Poor Molly

[ade]

I did a quick search to see if there were other similar posts, but couldn't find any, but please direct me to any if you know of any...

Bought 4 Balloon Mollies at the weekend (3 x F, 1 x M), all 4 were swimming around perfectly happy then all of a sudden 1 of the F's decided she was going to go and sit under a log and not do anything. Doesn't look sick, just not swimming around like the others.

Haven't had a chance to do the water tests yet - will be doing those tonight.

Do you think she's sick? Could she be pregnant? She looks pretty fat, but then they always do! lol

I've put her in my little "maternity ward" just in case, but all ideas muchly appreciated - cheers!

 

[Kossy]

Well there is an disease page follow my sig...


Ok there are possible diseases including (Dropsy (I don't think it is), Swim bladder, fin rot, white spot) You may not see these spots because she is hiding but any way look onto this article and check the symptoms...and then we can go from there. Hope she makes it

 

[ade]

Hi, thanks for the reply and the excellent link. Didn't get me any further forward though

She looks absolutely fine in terms of condition, it's just that she looks "lazy", when i netted her she had no problems evading me for a short while, before eventually succumbing to my mastery of the net! lol But she seemed perfectly able to swim, just doesn't seem to want to.

I'll do the water tests tonight and hope that gives us some more idea. Seems very strange that it's only the one that seems unhappy - all the others seem pretty active.

Oh yes, one other thing - she has shown no interest in her food - fed the others last night and they all devoured the flakes, popped a flake into the maternity/hospital thingy and she didn't even pay any interest in it.

Cheers

 

[Kossy]

Maybe she is pregnant (Does she have a partner) and she is close to letting loose the fry I've had pregnant guppies that didn't eat when they were in labour However do look for any diseases hopefully there is none...mollies not eating WOAH

 

[ade]

There are 3 females in the tank, along with 1 lucky fella. But have only had them since the weekend - so haven't got a clue who she was sleeping around with at the lfs!

Let's hope I've got loads of babies in the maternity tank when I get home - was actually hoping to see something this morning (just how long can labour last?)

Cheers once again,

Ade

 

[Kossy]

Well usually around 4 weeks but sounds like she is close to slipping her load Yes I wonder who she did sleep with at the lfs...and unfortunately for the fella she may have sperm packets still stored

 

[ade]

4 week labour

or 4 week pregnancy?

 

[ade]

Ok, got home last night, no babies, so did the water tests.

Ammonia - practically zero
Nitrites - pretty high (very pretty colour on the chart though!), so did a 25% change which seemed to perk the fish up almost instantly. Will check again tonight.
Nitrates - didn't even get as far as checking them, didn't see much point

Let Molly out of the maternity ward - told her she was just warming it up for future use, she went swimming with her mates and looked pretty happy.

Everyone looks happier this morning, but will be checking daily tests for a while.

Cheers

 

[tonkatruck]

it looks like she was pregnant, won't she! i also have balloon mollies.. have a solid white one in the "maternity ward" lol.... not sure if she's preg or not! i can't tell...

can anyone?

 

[Alien Anna]

4 week labour

or 4 week pregnancy?

Believe me, I can relate...

 

[ade]

Well I'm really not sure which of the mollies actually gave birth yesterday, all 3 still look as fat as ever, so I'm not sure if it was the one we had problems with or one of the others.

Do mollies take their colouring from their parents? All 4 of our adult mollies are yellow with varying amounts of black spotting. 2 of the 4 babies are pure black. Now I'm guessing that our male molly quite possibly wasn't the father anyway (they've only been in the tank about 10 days, so chances are he's not the daddy (shush, don't tell him that!)), but still interested to know whether colouring is passed from generation to generation.

Cheers folks,