sinead22

Hi, my partner and I started a tropical aquarium about a month ago.
It is 100litres, and in it we have 4 guppies, had 2 mollies (male and female) , 2 swordtails (male and female) and some bristlenoses.

We have an internal filter, have no nitrate or ammonia testing kit but our pH level is 7.2 and we do a water change once a week.
The temperature is at 80 F.
We currently have no plantlife but plan on getting some.

We purchased our mollies off a breeder, and noticed a week after we got them that the black female Molly appeared to be pregnant.

We also have another tank which is 240 litres.
We set that tank up and when it was properly prepared we took the fish apart from the guppies and the pregnant molly out and put them in the other tank.
We have a breeder trap but thought it would be better to not stress the pregnant molly and just move the others.

Everything appeared to be fine, the guppies were happy as was our mother to be.

About 5 days ago we noticed that our pregnant Molly (Celline) was looking quite tatty, No scales lifted or fraying, but we could see a few tiny silver patchs, which we put down to her being quite pregnant.

She remained happy, was eating well and seemed quite normal, her eyes looked a bit strange, I don't want to say cloudy, but thats kind of what they looked like.

Then we noticed she was going into corners and hovering flapping her fron fins and staying put for ages, and we thought she might be about to give birth.

Tonight one of our flat mates said, "There is something wrong with your black fish" , so we went to the tank to find her sucked against the filter, I prodded her with the net, and it was clear she was dead.

We are so sad that we lost her and her babies!
Why did she die?
Did we not have anywhere for her to hide so she became stressed and overdue?
Or did she lose the babies and her body couldn't handle it?
If our tank has bad levels of nitrate or ammonia, how are the guppies perfectly healthy?
Please help us, any answers would be much appreciated,
Thanks so much, sorry if this is a bit of a novel to read.

sinead22

Ok, so I just looked at the compatability for our Molly, and we may be onto something, when she was first pregnant we only had one guppy, then we introudced the other three , and she was alone in the tank with them.
Compatabilty says that Mollys and Guppys should not be put together.
Could the introduction of the other Guppies have stressed her out and caused her to be bullied?
We never saw this happening, but at night it is possible.
Thanks!

Nick G

Hi Sinead, Welcome to Fishlore! Mollies and Guppies should be fine together, but they can interbreed. Did you have Male Guppies with a Female Molly?

sinead22

Hi yes we did actually, but only after we noticed her belly was growing...could she have bred with him after she got pregnant and then lost her babies and her life? Ahhh so confusing. poor celline

peacemaker92

Hi sinead, sorry about your poor molly.

IMO, the filter intake current could've been too strong for her because while she's in labour she has to use all that strength and energy to give birth. She probably had not enough energy to avoid getting sucked onto the filter intake.

aquarist48

Hello Sinead22 and Welcome to Fish Lore. So sorry to hear about Celline. Sometimes things happen that are beyond out control. Without knowing your readings for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate it's hard to determine the cause for certain. It could be ammonia poisoning, stress of birth. There is a possibility that your tank isn't cycled. Did she have the babies before she passed? Where is the male Molly?
Again I'm sorry for your loss.
Ken

sinead22

Aww really.. it is an internal filter, one of the ones that has little lines down the sides sucking, not a big pipe.Could this still be too strong for her? Poor Celline I feel so bad.

Hi Ken, thanks for your condolences, the male molly was removed to another tank that we set up so we didn't have to move Celline.
Sadly she did not have any of her babies before she died.
I gueess we really need to get onto getting some nitrate and ammonia testing done, can you get kits for this?

I've merged your posts since there were no responses between your posts. You can use the "Edit" key at the bottom of every post for corrections and additional thoughts. Feel free to answer more than one reply in your post.
Ken

aquarist48

Hello Sinead. I would be more inclined to believe that the fish was either deceased prior to being stuck to the filter or either she was too ill to fight the suction from the filter. Most healthy fish can fight to stay away from the suction of the filters.
API (liquid) Master test kit is what is most recommended on this site. It tests for everything you need that is stated here in the nitrogen cycle:

http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm
Ken

sinead22

Hi, yea I am thinking she died and then got sucked onto it, she wasn't looking weak at all at 4pm today.
I guess these things happen, can only improve from here and hope we don't lose more.

Oh and thanks for that link, we have come to a sort of conclusion that our celline was weakened by prenancy and didn't make through the nitrogen cylcle that we started, as we started the cylce with fish about 5 weeks ago. I wish we knew this before, but live and learn.
Thanks so much for all of your advice

I've merged your posts to save some space.
Ken

aquarist48

Sinead something you can do is to band a sponge over the intake openings of your filter. This will prevent fish from being sucked to it and it won't slow down the filtration. The sponge will also add to your biological filtration. Just rinse it in siphoned tank water when you do your water changes.
Since you cycled with fish she very well could have suffered prolonged exposure to ammonia. Many of us have been where you are, not knowing better starting the tank/cycle. Try not to feel to badly.
Best of luck and keep us posted.
Ken

sinead22

Thanks Ken and everybody! Will update on how we go with the rest of our wee community.