Can you see the fy inside the momma?

I know this may sound like a stupid question but is it possible to see the the fry inside the pregnant momma fish??? I have this orange molly, conveniently named "Mommafish" now cuz I can't think of a better name and she is the who I believe gave birth to the molly fry I have now in a breeding net inside my 10gal tank. I have noticed the last couple of days that she has been hanging around kinda nipping at the net. I thought maybe she wanted to eat the babies as I saw her actually eat one one day last week. But my male platy, Elmofish, also has chasing her around the tank a little bit. This morning I saw what looks like these black spots inside the belly of Mommafish so I put the three together, her nipping around the net, Elmosfish chasing her and now these spots under her belly that makes me think she may be pregnant. I read a reply to another one of my posts that said she can get pregnant again even without a male molly present and that she could have more fry within another month. Mommafish just had these fry about 2 weeks ago so I'm just wondering if she could be pregnant within 2 weeks and also if it is possible to see those babies in her belly. I know it may seem silly but ......

I can't decide whether or not to go get maybe a smaller, 5 gal tank to put my fry in now to grow until they are big enough to take to my friend's tank and then put Mommafish in the net or just to put Mommafish in the net now. I don't want her to try and eat any more of the fry once she was in the breeding net.....

This fish stuff is really hard sometimes....

 

Well, I called my local Petco earlier and talked to my fish guy and he said that Mommafish is probably pregnant based on the things I told him. I bought a small filter to put in my little 2 gallon tank and I am going to take Mommafish out and put her in there until she has the babies and then return her to the main tank.

I took a bunch of my gravel from the big tank and mixed it with some new gravel and put that in the little tank. I also took 2 gallons of water from my big tank and put that in the little tank. I've got two new plants and a little fishy sculpture thing and the filter has been running for almost an hour now but I don't know how long to leave it running by itself before it's safe to move Mommafish.

Can anybody help me with this? My guy at Petco said I probably only have a couple of days before Mommafish gives birth so I want to move her asap....

 

well, you might not even have a couple of days...you might want to ask this question in the molly specific forum...cause I have no experience w/ live bearers

 

we had a gold twinbar platy and could always see the dots in her belly when the fry were developed enough and usually they'd be dropped within a week or so. i'd treat the water with Prime (if you haven't already) and acclimate her to it asap to have her in there. keep it warm for her, since livebearers don't like it too cold when they drop fry.

 

Re: Can you see the fry inside the momma?

What is "Prime?" I only put stress coat in the tank but I used water from my 10 gal. tank and some gravel too? I don't have my heater in there but the temp is reading about 78 F, same as the 10 gal. tank.

Should I go ahead and move her? My husband thinks so and I want to, I just am not sure about the new tank being ok or not?

 

Re: Can you see the fry inside the momma?

Well, I just looked up Prime on and it looks to be about the same thing as Stress Coat? Am I right?? If so, I did that earlier today. And I checked my temp. in the tank and it's about 78 F. So, I think I will go ahead and move Mommafish tonight just in case.

 

Prime:


Stress coat is a good conditioner.. however, the difference is that Prime will removes chlorine and chloramine, like stress coat, but will also detoxify ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, and heavy metals. Stress coat only deals with chlorine and metals. Ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite are really your worries in a new tank so I would go and pick that up asap. Tomorrow. lol

If you move her tonight, DEFINITELY get it tomorrow. If you wait and move her tomorrow when you can get the Prime.. that might be better.

This is exciting!!

 

If you have any more plants that you can put it too, it'll help her and the fry. she'll want to feel like she can find a safe, quiet place to drop the fry and they'll want all the hiding spots from momma that they can get.

 

Re: Can you see the fry inside the momma?

Well, I went ahead and moved her just in case. She is acting a little confused. I did put the stress coat in earlier but I didn't realized that Prime would be better. Is it ok to add Prime tomorrow even though I've added stress coat today?

I have two plants similar to two of the plants in my 10 gal tank and a little fish sculpture thingy that has a hole in it. I tried to make it homey for her and what will eventually become the fry hut!!

 

Yes, I would still add the Prime.

The Fry Hut! Cute!

 

yea, the prime would be good still and it sounds like she'll just need to get settled in.. lower light probably would help calm her some too.

 

Ok, I will get some Prime tomorrow and I just turned the lights off in the tanks for the night anyways so hopefully, she'll calm down. It's a much smaller tank to so...

Thanks!!!

 

when we had our platy momma in her little 'tank' that had no lighting, we just ran tank lights and a soft light lamp in the room and it really helped to mellow her out. the mistake I made was leaving that beside the tank she had come out of, so she'd spend a lot of time looking at the main tank wanting back in & she refused to drop the fry until we put her back in.

 

Re: Can you see the fry inside the momma?

Well, no babies yet. I guess it could still be a couple of days. Are there any symptoms I need to look for to know when she's in labor?

 

This is typical behaviour for a lady livebearer about to pop. Of course individual fish may differ from the general behaviour, but here goes:
- loss of appetite day or so beforehand
- seclusion from other fish day or so beforehand, can be close to surface
- isolation on secluded spot close to the substrate as about to pop
- gravid spot close to analfin when about to pop (although I've never seen that in my mollies)
- looking practically box-shaped from all the fry inside

 

Re: Can you see the fry inside the momma?

Well, here's something strange. I just got home and I've got the Prime so I'll put that in the tank but Mommafish is doing something weird; she's vertical in the tank with her nose close to the gravel like she's looking for something but she's completely vertical. I mean, if she could stand on her nose, she would... does that mean something?

 

shes probably looking for a place to drop the fry...but i've never had any experience w/ livebearers

 

That could be kind of bad news. It sounds like a possible swim bladder problem.

Did she start that before or after adding the Prime? If after, how much Prime did you use? For 10L (2G), I use 1 drop of Prime (it's extremely concentrated). I only add the Prime in concentrations to fit my buckets (i.e. 1 drop per bucket), rather than taking into account the full size of the aquarium and putting enough for the whole aquarium in one bucket. If you think you've overdosed on Prime, do lots of water changes.

 

what's her behavior now? what's the current water chemistry readings?

 

To answer armadillo's question, she was acting like that before I put in the Prime. I followed the instructions but according to what I read on the bottle, I put 2 drops in.. She seemed to do a little worse after that. But....and I also posted another couple of messages regarding this under "somethings wrong with mommafish" but I took a chance that it was just some kind of shock and I put her back in the big tank and she laid around on her back for a little while, moved around some but still stayed pretty much on her back and then after I'd been out of the room for an hour or so, I walk back in to check on them and boom, there she is swimming around again just like normal. A little slower but still.... so I'm not worried about her dying now, thank goodness. I was starting to feel really crappy thinking this would have been the 3 fish I'd have lost in the last month and a half!!!

Oh, to answer FLBettaCouple's question, I tested the water in both tanks last night. My pH is still reading 7.6 (but so is my tap water after I left it out overnite), ammonia reading 0, no nitrites in my big tank but the strangest thing, it was a little higher in the smaller tank and both tanks read about 20ppm of nitrates. I am planning on doing a water change tomorrow or this weekend. As soon as I can get my husband to find the time to help me!!! I thought it was strange that the smaller tank had higher nitrites but I can only deduce that this is from the Prime being in that tank and not the bigger one....

Thanks for the suggested behaviour on pregnant mollies armadillo... Mommafish is still doing ok but she has not been eating that I can tell. She does not come to the top anymore like the other two when I feed them. I often find her sitting somewhere by a plant by herself but she does not run away or anything when the others come near her and she does look a little boxy but not that bad. Some of those little black belly spots look like more but I don't think I've seen this gravid spot you mentioned. I looked up a picture of it and I don't think I've seen anything that looks like that. Only blackish spots I see are the presumed fry in her belly!

Now that I have had this smaller tank running for awhile now, my fry hut - I want to move the babies in there instead of leaving them in the breeding net; it's getting dirty on one side anyways. I assume I should wait till after I do the partial water change in that tank cuz it's gonna be hard with all those babies swimming around. Think that's ok, to wait I mean.... I think I'm gonna have to leave Mommafish in the big tank for now and just hope that I see when she has the babies so I can get them out before she or the others eat them!!

Thanks to all....

 

what we'd do for water changes with the baby tank is pour the water into a bowl after taking it out so that we could check for hitch-hiking fry.