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I thought my female black molly was pregnant because her belly was so large. However, I notice that every morning she is "thinner". During the day she gets larger and poops.  A LOT. And the strands are long. (Today my male platy and molly ate her poop twice.)

I am feeding 2 mollies and 2 platy. I put in enough food that it is gone within 3 minutes.  However, I notice that the female molly stays at the top of the tank swimming around, skimming the surface with her mouth open. The platy fish who come up to the surface about 30 seconds after I place the food in the tank barely get any of the food. 

How do I change her eating habits without starving the other fish? Should she be separated? I only feed them twice a day (8am-ish, and 6pm-ish). I am afraid she is going to eat herself to death.

(I have attached a picture of her at 2:40 pm today. She has not eaten since 8 this morning. But she has had repeated long strings of poop.)

IMG_0751.jpg

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I would start off by not feeding them for the next few days until the fat molly looses the fat. And then target feed, I have to do this in my community tank because my angelfish are pigs and will gobble up all the food before any other fish can eat. I feed sinking pellets so this is a lot easier. If you distract the fat molly fish on one side of the tank, and feed the other fish on the other side. If you use floating foods I would make a feeding ring. its super easy, all you need is excess airline tubing or even straws. and attach them together in circular/ square shape. 

Heres a vide of what I'm talking about:

 

I would start only feeding once a day. I do this with all my fish, and feed no more then what they can eat in 2 mintues. Then choose a day of the week where you won't feed your fish. (for me this is Saturday)

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I tested water all weekend (12/12-12/14) and did not feed my fish until this evening. pH, nitrite and nitrate measured within great ranges. Ammonia, however, started at 8 on Saturday morning and is between .5 and 1 today. I did 50% water changes twice a day for two days and once this morning. I will test the ammonia again in the morning since they had food and will produce some waste overnight. I may not feed again until Wednesday, depending on the result.

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Well, ammonia is back up to 1-1.5. I am struggling. Should I perform another water change or invest in an ammonia treatment?

My 8 gallon tank is all livebearers: pH is 7.6; temp is 75-78; nitrite is 0; nitrate is 5.

The water did measure as "Very Soft" on the Tetra test strips. How do I fix that for my mollies and platy?

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If ammonia is that high I would do a water change to get it down, and it will have to be a big one. If you only did a 50% water change you would still be high. That being said I don’t like to do changes larger than that. 
 

I would do the large water change and treat the water with enough conditioner to treat the full tank’s volume of water. A conditioner like Prime will “detoxify” the ammonia( if you aren’t using Prime you will need to check if yours will detoxify ammonia for 24 hours, many/most do). This way you reduce the ammonia, detoxify what is left, and do another water change tomorrow after testing. It should only take a couple of water changes. Oh! And no feeding until you get the ammonia back down to .25 or lower (you have nitrates so ammonia should be below .25). 
 

As for the feeding problems. When you have your ammonia down feed some foods that sink more easily or put your flake under the water before releasing it. I would drop a small amount on the surface, and then put some under the surface for the other fish. The sinking pellets (like Extreme nano) would be less messy, but if you already have flakes and aren’t worried about getting your fingers wet you can wait on the new food. 
 

But no feeding until you get the ammonia under control. 

Edited by Mitch Norton
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@Mitch Norton, thank you. I recently switched from flakes to bug bites. I didn't feed the fish from Friday to Monday am while I did the twice a day water changes. It was my hope that the ammonia would reduce to 0.

I did feed them last night because the ammonia had dropped so much.

I do have Prime so I will add that. I don't think I added it in the last 50% water change I performed yesterday.

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