new female silver molly breathing heavy, why?

[gershwin]

hi i bought a pair of silver mollys at the weekend. right from the start the male seemed more energetic and spirited than the female. the female is a little podgy in the belly and i thought maybe she was pregnant.

anyway, she is breathing rapidly and tends to hang out in one spot a lot, but she eats a little bit and seems to look ok. did i buy a diseased fish i wonder? is she gonna die mumma?


i didn't quarantine. i suck. i thought i needed a separate tank, having read other posts, i now know you can get containers to put in your mother tank. this i will do henceforth.

 

[gershwin]

sorry. i know i haven't added water parameters. PH is about 7.2, water is medium soft. all other fish are loving life.

 

[Chickieepooh2u]

Shes most likely pregnant, put her in a little breeding net in the tank if you can, just in case.

 

[dest8404]

she is probably pregnant. thats how my act about 2weeks before they have babies

 

[Rowangel]

i didn't quarantine. i suck. i thought i needed a separate tank, having read other posts, i now know you can get containers to put in your mother tank. this i will do henceforth.

These containers you are talking about, would they share the same water as your main tank or are they a separate container w/separate water hung inside the main tank? Either way I see an issue with this being considered as a quarantine tank on several levels.

One, if the container is sharing the same water as the main tank (like a breeder net for example) it is counterproductive of what a quarantine is supposed to be because they will still be sharing the same parasites/fungus/or other illness they may have with the rest of the fish in the main tank.

Two, if it is a separate tank w/separate water sitting inside the main tank most likely it has no independent filtration of its own and is far too small, which would make dosing meds difficult. IMO a q-tank really needs to be its own isolated thing with proper filtration and no smaller than a 5-10g going larger for bigger fish of course. Just my thoughts...

 

[gershwin]

thanks for your responses. well i hope she is pregnant and not sick. but what do you do with all the bubs? i've got a fair bit of plant action going on, so i wonder will some survive? do you people just keep them, give them away...

also, i have a male/female ratio of 1:1. now at the moment the male doesn't seem to be hastling the female out too much, is that because she is pregnant and he instinctively knows there's no point? should i go buy another female, i mean i really don't want to overcrowd the tank (22 G, 2 mollys, 4 harlequins, 1 CAE.)

and Rowangel, thanks for your input. yeah i was thinking a container with SEPARATE water, from the mother tank. i was probably going to have one of those small sponge filters that works off the airline. its just that living in a small apartment, the whole idea of gettting another tank seems a little full on. oh well, i guess that's what you get in the big city.