Safe?

[puppyjess123]

well female swordy looks really fat and preggers 9my luck three in a row!). I was wondering if its safe to float her in a plastic contanier in the tank with an airstone in the container for the night as i feel shes gonna give birth as male keeps chasing her aorund. P.S breeding trap is being used for not even 1 day old baby molly fry

 

[puppyjess123]

any ideas?

 

[puppyjess123]

no help then i guess its in the morning see if she's thin take all the ornaments out check for babies blah blah blah! Grrr

 

[puppyjess123]

does anyone knoe anything at all?!

 

[Corleone]

If the container doesn't have any holes or anything in it, no - it'll be effectively it's own body of water, which the fish will probably foul fairly quickly. It might not become dangerous overnight, but I wouldn't chance it either way. It might work if you put holes in it for water to flow through (an LFS in my area keeps its bettas like this), but fry would probably escape.

She'll probably give birth fine in the tank itself, which is what I let my livebearers do. The fry might not last long, so you might have to just write off this drop and save the next one.

 

[puppyjess123]

What could you make REALLY small holes with? Thanks so much Corleone.

 

[Corleone]

Possibly a heavy darning needle? They're quite a bit bigger than a regular sewing needle, but still should be plenty small enough that fry can't get through, and with enough close spaced holes all over it, you should get flow through it like a sieve.

 

[puppyjess123]

Cool would an oridinary needle do. Also eoughly how many holes would i need. And would the rtop of an API freshwater master kit do as the floating container as i CAN'T put holes through a lunch box type container.

 

[Corleone]

Ordinary needle might work. I suggested a darning needle since it's a bit thicker and will allow less flow resistance through the individual holes.

The top of the kit should be ok, provided it's clean (some of the chemicals used in the test are really noxious stuff). I was assuming it was a similar container or a betta cup.

Not sure how many holes you'd need - I'd put as many as I could, trying to make it more of a "cage" than a "cup," so there's as little flow restriction as possible.

 

[puppyjess123]

wait there what about small slits with a knife?

 

[Corleone]

Might be worth a try, too, probably a lot less work than a needle (I was basing my logic mostly on how I kept praying mantis in my mom's tupperware when I was a kid, lol). Probably a good idea to make them "stabs" instead of cutting long slits, if they're short enough that the plastic between them can flex a bit, fry might get stuck in there.

 

[puppyjess123]

I'm knew sticking a pair of scissors in as knife was to hard.

 

[puppyjess123]

roughly 22 holes and when i push under shallow water water comes into it.

 

[puppyjess123]

is it okay if they're all on the bottom and not sides?

 

[minxfishy]

As long as you get good water flow thru it then shouldnt be a problem.