My Pregnant Guppy, Molly, & Platy Journal

[Billsfan905]

This journal will follow the pregnancies of all my fish!
On the 28th I brought home two fat fish from the petstore, a female guppy with a pretty yellow tail, and an orange lyretail molly!
Within 3 hours the molly was giving birth! It was so cool to watch! I saw at least 8 babies pop out and then I read online that to put less stress on her and give the babies a higher chance of survival I should turn the lights off, so I did.

Then I came back 2 hours later to check and I could see a couple babies! And one guppy baby that was smaller and clearer! I got so excited, my guppy was giving birth too! SO I turned off the lights once again and went to bed.

When I woke up the guppy mommy was dead And none of her babies were in sight. However I could catch a glimpse of ONE molly baby. I went out and bought a breeding box, a "keeper" box and put the baby in it and he's been living in there happily for the last couple days! Still no sightings of any other baby mollies, I think he's the lone survivor!

Nemo the miracle baby: (he's in the upper left corner, I'll try to get a better picture later)

The mom on the right and a platy I think is pregnant on the left:

A guppy I think is pregnant on the right:

A molly that I think is prego on the left:

Eugene, my evil angel fish that I WITNESSED eat one of my molly fry! And the molly fry aren't even that tiny!:

That's all for now! The molly fry is now 5 days old! He looks the same as before- he looks like he might be black and white!

 

[Billsfan905]

Last night when I was watching my tank I saw something dart quickly into another plant- to my surprise it was another molly fry!

It was definitely from the same mom because my only other pregnant molly was actively swimming around and didn`t look squared off or anything, and the fry is almost the exact same as the one who`s in the nursery right now except its slightly smaller.

It is now getting fed 5 times a day in the luxury net with a broken piece of live plant that they both seem to love! YAY, this makes me wonder if any others survived. Doubt it though

 

[LucyB]

this makes me wonder if any others survived. Doubt it though

Hey, you gotta think this - 2 is better than none, right? Imagine how sad you would be if you hadn't have caught any! That's how I see it anyway..

Can't you take all of the decor and have a water change? (check the buckets for fry) You'll be able to see any fry that have survived in the tank - This is what I do when any of my platies give birth in the tank and I usually seem to find about 5 fry

 

[Billsfan905]

this makes me wonder if any others survived. Doubt it though

Hey, you gotta think this - 2 is better than none, right? Imagine how sad you would be if you hadn't have caught any! That's how I see it anyway..

Can't you take all of the decor and have a water change? (check the buckets for fry) You'll be able to see any fry that have survived in the tank - This is what I do when any of my platies give birth in the tank and I usually seem to find about 5 fry

Did a water change a few days ago and moved all the plastic plants, rocks, and pebbles and long behond you were right! One of the guppy fry survived! He's so cute, he's in the baby net with the other molly fry!

Still no drops yet! The guppy looks like she's about ready to burst!

Will post pictures soon

 

[LucyB]

this makes me wonder if any others survived. Doubt it though

Hey, you gotta think this - 2 is better than none, right? Imagine how sad you would be if you hadn't have caught any! That's how I see it anyway..

Can't you take all of the decor and have a water change? (check the buckets for fry) You'll be able to see any fry that have survived in the tank - This is what I do when any of my platies give birth in the tank and I usually seem to find about 5 fry

Did a water change a few days ago and moved all the plastic plants, rocks, and pebbles and long behond you were right! One of the guppy fry survived! He's so cute, he's in the baby net with the other molly fry!

Still no drops yet! The guppy looks like she's about ready to burst!

Will post pictures soon

Yeah, I am usually right... *flips hair and smug grin appears*

Congrats on finding the fry though, can't wait to see pictures!

Here's some pics of the platy fry I got the other day!


Mummy and Daddy:

Fry!

Everyone loves fry!

 

[Billsfan905]

AWWW your fry are soo cute! I like how colourful they are! Mine are black & white.

I set up a new 10 gallon tank yesterday for them because 3 fish in my main tank have ich & I'm treating it.

Spoiled fry! I moved some live plants in this morning as well, and did a big water change

Also the pregnant guppy is still pregnant and squared off starting to think it might be dropsys

I'm still waiting for my water testing kit in the mail. I ordered it off ebay a week ago so hopefully it comes soon. I really want to test the water, that'll give me answers to everything!

Here's one of the molly fry- 8 days old

It's really hard for me to get a good picture. LucyB yours are SOOOO clear!

 

[Billsfan905]

New update!
Soo my one tank was so dirty and the ammonia levels were constantly through the ROOF. I didn't realize you we're supposed to "vacuum" the bottom of the tank and so much poop and old food built up and even doing 60% water changes every day and sucking the bottom it was still a disaster. My fish we're constantly getting diseases & had red gills I'm guessing the ammonia burned them so sad anyway I drained the tank and put two fish who I could tell were suffering to sleep, the remaining 3 fish I put into my 2 other tanks, the one guppy in with the guppies in the smaller tank and the molly and platy into the bigger tank!

I'm going to let the tank dry out and then scrub it like crazy, clean the filter, and basically start over! I might put my danios in there for cycling, they've been really hardy in the past.

MY PLATY DROPPED WHILE I WAS OUT YESTERDAY.
So happy, I managed to save about 8 fry! They're soo cute and in their baby net.

When I was out today I bought algae wafers. I put them into the tank and my fish went balistic! They loved it.

It's really hard to see, but the orange baby is up in the right corner to the left of that dead plant root. They are all the same orang-y colour. I couldn't believe how small they were compared to molly fry, they look like colourful guppies!

My platy and molly LOVE the algae wafer!

My bolivian ram loving his new dropping cichlid pellets- it's in his mouth LOL

These fish are looovin it! That's the mom of the platy's swimming above- see her pink gills I feel soo bad for them! Keeping the water super clean now!

My gourami wants in on the action


So now fry-wise I have:
2 black & white molly, 12 days old, pretty big! They swim in my 10 gallon tank with my 4 other younger guppies I bought at the pet shop. At first they hid in the live plants but now they swim around and think they're big fish! Lol
1 guppy- around a week old, in the fry net
~8 1 day old platy fry!

I LOVE MY FISH
I'm obsessed, I spend hours a day researching them and read through old posts in this forum I want to learn AS MUCH as I can so if anyone has any tips or anything let me know!

EDIT: I just went to check on the fish and they are all MASSIVE... who knew one algae wafer could stuff like 10 fish!?!??! Even my angel fish looks fat! Worried they might die from over eating

 

[Billsfan905]

Update:
So all my fry are thriving and loving life! I am feeding them a tiny amount 4 times a day. They're so cute
The molly are 2 weeks old and swimming around in my 10 gallon tank with my guppies!

Okay so Helga, my fish has been looking very fat for a while! I've had a guppy give birth and she was half this size, which makes me worry that it might be dropsys!

This is Helga 2 days ago:

She is still social & eats I'm just really worried! She doesn't have the pinecone scales at all though, maybe I am just paranoid because one of my platy who I thought was pregnant for the longest time ended up having dropsys

 

[Billsfan905]

The fish I thought might have dropsys just dropped! I saved about 13 fry I saw my larger guppy eat 2 Grrr lol back off guppy!
I'm soo happy it's not dropsys, when I saw a fry in there and that Helga was smaller I almost started crying I was so happy! She is doing really well!

UPDATE: I went to the gym & came back and she's looking healthy & skinny! I put a little food in and she ate it!

(she's the one with the leopard yellow tail)

My 2 molly fry! They're swimming around loving life still

So many fry in the baby net 1 2 week old guppy, ~9 5 day old platy, & ~13 new born guppies!
Is it too crowded in there? Should I be getting another baby net?

 

[slimeneo]

Congrats! That's a lot of fry you have now

 

[Billsfan905]

Congrats! That's a lot of fry you have now

Thanks! I just moved them into their own 5 gallon tank Lots of swimming room now
I saw 2 get sucked into the filter- traumatizing So I took one of my nylons and cut it and wrapped it around the bottom.

 

[Billsfan905]

I'm going to start logging EVERYTHING here.
Sooo I'm doing 4 in-fish cycles right now, long story short.

1st tank- 35 gal, 1 molly & 3 platy. Just started cycling it about a week ago.
2nd tank- 29 gal, 1 platy, 1 angel, 2 boliv rams, 2 molly & 1 dwarf gourami. They all get along so well & this tank is ALMOST finished being cycled! It's been cycling for about 3 weeks
3rd tank- 10 gal, just have 3 guppies in it Used to have a baby net with ~25 fry in it!
4th tank- very new, 5 gal, put all my fry in here because ammonia was always high in the 10 gal tank!

Anyways, I have been doing about 3 water changes a day, I test all parameters usually at least twice a day! Usually in the morning its around a 95% water change for everyone because ammonia is usually ~.25-1.0. Then about 5 hours later I test again and if the results are still .25 or higher I do about a 40% water change, then another 40% before bed usually! I am trying to keep all my fish alive and healthy, and so far its working.

I know those water changes may not sound like a TON of work, but in the end I spend about 2 hours a day doing water changes. I don't mind if my fish are O.K., my boyfriend hates it though LOL

Okay just doing my morning water tests, I will write down the results

Ammonia
1- .25-.5
2- 0-.25
3- ~.5
4- .25-5
5- (I tested my tap water after conditioning it for 10 mins- it's at between .5 and 1

Nitrites
1- 1.0-2.0! EEEEEEEK 95% water change for sure! This tank always has such high nitrites
2- soo close to 0. Clearly blue but not the exact shade of 0! Probably like 0.05 ppm
3- 0.25
4- 0 the tank is only 2 days old though
5-(tap water)- 0 nitrites woo at least one good thing about it!

 

[slimeneo]

Good luck! Maybe once you finish cycling one, take a little piece of filter media and put it into the other tanks?

 

[Billsfan905]

Good luck! Maybe once you finish cycling one, take a little piece of filter media and put it into the other tanks?

That's actually a GREATTTTTT idea! Wow thanks!

 

[slimeneo]

Good luck! Maybe once you finish cycling one, take a little piece of filter media and put it into the other tanks?

That's actually a GREATTTTTT idea! Wow thanks!

No problem!