mistycheri

I decided to move my very pregnant molly to the breeder box yesterday afternoon.* By that evening she had aborted her babies.* I guess the stress from being moved was too much.*
Most of the babies were still under-developed.* Three babies looked to be fully developed, and of those three, only two were alive and swimming around.
I removed the mother back into the tank.* I also put the two live babies into the tank to grow up.* They have plenty of hiding places with all the shells and plants I have in the tank.*
I'll keep ya'll posted on the development of the two babies.
Next time I'll just let the babies be born in the community tank.

michael_kaysen

Sorry to hear about your little ones. Stress does seem to cause still births in livebearers. They make this swell stuff called breeder grass that may be a good option for your molly to have some babies in the community tank. You will still lose some, but at least it gives them somewhere the other fish can't get to them and gives them a better chance of survival. I'm sure your little gal will be pregnant again soon. I hope things go better next time.

mistycheri

Thanks Michael, I forgot to mention that I do have the grass in my tank. One of the babies is hanging around it right now. It's next to the heater. I put little patches of the breeder grass throughout the tank in case my cory's decided to lay eggs. Which they don't seem to be inclined to do, which is okay too because of the limited space. I plan to get a bigger tank soon.

mistycheri

Well, my two new babies are four days old now. They are swimming around more and hiding less. The other fish will swim right up next to them and not bother the babies at all. Amazing, I was so afraid they would try to eat the babies but they treat them like they're just another fish in the tank. I've been trying to take pictures but they are just so small they only show up as little black specks.