angvalanche

Hi :P i'm back with different questions but with the same white molly. My female molly is white, but she has a black-ish area posterior to her stomach, but anterior to her anal fin. I was wondering if maybe these were babies forming, or if she's constipated.. I've never really owned a molly before so i'm not sure what to expect. If anyone needs a photo to help go along with my vague explanation, just let me know and i can attempt to take one!

Jonah

Is there a male in the tank with her, or was there one in the tank at the store you bought her from?

If there is/was then she is likely pregnant.

If she is you will find that she will get much more square around her belly as she goes along.

angvalanche

Yeah i have a little red male fish in my tank with her. So i was assuming she was pregnant.. but i wanted to check to make sure that it wasn't an illness or something else bad haha. Thanks!

Jonah

Angvalanche bud just been looking at your Aquarium info and I think sometime soon(ish) you are going to start having a few problems.

You have a 5gal tank with 2 mollies and 2 corys at 70degs

Depending on which type Mollies can grow to 5" for the male sailfins but we will assume yours are smaler types and only get to 3" each

And 2 Corys again we will assume smaller types at 2" each

that gives you 10" of fish in a 5gal tank you will struggle to keep the water clean enough for your fish and particularly if your molly has fry and you end up with another 12 or so.

If you can afford it you should look at upgrading your tank to at least a 10gal for the fish you have now and probably 20gal+ for those you will end up with.

The temp could do with being raised a little to at least 72degs and probably 75degs as 72 is the absolute minimum recommended for corys.

Again the corys are a schooling fish and you really should add 1 or 2 more if you have the larger tank with the space for the increased numbers.

On the mollies you could really do with 1 or 2 more females in the tank or the male will never give your lone female a break.

so on that basis adding 10" of fish to the 10" you already have means that you now have 20" of fish and need to look at a 20+ gal tank!

angvalanche

Oh i forgot to change some of my information. I have a heater now, so the temp is at 78. I would like to get a bigger tank but i definately dont have the extra money to do so. My dad had told me that fish growth can be stunted if they are in smaller tanks.. i mean he could be completely wrong, but i was under the impression that that was true. And i'm not 100% sure what type of molly i have, because the label at the fish store said "mollies" lol. And i do 25% water changes every week, and i use this thing called "prime" to put in the new water i add. The fish seem to be doing okay sofar

agabr123

what your dad said is completely true, growth can definitely be stunted by putting a fish in an overcrowded or inappropriate size tank.

a picture of your mollie would help identify it

prime is a great water conditioner to use, that's what i use in all of my tanks

angvalanche

Okay i'm going to take a picture to show you what i'm seeing.

And another question.. my female molly has been chasing and nipping at my male molly. Is this normal behaviour?

angvalanche

Here's the photo of my female molly and her black area.. The photo is crappy i know but its the best i could get seeing as she wasn't too keen on having her picture taken.

As for the tank size.. i would love to get a bigger tank but i can't afford it. It's too bad that so many petstore employees tell you the incorrect fish to keep in a five gallon tank.. I can't entirely blame it on the employees, because i should have done my research. I can only hope i learn from my mistakes and this helpful website

Lyrae

Your molly looks pregnant to me.

The best piece of advice i can offer you is to learn/force yourself to live within your means as a fish keeper.

Right now you may have just enough swimming room in your tank and you can compensate for the larger than necessary bioload of your tank by doing more frequent partial water changes, but when your molly gives birth your tank will be overcrowded if any of those babies survive.

This is something i struggle with myself. I have guppies and the saying goes, "if you have guppies, you have pregnant guppies". I can't justify buying a new tank every month, so i end up feeding newly born fry to my betta fishes and raising the rest to give to my friend who has a Jack Dempsy while saving a few of the best specimens to keep for myself.

angvalanche

Well the petstore down the road says they take the fry and sell them to other customers.. i mean half the time they sell them as feeders, but at least i won't have to harm the fish i currently have.