Need advice on action to be taken on a very preggo Lyretail Balloon Molly.

amberjade

It could just be her personality. :) They are most definitely individuals - I have one female molly who is really placid, just does her own thing, doesn't bother anyone even at feeding time. Then there is my dalmation. Well! She is a big bully! She has no trouble chasing other fish out of 'her' spot (which changes from one min to the next!) and when it comes to food! OMG! She loves the algae discs....and she does her best to make sure that all of them are HERS - even if they are in different parts of the tank. LOL

She could be trying to set up a territory so she can have her babies in peace. And so the others can't eat her babies before her. :)

As long as she is healthy - which she sure appears to be - and she isn't doing damage to the others, I wouldn't be too concerned, personally. My 5 mollies all have a pecking order, which they sorted out themselves.

Oh yeah, forgot to say that you need to keep the water pristine for the babies to have the best chance. :)

tomcatguy74

Yeah I am trying to keep the water good. I just bought an api master kit so I won't have to go to petco so much for tests.
Hey how much should I feed these 4 mollies including mrs.preggo a day? Exactly?
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tomcatguy74

Amberjade,

I think I have solved the chasing problem tonight. That other "mate" that I got for my preggo girl turns out that it is a she and not a he!! And my preggo is beating the hell outta her!! From the nose to the dorsal fin she(not the preggo) is rough looking and missing scales!! What do I do? What if my preggo aborts because of all the chasing?

amberjade

OK, as far as feeding, I only feed my fish as much as they can eat in ONE minute. As for how much that is, exactly, well, depends on the fish really. That is for my 40 gal, though. With a small tank, I feed a tiny pinch twice a day - helps make sure the water doesn't foul with uneaten food.

Now for the chasing. There a few things you can try, I reckon. You can put Preggo in a seperate tank (or even big plastic container) until she drops her fry. Sometimes they mellow again after giving birth. Or, you could take her out for a couple of days, then put her back in. That is supposed to help put her at the bottom of the pecking order - may or may not work, and there is the chance that all that moving could make her abort. You can also rearrange the tank, because she may have a certain territory and by moving things around, that territory isn't there any more. You can provide hiding places for the others, like caves and plants. Then comes the bigger tank - which is probably your best chance of success all round. Not what your wife want's to hear, I'm sure, but gotta take care of our fishy babies, eh? If all else fails, you may have to rehome her, or take her back to the LFS.

I doubt the chasing will make her abort - stress of moving, being put in a breeder or being the victim of aggression might do it. The fish who is looking rough would be a bigger concern right now. It would probably be a good idea to quarantine her and make sure there isn't another cause.

What are your water readings? How often do you do changes? What fish do you have exactly? Did they all come from the same place, at the same time? Or different times? Sorry - just trying to figure out what else might be going on. :)

tomcatguy74

What about that net breeder. It's much bigger than the plastic v trap breeder. Getting another tank is outta the question. I gotta do this slow so my wife doesn't notice. Lol
I don't wanna get rid of her either. Plus like you said she may abort if I move her around too much. What if I put the other female in the small v trap breeder?
My temps are running between 80 and 82.
As far as numbers for water conditions I won't know until I get my new test kit. I just did a 25% water change 2 days ago.
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amberjade

It's tricky because you only have a small tank.....OK, in your situation, I would put the beat-up fish in the breeder (minus the inserts) so she has a chance to rest and recover. Also, drop your temp to 76 - it could help with the aggression somewhat (apparently it slows down their metabolism). And if there is any way to rearrange the tank, do that.

That's all I can think of to do, I'm afraid.

tomcatguy74

Ok I will transfer the injured girl to the breeder but how do I drop the temp? Do I put ice in there?? Lol.
Last night I observed my preggo doing some weird things and I hope she is ok. She would sometimes position herself vertically like 90 degrees from normal and shutter.

What's happening to her?
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amberjade

So you aren't using a heater? Do you have the tank in front of a window or another really warm spot? If you do, I'd be moving it to a cooler spot.

As far as the preggo, start a new thread - it's not sounding that good. It could be simple constipation, but there are a lot of other things that could be happening from the sounds of it.

Give as much info as you can - water parameters, tank size (so everyone else will know), behaviors of the fish past and present, wc schedule, species and number of fish.

Details are really important. I could well be that your fish is sick, but I don't know a huge amount about illnesses I'm afraid. I haven't really had to deal with too much, thankfully.

tomcatguy74

I will try the new thread idea after I get home this evening and watch her for a little while.
Right now I would say that the tank is in the middle of the house. It always has been. However we keep our house at 80 degrees. I have been trying to keep the light off unless I am in that room. It seems like those lncandesnt lights heat the water up. I live in central Florida so it's higher than 80 out most of the summer. Oh btw. All 4 of my fish are mollies.
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tomcatguy74

Well folks, I don't believe we will be having any babies. She still has not popped them out. Being a Balloon molly she might not be pregnant. I just don't know anymore.