Tank v2.0 (now w/Pics!)

HI everyone,

For those of you who didn't read my post on the Betta board, my 10 gallon tank absolutely crashed last week. After a four-day trip I came home to discover the fish-sitter had not stopped by once and three of my four Mollies had succombed to Ick. I have let the tank sit since then with the one remaining male molly and continued his treatment. He is now, once again, a healthy male (he wasn't actually that sick, either. I only ever saw one spot on him).

Today I did a massive overhaul of his tank. I performed a 50% water change. I removed the shipwreck decoration (it was just taking up room...). I rearranged the plants. I would like to introduce some more female mollies and decided to make the one corner of the tank slightly more densely plantes than the other to give the fry a little room to hide should they be born when I am out flying. It also adds a couple more hiding places for the females to escape the male (who will be the lone male in this new tank - there were two males and two females last time).

The mollies in v1.0 also enjoyed playing in the airstone bubbles so I am moving the airstone from the corner of the tank towards the center so they have a little more opportunity to play. I am keeping a close eye on my water parameters. So far things look to be doing well. We are one month into cycling this tank.

Should I wait until the cycle is completely finished to introduce the new females? Will the male be okay by himself in such a large tank until then?

Thanks!

Edit: For those of you who did read my posts in the betta forum, I had thought of dividing this ten gallon and putting two more betta's in there. While I love having Mino around, my male molly stayed healthy and it is only fair to him to keep him in the larger tank and reintroduce some females rather than move him to a smaller tank on his own. Its hard being impulsive and seeing so many pretty fish everywhere!!! But I've let the impulse pass and I do miss my mollies. I came across some pictures of them on my cellphone yesterday and I am looking forward to having a new molly tank!

 

Re: Tank v2.0

Since you already have the male molly in there, you'll be cycling with fish so I think it would be fine to acclimate and add the females now.

 

Re: Tank v2.0

Wow...sorry to hear you are having to go through all that.

 

Re: Tank v2.0

HI Everyone!

Well, some exciting news. I think I have finished my cycle in my 10 gallon tank. My readings for the last three days have been indicating that. It took a little less time than I expected, only four weeks. What a learning experience!

Yesterday, I added three female mollys to my 10gallon. Previously, I had two male fish and two female fish. I decided to go with only one male and three females to give the girls a little bit of a break between harassments! Below are the pictures:

Meet Kristyn, everybody:
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This is Kassidy:
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Here is Kelsi:
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And finally, my big guy, Rascal:
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Kristyn and Kassidy are both about 1 inch long. KelsI is about3/4 of an inch, she is just a baby it seems! Rascall is about 2 inches (maybe a little larger). He is noticeably bigger than all three females.

I was surprised when I was acclimating the females in their bag - Rascal spent the whole time hiding! It wasn't until a couple of minutes before I was ready to release them that he finally came out and started looking into the bag. As soon as they entered the tank, he began chasing after Kristyn and Kassidy. For some reason, he lives Kelsi, the little one, alone.  Any ideas why? However, KelsI - who is VERY spunky, actually chases the male around the tank. Whats up with that!? It is entertaining, though.

I picked each female out from their tanks in the pet store. Thank goodness the guy who works there was patient enough to chase after three individual mollys. It actually took this man about 10 minutes to finally get KelsI out of her tank. By the time he was done there was water all over the floor (LOL) and the tank was *destroyed*. It is a fry tank at my LFS she was in and all the java moss was pulled up and strewn throughout the tank some of it was in the net with Kelsi. LOL. She did NOT want to be caught! That same quality, though, does her well in chasing after the big male, Rascal. Which is funny. She's about 1/3rd his size and she runs him around the tank!

I enjoy having a tank full of mollys again. Just like my last tank, all they do is EAT and look for more things to eat in their tank.

I added a cave last night that I bought at Petsmart to give the females some more places to hide from Rascal. I figure that if he doesn't see them he won't go chasing after them. I haven't noticed him swimming around the tank looking for them. He does his own thing until one comes into view and then they are in trouble

I'll keep you updated on the progress. Unlike last time, I do not think any of the females came home from the LFS pregnant. So ... I'll give it thirty days and see what's up. This time I am more prepared with a tank I can easily set up for breeding. Then I can trade any surviving fry into my LFS for store credit. That's how I got KelsI - one of the store's customers brings in their molly fry for store credit, and she was one of those fry!

 

I would just like to expand upon the theme of how entertaining these four fish are together! Specifically, Kelsi, my little one. I think she has a death wish. She will literally swim up to the large male, Rascal, and steal food right out of his mouth! And he doesn't even chase after her or get back at her for it, I do not understand this relationship at all. She is a female. He is a male. He doesn't chase after her trying to mate with her. Instead, he happily lets her swim next to him, chase him around the tank, and take food from his mouth. If either of the other two, Kristyn or Kassidy tried that (which they have) they immediately get chased after!

 

I luuuuurve mollies. One of my females really has an attitude with our alpha male as soon as food is involved. She'll headbutt him and do anything possible to get to her food before him. It's to the point that now he's disgusted and has become a bottom feeder!

As soon as feeding time is over, he's back to his sexual bullying antics against her again, and chases her around the tank for 'special' favors. Very strange.

 

The tank looks great and I'm glad the mollies are doing so well. What are your plans for their fry?

 

The tank looks great and I'm glad the mollies are doing so well.   What are your plans for their fry?

I'm going to use my 2.5g spare tank as a breeder tank/QT tank (whichever is needed?). It is still set-up and I have some java moss sitting in there, ready for when one of my females gets ready to burst! I also increased the number of places fry could hide in the 10 gallon should they be born while I am out flying.

The cave that I bought for my females has been completely taken over by the male. Go figure. This leaves the much smaller cave for the females to hide in/sleep under. So far, everyone still seems to be getting along. Uninvited advances from Rascal aside

 

If your local wally-world has them, we've occasionally found the rainbow neon caves there for $2.. you could drop a few of those in for the females..

If you can, i'd recommend a couple 10 gallon tanks for the fry.. you could put the fry in one as they're dropped from mama and when they're old enough to tell, move the males to the 2nd one. Mollies can drop up to 100 or so at a time, I hear and you should expect a continous flow of them since one mating will give you months & months of fry and with a male in the tank, they'll be pregnant their whole lives.