Please HELP!!

[Ron]

Okay, before I ask you the quetion I'll give you a backgroung on my fish and my aquarium. I have 2 mollies, male and female. And 4 fancy guppies, 2 male, 2 female. The tank is a 40 gallon and there are thousands of hiding places. My mollies are the biggest pigs in the world, if I dumped the whole can of flakes in the water, they would have them eaten by 10 minutes. They have learned to beg for food when I come close to the aquarium. Any ways, do you get what pigs they are? Secondly I have the guppies. When I first putthem in, they stayed to the bottom, but then they started coming up and accually looking and my 'big bad mollies'. I have lots of hiding places including a cave that has just a little whole at the top, not big at all. (Your probably wondering why I'm telling you all of this...)
Here's my quetions, This morning when I woke up at 7, my female molly was at the bottom of the tank curving her fin to the side,(she's always at the surface, I've never seen her at the bottom.) When I put flakes in there she didn't even come up, SHE DIDN'T EAT!!!!! My female molly would never ever miss a feedering, even if she was in a hiding place hiding from the meanest fish in the world(not real, just to show you how she would eat), she would always eat. Whats wrong with her, shes not due for another week, this is her second week of pregnancy!! HELP!!
The male molly isn't eating either, he's not as big of a pig as the females, but still, he always eats. For the past couple days he would spit it out, and he always goes into the cave, makes his body vertical and breaths from the surface? Is there something wrong with him?
And my fancy guppies, the males just stay at the bottom, BY EACHOTHER, and don't come eat either. (The females are in the birthing contaption, they're doing great!) I'm wondering if somethings wrong with the aquarium...But what could be, I have 2 biowheel filters with ah heavy culture of benificial bacteria, and the tank itself cleans the water and itself by itself, and it also gets ride of nitrates and keeps the ph levels good, its a very very old and well established tank. Please help, I don't want my fish to die!!!

 

[AllusiveLife]

Your female sounds like she is giving birth or having birth problems, cause that's what my mollie would do, she would go to the bottom and wag her tail and not come up and every time I looked away she would have a baby and it would swim off... I later found out in the day cause I would see the babies of the same color, but she ended up dying after giving birth. Your male seems as if he is sick, or he is just not in the mood to eat and the food caught up to him... Tank problem probably

 

[Ron]

What do I do to help him? And should I put my fem,ale in the birthing tank, even though she's only 2 weeks into her preg? Thanks for the quick response, I truely appreciate it!
Ron

 

[gadazobe]

With all due respect, I don't understand these "self cleaning" tanks. It reminds me of bathing in the same water time after time and just filtering the water. Do you ever do water changes? Old water is depleted of essential minerals that the fish need to stay healthy and only fresh water can replenish these. Have you checked for ammonia and nitrite lately. Even though your tank is well established, over feeding can cause problems. Laying on the gravel and gulping air from the surface are normally signs of ammonia/nitrite poisoning.

 

[AllusiveLife]

What do I do to help him? And should I put my fem,ale in the birthing tank, even though she's only 2 weeks into her preg? Thanks for the quick response, I truely appreciate it!
Ron

Are you sure it's been 2 weeks? How long have you had the female for and when was her last batch? I always see the male hounding the female molly, even after she haves offspring. LiveBearers also have something called "Left over Sperm" I forget the name, but it's sperm left over from the other sperm from the same dad, and so she automaticaly gets pregnant once again...
Get a plecostamus if you don't already have one, "like 5 corry catfish" if you don't already have them... Corry, CORRY, CORRY! lol

 

[Ron]

Of couse I change my water. I change it everyday. Just that it doesn't need it. Yeah the she had her last batch Saturday, Aug. 9th. So she should be doing this kind of stuff next weekend. Now, she moved herself into the cave and it staying still, just moving her fins by her gills. She's pooping a lot. I moved the male into my 'isolation tank' I put him in there so I can treat him without haveing the other fish getting unneeded medication. He moves his fins a lot, but when he stops, his body goes vertical with his mouth on the surface. What does that mean? Thanks.
Ron

 

[gadazobe]

It might be constipation. Are they pooing normally?

 

[Ron]

They poop a lot, but my female is way over the line, she won't stop. As for the male he hasn't pooped for the past 3 hours, (that I know of) Thats a big shocker cuz he poops a ton usually!!
Ron

 

[gadazobe]

Sounds like he's constipated. It is possible to give them epsom salts 1/2 teaspoon for every gallon, but personally I've never tried it. Give them some veggies and cut out the flakes for a while, see if this helps.

 

[AllusiveLife]

What's wrong with being constipated? lol, no I am not constipated... I wish your fish the best, last night my guppies had babies and 3 nights ago my other guppies had babies and today "right now" my mollies are having babies but they never LIVE past 1 - 2 weeks...

 

[Ron]

What kinda veggies do I give him. And how do I prepare them. I was gone for 3 hours and my female molly is in the same spot, not moving, and still pooping even though she didn't eat a thing today. What should I do to get her to eat, and see if shes going to have babies? Thanks again,
Ron

 

[gadazobe]

Try lettuce - well washed and "planted" or shelled and skinned peas. Guppies actually have no stomach as such, only very long guts. Because of this they should be fed a little at a time and three times a day instead of one big meal. To be honest, I'm at a bit of a loss here, your water parameters are good, one fish poops all the time, the other doesn't at all - have you changed their brand of food?

 

[Ron]

nope, alwayshad the same brand, that I've only had them for a couple of months, so it sthe same original container of food that they've always had. My male pooped, I tried the lettace. He seems to be doing a lot better, staying horizantal. My female has a white anal fin and white stuff coming out of her anus. Shes a black molly and shes 2 weeks into her prgnancy. I don't know whats going on. But she's eating and moving around a little. One of my molly fry died just know from ich. My other 2 have the ich too, but I don't knwo if they're going to die. Soemone told me to put non-iodized salt in there 1 teaspoon for everygallon, and raise the temp to 85. The ich seemed to be clearing but just now a fry died. What should I do to stop teh other two from dying?
My big male fancy guppy is acting wierd now, he has an arch in his back and just sits there, not eating anything, with teh arch. He was fine yeaster day and last night. I'm worried about him. This is teh worse day for my fish: Contapation, doesnt stop pooping, arch in backs, white anal fin, ich, fry dead, and not eating. I just know they all planed last night to all do this at the same time so that I wouldn't know what to do!!!!!!!!!!!
Ron

 

[gadazobe]

Something is wrong somewhere. Ich breaks out coz of stress (over crowding, bullies) and/or bad water conditions. Something is going in the tank that we're overlooking. Have you tested the water?

 

[Ron]

The fry, who have the ich are in a 1 gallon tank. there is only 3 of them in there. Maybe it broke out because of coldness? At first I used half water from the aquarium were they came from and part tap with condtioner. Latter on that day 1 dies so I did 100% water change and used all cycled and established aquarium water. They were fine for 3 days. Now today I did a 75 % water change in the 1 gallon fry tank and filled it up with teh same aquarium water. I added a teaspoon of non-iodized salt. They have a 2 gallon heater in there and the temp is right and all the testings are good. I have airation in there, i fed them 2 so far today, I did everything as I was supposed to. As far as my female black molly, she was moving around, and eating, now shes back to her same bad self. No moving, won't even look at food, and looks like she sin pain or something, I don't know.
As for my male fancy guppy, he's stiil in an arch. he did that just a little yesterday twords the male molly and teh other male guppy. But now he's just in that position, twords no one.
I place my male molly back into the main tank and he started doing the vertical thing again. My feamle molly went crazy when I put him in. Was she 'depressed' that her hubby was gone? I don't knwo anymore. I can't cach my male molly to place him back into the sick isolation tank were the water is brackish and the tenp is warm. AHHHHH!!! Thansk for sticking with my case gadazobe!
Ron