Dervish100

I bought a very pregnant white female molly from my LFS last Wednesday. He said she looked a couple of days away from having fry. Here it is 6 days later and she still hasn't had them. I currently have here in a breeding box, and all I am getting is a mess of food below her. I had left her in the tank for a couple of days after but my male sailfin molly kept real close to her and I was afraid he would eat them as they came out. I have the water temperature at 79 degrees and all the parameters are fine. I have done water changes as well and nothing. Any advice? I have heard of them aborting pregnancies but would she still look like she is going to explode if that was the case?

Dervish

Butterfly

Just give her time she may take a little longer to give birth after being moved and some females just don't like the breeder boxes. Keep her area as clean as possible. Most livebearers get just huge before giving birth.
Carol

tan.b

i can sympathise! my livebearers have been preg forever (so it seems) and mine arent parting with the young either!! nothing we can do but wait (easier said than done for i am soo impatient!)

Dervish100

Well, ask and you shall receive. When I woke up today There were Fry all over the bottom of the box and my molly looked beat! There were a few yellow eggs in there and most of the fry looked still born. There are a lot. I see at least 30-40 and of that probably about half are swimming around. I am a very proud father! Now to tend to them.

Dervish

Joe G

Congratulations on your newborn fry.

tan.b

congratulations!! got me worried though....maybe when mine finally gives birth there'll be lots stillborn etc as mine been preg for so long, moved tank several times etc. a rather stressful preg for the poor girl! to be honest i'll just be glad when she doesnt look so uncomfortable with that round tummy!
keep us posted!
tan

lizzle

I think stillbirths are not wholly abnormal...I'm no expert by any means but every birthing we've had since we started (with the exception of the first one that we didn't know about till after it happened) has had several stills at the bottom of the box. Just about half it seemed.

As for the delay in the birthing, I have found that, unless the folks at the LFS actually witnessed the conception, they might not be all that reliable in determining the due dates. We purchased a pregnant molly for our son and was told she was at least 2 weeks away from birthing, then lo & behold 2 days after bringing her home she birthed. And we were wildly unprepared! We weren't able to save any from that birthing - they became hors d'oeurves VERY quickly

armadillo

Congratulations! It's the greatest feeling, isn't it? I was giving a presentation to a customer when I caught a glimpse of an incoming e-mail entitled: we've got babies. I had to rant on to the customer for ages I was so happy I gave them a quick slide show of my adult fish!