry too, couldn't even fit in the hoplo's mouth...

 

[basboi85]

Oh no that's defo not good just a random thought is this the first time they've had blood worm and are you sure the bloodworm is ok as in not gone off so to speak ??? And what does it mean if your fish has clamped fins ???

 

[FishBlast]

Oh no that's defo not good just a random thought is this the first time they've had blood worm and are you sure the bloodworm is ok as in not gone off so to speak ??? And what does it mean if your fish has clamped fins ???

Yes, it's the first time in their lives to eat these.
All the adults are fine, and the bloodworms were defrosted before being fed to the fish.
Clamped fins may mean a fish is sick (although they sometimes do this at night when they sleep). Seems like Ninja is back to normal, he's pecking the leaves of my fern.

 

[basboi85]

I give my Fish frozen bloodworm blocks try aren't very big but within 10-15 seconds its melted and being demolished and eaten in under a minuete. And I even caught both my Molly fry eating a bit of BW and on of them ate a pice that was nearly as long as it and it seemed ok.
obv would be full up plus I don't think they get much of a look in when the flakes get put in the tank as all the other fish are already sucking away at the top trying to get the flakes before there even in there lol

And I'm glad your fry is ok just gutting that pinky died and got eaten

 

[FishBlast]

I give my Fish frozen bloodworm blocks try aren't very big but within 10-15 seconds its melted and being demolished and eaten in under a minuete. And I even caught both my Molly fry eating a bit of BW and on of them ate a pice that was nearly as long as it and it seemed ok.
obv would be full up plus I don't think they get much of a look in when the flakes get put in the tank as all the other fish are already sucking away at the top trying to get the flakes before there even in there lol

And I'm glad your fry is ok just gutting that pinky died and got eaten

I lifted the bogwood and she's not there either so surely got eaten. But i scared the fry that my hoplo was guarding, they were hidden in the bushes. Now he's running all over the tank like crazy and the fry moved to the fern.

 

[basboi85]

She must be gone then if you can't find her and I just gave my plants a scrub as they was looking disgusting and rearranged them a little and my fry seem to be swimming together watching each others backs. And just did the dreaded bloodworm feeding and the fry are eating it but kept spitting it out and eating it again trying to break it down and finnaly eating it and swimming off happily which I'm happy about

And I don't know if it's normal but as soon as the bloodworm went in the tank my fish turn into piranhas/sharks in a feeding frenzy??

 

[FishBlast]

She must be gone then if you can't find her and I just gave my plants a scrub as they was looking disgusting and rearranged them a little and my fry seem to be swimming together watching each others backs. And just did the dreaded bloodworm feeding and the fry are eating it but kept spitting it out and eating it again trying to break it down and finnaly eating it and swimming off happily which I'm happy about

And I don't know if it's normal but as soon as the bloodworm went in the tank my fish turn into piranhas/sharks in a feeding frenzy??

So do mine, they even fight over it. Tzuppy headbutts the adult fish so that he gets served first. When he sees the cube in my hands, he knows what will follow, so he tries to even climb out of the tank!

 

[basboi85]

Glad it's not just mine then thought I had a wierd bunch of Molly's lol