I don't know when to separate my Molly

[DinoGurl87]

I have four mollies, One female Dalmatian, a male Black molly, a male silver lyretail and a female golden lyretail. I know the golden female is at LEAST 20 days pregnant. She has started hanging around the bottom of the tank under plants so I'm wondering if I should separate her soon if I want to keep the fry.

I'm also concerned because my male Silver Lyretail (Gandalf) I discovered yesterday has ick and he doesn't seem to be dong well. I'm treating the tank with medicine, raised the temperature a bit and added a bit more salt but he isn't swimming well and doesn't look good. I'm sad may lose him, but I'm doing everything I can to save him.

I'm more worried about the fry being born in a tank with ick. I have another tank to move them to after they are born but I don't want to put the mom in there since the tank she's currently in has ick.

I'm new to owning fish, these four are my first ever, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Thyra]

Welcome to the forum! First of all what size tank do you have and secondly, is the tank cycled and are you able to test the water for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate? You say you "raised the temp" and added "more salt", but you don't say why you had salt in the tank in the first place and what you raised the temp to. Many here on the forum don't use salt in their tanks with freshwater fish and for ich they recommend a temp of at least 85 degrees with daily vacuuming to get rid of the spores as they fall off the fish. Also daily partial water changes as needed. Other medication is not needed. They continue this for at least 2 weeks after all signs of ich are gone. Without knowing the size or anything else about what your plan is, its hard to say what to do about the pg mollie. Mollies take a lot of room because they are very active fish. If you have a lot of hiding places - like grass matts - fake or real, some of the fry will survive. Also, remember salt does not evaporate and the salinity will increase so you would need a way to measure salinity if you are to continue on that path.