Pregnant Mollies ?

[cezcal20]

hey i am new to owning fish. I went to the store and got a 10 gallon tank with a filter, heater and rocks. I also picked up three mollies. 1 female is all white. 2nd female is white with black dots. male is all black with some orange on the tail and fin. For the past two days the 2nd female has been hiding on the gravel behind the heater. Is she pregnant ? The other female tends to keep her some company for a while then goes on her way. She is more rounder than the all white female. The male swims around like he is fine but the females are acting weird Can anyone help ??

- Thanks Chelsea

 

[slimeneo]

Hi, I'm assuming you didn't cycle your tank yet. Please take a look at this topic.

 

[cezcal20]

i read the whole article but im still confused as to what "fish cylcing " is ? i changed the filter couple days ago because it was so dirty, now they have a clean one and i added more water today because it evaporates due to the water staying at a 80 degree temp and i also have three two air rocks in there.

 

[snazy]

i read the whole article but im still confused as to what "fish cylcing " is ? i changed the filter couple days ago because it was so dirty, now they have a clean one and i added more water today because it evaporates due to the water staying at a 80 degree temp and i also have three two air rocks in there.

Don't feel bad, but this is exactly what you shouldn't have done. The "dirty" stuff is the bacteria that converts toxic ammonia and nitrItes produced by fish into not toxic nitrAtes(pay attention to the spelling difference). Now your fish are being poisoned by their own wastes with nothing to convert it and you are going through a "fish-in" cycle. It can take up to two months for the filter to catch up and cycle again(grow enough bacteria that will deal with the ammonia and nitrItes). You need to be doing 80-90% water changes once a day with dechlorinated and temperature matched water in the mean time to keep the levels as close to 0 as possible. Get yourself a liquid test kit too to test for ammonia and nitrItes and do a large water change to keep the levels below 0.25ppm. That's the only way to keep these fish alive.

 

[cezcal20]

So if i do a 80-90 % water change everyday for 2months they should survive ?

How often should i change the filter then ?
Thank you for the help
- Chelsea

 

[fluttermoth]

You don't ever change the filter, except for the fine 'floss' (it looks like a nylon cotton wool type stuff), if your filter has any (not all do). Apart from that, you just gently wash the media ('media' is all the stuff in your filter that the bacteria grow on) in some of your old tank water, when you're doing a water change.

 

[cezcal20]

okay just went to the store and purchased a brand new bottle of tetra safe dechlorinates and conditions. and a bottle of Jungle start Zyme and it says i quote :

"contains a safe blend of benificial , emzyme-producing bacteria which helps develope and maintain the biological filtations in an aquarium. Star Zyme also breaks down organic sludge build up that causes ammonia and nitrate poisoning, low oxygen and pH levels and cloudy water. Use Start Zyme when starting up your own aquarium making regular water changes, adding fish or after medicating."

So here is my questions: Do i still continue to change the water for 2 months then add the Zyme in? Put the Zyme in now ? or DO NOT USE the Zyme??

- Thanks
Chelsea

 

[fluttermoth]

It won't do your tank any harm to use the Start Zyme, but most people have found it doesn't do anything. The only way to be sure if you need to water change or not is to test the water for ammonia and nitrite; if either of those are present then you need to water change, as they are both very toxic.

If you can't test, the large water changes are the only way to make sure your fish are safe.

 

[cezcal20]

Thank you !!!

 

[cezcal20]

Okay here is my progress so far. The last time as you can tell from reading first post was Novermber 10th the was last time i changed the filter. You said to never change the filter and just let it cyle which i have been, i added water regularly. i went through six fish so far but still have no luck keeping them alive. I just did a full tank cleaning and left 1/4 of the tank water and ran the filter through of cold water to get some of the crud off of it. How long til i can get more fish ?? I dont want to keep killing them, i want to have a nice tank.

- Thank you
Chelsea

 

[snazy]

Okay here is my progress so far. The last time as you can tell from reading first post was Novermber 10th the was last time i changed the filter. You said to never change the filter and just let it cyle which i have been, i added water regularly. i went through six fish so far but still have no luck keeping them alive. I just did a full tank cleaning and left 1/4 of the tank water and ran the filter through of cold water to get some of the crud off of it. How long til i can get more fish ?? I dont want to keep killing them, i want to have a nice tank.

- Thank you
Chelsea

Oh, gosh, you didn't?
If you ever need to wash the filter sponges, do it in tank water only, shaking them slightly. Tap water kills the bacteria...
From your post it seems you don't do water changes, but add top ups only? During a fish in cycle you need to do water changes. It's normal for a cycle to last a couple of months, for some people even longer so generally without daily 80-90% water changes to keep ammonia/nitrIte at 0 all the fish would die early or later and it's not the gunk on the filter causing it.

What are the ammonia/nitrIte levels exactly at the moment?

 

[cezcal20]

i need to do it all over agian.....-______-

 

[the_lock_man]

Right.

Your fish produce ammonia. Ammonia is poisonous, seriously poisonous, to fish. When your filter is cycled, it has some bacteria in it which converts the ammonia into something called nitrite. Unfortunately, nitrite is also poisonous, seriously poisonoius to fish. When your filter is cycled, it has some bacteria in it which converts the nitrite into nitrate. Fortunately, nitrate isn't particularly poisonous.

Until you've grown your bacteria (ie cycled your filter), you need to remove the ammonia and nitrite from the water yourself. This stops the water being poisonous, seriously poisonous.

You have to get some jugs or buckets or whatever, and take water out of your tank. About 90% of it. By this I mean nearly all of it. Not just halfway. Then you get some fresh water from your tap (by this I mean "faucet" if that's what you call the things that give you water), add the correct dose of that Tetra Start stuff that you bought on November 14th, make sure it's roughly the same temperature as the water that you took out, and put this fresh water back into your tank.

Before the water comes out of your tap (by this I mean "faucet"), generally it gets treated with either chlorine or chloramine. They do this because the chlorine or chloramine kills the bacteria which could make you sick, so it means you can drink the water. Because it kills bacteria, it will kill the bacteria in your filter, if you don't use that Tetra Start stuff. So whenever you need to put water near the tank, you should always use that Tetra Start stuff, to make sure you don't kill the bacteria in the filter.

You clearly haven't bothered to buy a test kit, so you'll have to be bothered to do this process every day. Not just when you fancy it. Every day. Unless you want to keep having fish die.

The problem with not having a test kit is that you don't know when the bacteria have grown sufficiently in your filter. So you have two choices. 1) You can do the above process every day for 6 months or 2) You can buy a test kit. It needs to be a LIQUID based kit as the paper strips things are not very good. If you do choose to buy a test kit, let us know, and we can let you know how to modify the above process so that it's not quite such hard work.

Now, all the above only counts if you have at least one fish in your tank. Remember that in order to grow the bacteria, they need to be fed ammonia, and that comes from a fish.

You need to understand the processes that are going on in your tank to avoid making further mistakes and killing more fish.

 

[Whittlefnerd]

Hello,

Could this little lady be pregnant? Can't see any eyes in her tummy and to be honest I'm not 100% she's a she haha.