my poor old molly

[rubberdoofa]

Hi , I have 5 Safron Mollies born last november ( a total suprise to me) one of them had babies on the 21st April i think they whereborn prematurely all though i have 20 very healthy babies lots of eggs where delivered and some odd looking fry too , my problem is with one of the other females , she is being harrased by two males to the point of .....well you could just tell she'd almost given up figting them off and she has a black belly !!!! i have put her in to a breeding net thingie to keep the lads off her but i would like to know why she is black! Shes not like the other one who had the babies she was fat but still yellow the black colour is comming from her insides its not her scales turning black . Do you think in your expert oppinions that she IS pregnant or have i some sort of disease going on ?!
I also have one of those sponge backgrounds ive heard lots about them ....mostly not good iam having a bad alge problem with it hair type alge all over it cant get rid of the stuf and i have alge eatters and my phospates are ok too. I have asked in petshops but they are always too busy to talk .

 

[WILDER]

What colour is she and how much black is it, is it also between the scales as well, can you post water stats in ammonia,nitrite,nitrate and ph.

 

[WILDER]

Sorry i misread that, could be the fry in side her, that's all i can think of.

 

[rubberdoofa]

just done tests again the n02 is 0.3mg (orange colour) the nh3 nh4 is 0mg (v pale yellowy green) ive lost the card thing that shows me what ph it is but the water is blue a mid blue i dont have a phospate test kit i took some water in to the shop and they told me things where ok all over . Is that lot ok ???
As for miss molly the black is showing through the scales you can see that the scales are on top of it , it starts at the back of the head from the gills and looks like what ever it is is filling the space inside and ends just befor her back end its a distinct line between the black and her normal bright yellow colour it is not patchy i wish my digi cam worked !!!!

 

[WILDER]

You do have a nitrite reading there, I would recommend a water change, can you say how big is the tank, and how many fish and which type you keep in the tank.
http/species.fishindex.com/species_2895b...bala_shark.html

 

[rubberdoofa]

I have 2 panda catfish
3 silver sharks
1 red shark who is a bully
6 neon tetras
5 safron mollies
1 alge eatter
3 clown loaches
1 very tiny red platy.
20 new baby mollies in a breeding net


I have a juewl rekord 96 tank sorry i cant recall what volume that is, off hand i guess 10 gallon uk gallons that is i had all this written down coz i forget things but guess what ........i miss placed the paper !!!!!

 

[WILDER]

The silver sharks are bala sharks and need a tank size of 120gal, and is that a red tailed shark they need a 40gal, do a water change and see how she goes.
http/species.fishindex.com/species_2895b...bala_shark.html

 

[WILDER]

I don't mean to sound awful but the molly is the least of your problems, you are well overstocked with fish, the red tailed shark can be agressive, but mainly becuase there isn't enough room in the tank for all them fish, i think the rekord 96 is more than 10gal, i think its about 25gal not sure, but some of those fish need large tank.
http/species.fishindex.com/species_2858b...lown_loach.html

 

[rubberdoofa]

I know , it is small for them i did how ever have a5ft tank not so long back but it sprang a leak which could not be stoped i got this one as a temp home untill i have the ready dosh to buy a new bigger one ,has any one got one for sale

 

[WILDER]

Go on the buy and sell forum on the site, good luck, hope you get your new tank quick.