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Bought a new molly

6K views 46 replies 7 participants last post by  Pisces47 
#1 ·
Went to the aquarium store down the road "just to look" and saw this molly all alone in a tank that was only half full with no plants or decor or anything else in the tank :-( so i couldn't help it but to rescue the little one and buy it, so much for just looking.

Got it back home and took a good look at it cause I wasn't really looking at its appearance in the store just how dodgy the tank was. Its a female silver lyretail molly that looks to be in good health for the state the tank was in.
She looks like she is pregnant with a bit of a rectangular belly and slightly darkened gravid spot, but she is half the size of any of my other molly including another female silver molly.

For how small she is could she be preggers? Here are some pictures of her.
P.S. in one of the pictures you can see the top of my other female molly for comparison of the size. The new one was swimming over the older one.
 

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#4 ·
I do, there are 5 different types of plants in that tank and i feed them regularly. what does you guys recommend for feeding mollys, how often? Is once a day ok?
 
#5 ·
Hey Pringleman1,

I was up in your neck of the woods a couple of days back....didn't see you though, hahaha!!!

You've got yourself a nice Mollie there and the best way to keep her in tip top shape is to feed her Spirulina flakes once a day, get it from your local Petbarn, and I give my Mollies a green pea once a week. Mollies are basically vegetarian and they love their greens. Also, don't forget to put a bit of salt in the water if she is in a tank on her own. I use a Neutraliser Block in the tank which is available from Petbarn, most aquarium stores and even Coles or K-Mart Supermarkets believe it or not, the block contains many minerals which are good for the water as well as a small amount of salt.
 
#9 ·
Hey Pringleman1,

I was up in your neck of the woods a couple of days back....didn't see you though, hahaha!!!

You've got yourself a nice Mollie there and the best way to keep her in tip top shape is to feed her Spirulina flakes once a day, get it from your local Petbarn, and I give my Mollies a green pea once a week.
Pisces47 you should have dropped in and said G'day haha

How do you give them peas? do you cook them? crush them?
Also is the Spirulina flakes the type that bring out their colour a lot more?
 
#6 ·
If tap water is hard ,alkaline, there should be enough mineral salt's in water to exempt the need for additional salt.
If water was/is neutral to soft,I might consider Marine salt at half dose to provide the mineral's needed as well as a bit of salt. Opinion's vary but has worked well for me with moderately hard to neutral water from tap.
Agree with diet suggestion.
Nice fish!
 
#7 ·
But adding salt to the tank is bad for the plants, isnt it? Is there a way to do both or something similar without hurting my plants or fish?
 
#8 ·
You have platy's, guppies,endler's,mollies.
Chances are your water suit's them as is.They all appreciate pH levels from 7.5 to 8.0 and 10 to 15 degrees GH.
Would not start messing with water at this point unless as stated,,the water was soft /acidic and then Iwould be more apt to increase hardness rather than introducing salt.
If it ain't broke,,don't try to fix it.
 
#10 ·
Pringleman1,

I was going to call in but the meter maids on Cavill Avenue were more interesting!

Yep, the Spirulina flakes do enhance fish colour, I find it the best of all the flake food. Hop on to Google and search for "spirulina fish flakes" and you will see that it is made mainly from vegetable matter.

As for feeding them a pea once a week, it's quite easy, take a frozen pea (or two) from the freezer, put it in a cup of water and stick it in the microwave for around 30 seconds, when the water in the cup has cooled down, take out the pea and put it between your thumb and forefinger and gently squeeze it into your other hand, the inside of the pea will pop out, this is the part you give the fish, just mush it up a bit as you put it in the tank and watch the fish go crazy for it. This is good for all your livebearers but particularly the Mollies, once or twice a week is enough.

I agree with what 1077 said about the salt in the water, I guess it means that the water in the US is different from the water here in Aust, and we all have different little tricks, however, I can say that since I started using the neutraliser blocks, my Mollies have gone ahead in leaps and bounds. The amount of salt in the blocks is very, very small and it won't affect your live plants, I keep one in the tank at all times but you could always put one in for a month then leave it out for a month, etc.
 
#11 ·
DAMMIT! Woke up this morning to water a little bit of water around the base of my tank on the wooden stand, didnt take too much notice of it at the time but thought id better mark the water level just in case. Came home this afternoon to find the water level had dropped 1cm and the water is soaking into the wooden stand.
Just finished draining the water into a large bucket for my fish to stay in tonight while i clean the stand and go and grab a new tank tomorrow. Not sure why the tank is leaking, isnt a crack or anything on it so im guessing its around the edges where the glass meets.
Poor new molly is probably terrified from the changes and moving its around its doing. :-(

On the bright side i might be able to pick up a larger tank and keep my old pump and filter, save a bit of money too.
 
#12 ·
"On the bright side i might be able to pick up a larger tank and keep my old pump and filter, save a bit of money too.`
You bet!! now is the time to go bigger. Sometimes it`s just taller on the same stand but we can sometimes gain 10-20 gallons that way. When my 75 goes, I can upgrade to 90. Same shape just taller.

Very pretty girl!
 
#14 ·
Hey Pisces47,
Im still kinda new to fish keeping so this may seem like a dumb question, what does sitting the tank on polystyrene do? It would'nt be to soak and block any leaks, so why use?
I dont have a lot of room for a nice big tank because im renting my room so ill probably just get another 60l tank like my other one.
P.S. whats everyones thoughts on a saltwater tank too? Im interested in trying it but freshwater is easies isn't it.
 
#15 ·
Pringleman,

Sounds like you are a naughty Pringleman1, but because you are relatively new to fishkeeping I'll let you off with only 5 minutes in the naughty corner.
You ABSOLUTELY MUST have a sheet of polystyrene under any fish tank, it acts as a cushion and stops the glass from being stressed by the pressure of the water. Get yourself down to your local aquarium RIGHT NOW and ask them for a sheet of styrene for your tank, (i.e., 2 feet, 3 feet or whatever the length and depth of the tank is), I think it's only about a dollar a foot or something. Put this under the tank and see if it continues to leak over the next few days, if it stops, then you've saved yourself a bit of money buying a new one.
Honestly, you must do this NOW, because when the glass breaks (and it will) you will have an unholy mess.
All aquariums sell the styrene, it's part of fishkeeping. Let me know what happens, so ready, set, go ...... you should be halfway out the door by now.
 
#16 ·
Oh Dear Pringleman1!! Looks like I have to go to the naughty corner too!! I've never put polystyrene under my tanks. Pisces47...Do you mean like a hard sheet of styrofoam? or are you talking about something else? Can you provide a pic of what you mean? I can't tear down my 75 gallon but will certainly think about it for the future!!
 
#17 ·
Jakiebabie,

Yep, styrofoam sheeting is what I meant, it's about quarter to half an inch thick and aquariums sell it in all different lengths.
Do you have your tank on a table or something whereby the whole bottom of the tank is supported as opposed to being on a stand where just the edges of the tank are supported? If it's on a table then that could be the reason why it hasn't sprung a leak.....yet. Tanks are held together with silicone so imagine the pressure and weight on the bottom of your 75 gallon tank.
A friend of mine didn't have the stuff under one of his tanks and of course one day when he was at work it just cracked then sort of exploded, water, fish, gravel, plants AND shards of glass everywhere!
You can talk to Pringleman1 while you are in the naughty corner.
 
#18 ·
Hilarious!!!!:gossip: I am actually in chat right now waiting for someone to come in!! Anyone want to talk about Polystyrene?
 
#19 ·
ok Pisces47 went to the store this morning to get the Styrofoam for under my tank but then saw a nice tank on special a nice looking piece of driftwood there as well........guess what i bought :) haha
so the new tank is larger then previous, its 50L BluePlanet with filter and light under the hood. got the Styrofoam sheet too and came home and set it all up.
At the moment the tank its cycling with my old filter in it too speed it up and its got gravel and a few plants sitting in there too. The driftwood i bought is soaking in hot water to release the tanins and sink it
I used about a quarter of the water from the old tank to fill this one up and with the old filter in there im thinking i can pput the fishies in there later tonight or tomorrow morning. ill post pics when ive got it all set up.
 
#20 ·
Pringleman1,

You have done well my friend and you certainly seem to know what you are doing. I know it's always a temptation to put the fish in asap but if it was me, I'd leave it till tomorrow morning, spread the joy over another day! By the way, did you put some Water Ager in the new tank when you filled it up?
What fish are you going to put in the new tank and are you going to put the styrofoam under the old tank to see if it is still good to use?
I've just been down the beach for a stroll and on the way home realised I hadn't answered your earlier query regarding salt water fish keeping. Keeping salt water tropicals would be great but they are very expensive to buy, the set up costs are enormous and they require a lot of attention, it is terrific though to go into an aquarium store and look at a salt water set-up that most of them have.
Looking forward to seeing the pics.
 
#21 ·
Its so hard going into the store to buy one thing and leave with just that one thing. I rarely turn down a special even when its something i dont fully need.
About the old tank i will clean it out wait for it to dry and see if i can spot where the water was leaking from, it was a fair amount of water(around 1.5-2 L) that leaked out so i might be able to see and then fix the problem to keep using the tank.
But now i have 3 tanks and my spare space is shrinking rapidly in my room. I may need to sell the old one once i fiz it up and test it for a week, make sure i fixed the problem.

I would like to eventually try a saltwater tank just so i can have some different fish like NEMO! lol there are some great colours in saltwater fishtanks. But not just yet, maybe in a few years.

Yes i did use water ager in the new tank, some of the water i didnt need to from the old tank transfered over.
 
#24 ·
Its so hard going into the store to buy one thing and leave with just that one thing. I rarely turn down a special even when its something i dont fully need.
About the old tank i will clean it out wait for it to dry and see if i can spot where the water was leaking from, it was a fair amount of water(around 1.5-2 L) that leaked out so i might be able to see and then fix the problem to keep using the tank.
But now i have 3 tanks and my spare space is shrinking rapidly in my room. I may need to sell the old one once i fiz it up and test it for a week, make sure i fixed the problem.

I would like to eventually try a saltwater tank just so i can have some different fish like NEMO! lol there are some great colours in saltwater fishtanks. But not just yet, maybe in a few years.

Yes i did use water ager in the new tank, some of the water i didnt need to from the old tank transfered over.
Hope the old tank can be fixed but it may be a problem to find the leak, now that the water is gone the leak will have closed up because there is no pressure on it to open it up. If perchance you do find the problem area, it will need to be siliconed, but I'm not sure that the silicone that is available everywhere in hardware stores is the proper stuff to use, it could be toxic, best to read the label first, however I'm sure that at some time I've seen small tubes of aquarium silicone on the shelves in aquarium stores.
I've attached a couple of pics of my black/red lyretail Mollies and another pic of their fry which I have in a separate fry tank, I reckon they are marvelous.
 

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#25 ·
Hi 1077,

I like your style, any excuse to buy something new. I find it amazing that even on opposite sides of the world we can have similar problems. My story is that every month I was in the habit of taking the HOB filters off and cleaning them out completely, impellers and all, I had done it so many times that I paid little attention to the process, until one day after the cleaning ritual I noticed a pool of water on the tiled floor, I cleaned it up before "she who must be obeyed" noticed it, but an hour or so later it was there again,I tried, like you, to stick my head at the back but naturally it wouldn't fit so I had to take the offending filter off and I tried it in a bucket and it turned out that the impeller mechanism was slightly cross-threaded, my mistake........but I didn't think fast enough, as you did, otherwise I would have been out the door on my way to the store for "something new".
 
#26 ·
Wow those black mollies with gold shades look sweet. I havent had any fry from my mollies yet and ive had them for about almost a year now, strange?
Ive had platy fry though and they were so cool to watch grow up. Wanting to breed golden halfbeaks now, just bought a male the other day and havnt seen any females yet but will buy a few when i see them.
 
#28 ·
Actually dont watch football, im a soccer guy. and used to live in nsw so i dont give a shit about broncos haha
 
#29 ·
I guess you would be one of the few people in Queensland who would say that about the Broncos.

My red/black lyretail female Mollie had some more fry last week when I was up on the Gold Coast but by the time I got back home there was only one left and I found it inside the HOB filter, I don't know how long it had been there but I got it out and put it in the fry tank with the others. I noticed today that it hasn't grown much and really still looks like a "brand new" one, seems happy and is very frisky and eating well, I think it may turn out to be a runt. Do you run a sponge filter in your fry tank?
 
#30 ·
No my fry tank is a 15L with a hang on filter. Are sponge filters better then normal ones. if so why?
 
#31 ·
No, HOB filters (hang on back) are better by far than sponge filters but having said that, sponge filters are much better for fry tanks because there are no tubes that the fry can get sucked into, and that's what happened to the baby Molly I mentioned in the previous post. Sponge filters are just a circular black sponge with an air hose attached, any junk in the water is soaked up by the sponge which has to be rinsed out once a week or so, they are very basic and should only be used for fry which don't pollute the water much anyway. If you look very closely at the pic I posted of my fry, you can just make out the sponge filter on the middle.
 
#32 ·
Yer the first time I had platy fry i got a really small long tank(think it was for a betta) with the hang on filter i have now. a few of the fry were swimming too close and got stuck to the in-pipe and couldnt swim away being so little, they ended up turning pale white and then dieing.
I cam up with an idea of cutting a sponge and trimming it to fit on the end of the pipe, thought it was like a double filter too and the fry just bounce off it cause it slowed the water intake too.
Now I have a bigger tank thats about 10L for the fry and a few guppies, still got that hang on filter but havent needed the sponge because there is more room they just stay away from it.
 
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