Alby became very fat

Introducing more fish to the tank was an exciting goal to have, but deciding the type and number of fish to add weighed heavily on me. What if I introduced fish that didn't get along with Alby? Even narrowing the possible candidates to a short list of fish that were easy on the eye and also got along with Mollies was difficult. They were all so pretty and interesting looking - I wanted them all!

Things were pretty hectic at work, giving me another excuse for procrastinating on the fish front and the weeks flew by in a flash.

Over those weeks, Alby became very fat. The layer of thin white scaly tissue covering Alby's body looked uncomfortably taut, like an overinflated balloon. Was my fish on the way out?

I rang Rayonne Aquarium to pick Michelle's brain. She told me to cut back Alby's food - Mollies don't need twice daily feeding, in fact they can go days without any food at all. I dropped to daily feeding, then after a few days cut it again to every second day. I fed less food too, slicing the frozen blocks of brine shrimp and pumpkin in half instead of giving Alby a full block each time.

After a week or so of this Alby seemed, to my eye, to be a little less bloated and my anxiety and worry receded.

Our union national conference was coming up, taking me away from home for a few nights and I felt comfortable about Alby missing a meals while I was away. Before departing for the conference I left a full block of frozen food bobbing on the tank water surface, patted the tank and wished Alby luck.

Over the three days and two nights of our conference I managed to bore every one of the 47 attendees with photos and videos of Alby the Molly and I wondered how my little white beauty was faring.

I needn't have worried. Upon my return home at the end of the week Alby was happily cruising through the water, looking much less bloated than when I had left three days earlier. I breathed a sigh of relief, put the kettle on and unpacked my conference luggage.

Over the weekend I visited Rayonne Aquarium twice, still trying to decide what my next fish purchase would be. I could put more Mollies in, but putting males and females together could result in me suddenly owning many, many Mollies. From my internet research I learned the desired ratio of fish to water volume and as I only had one tank up and running I didn't have room for an explosion of my fish population.

Michelle showed me how to tell the gender of Mollies. The shape of the fin under the belly is the easiest way to tell - fan-shaped for girls and spear-shaped for boys. Michelle's advice, if I didn't want lots of baby fish, was to only buy female Mollies.

At home, I looked closely at Alby - her fin was definitely fan-shaped.

I spent some more time over the weekend trying to decide if I wanted more of the same type of fish or if it was better to have a variety of fish types in a community tank.

A few days later, the decision was taken out of my hands.

One evening after dinner my daughter and I remained at the kitchen table talking. My eagle-eyed daughter, staring at Alby's tank, suddenly started and yelled "What's that?!"

Up on her feet in a flash, she switched the tank light on and pointed at the glass. I moved closer, squinting. I saw a small dark shape move horizontally along the back wall of the tank and gasped. A second small dark shape swam into view and my mind whirred while my eyes tried to focus on the small creatures. What were they?

I reached for my glasses, put them on and lifted the lid of the tank. From above I could see more little critters - I counted four. With glasses on I could see that they looked like tadpoles, or the mosquito fish that infest the wetlands that adjoins my property. There are plenty of frogs in the wetlands too. Preposterously, I wondered how baby frogs or mosquito fish had found their way into my tank. I figured they couldn't have been Alby's babies - she hadn't been near another Molly for almost two months.

My phone was nearby and I sought Google's help. It wasn't long before the penny dropped. Female Mollies can store Male Molly secretions for later fertilisation. Alby hadn't been fat - she had been pregnant!

That's why the fish in Darren's tank had attacked her when he brought her home - hence her arrival at my home. I rang to share the news and Darren was as shocked and delighted as I was.

I knew that Mollies could give birth to up to 40 fry at a time, yet I could only see a handful of fry in the tank. My deduction that Alby had probably eaten most of her babies pained me. Even knowing that eating their young is normal behaviour for a Molly, I still felt guilty about not being here to save them. I had to make sure Alby didn't eat the rest.

The next day I left work early to get to Rayonne Aquarium before closing time and bought a floating fry tank. That night, I transferred Alby to a bucket and removed all of the tank ornaments while I went fishing for fry. They were fast and small, and their colouring enabled them to blend in with the tank gravel.

I'm not adept with the fish net, and I was also a bit tipsy from the wine I had drunk with dinner - this was not going to be a quick task. I cranked up the music (Iron and Wine) and stood very still at the tank, net poised to snare fry when they moved. Each time I caught one I dropped it into the fry tank. By the time I put Alby back in the tank I had caught four fry. I fed them a small amount of crushed flakes, took photos and video and bragged on social media about the new additions.

Two days later I spotted another baby slithering over the gravel. The next day I found another. Suddenly, I had seven fish. I was happy about this development, but I also knew I wanted more fish.

#tanktales