Molly is pregnant? Need advice

Just recently got an aquarium in January so I am very new at this. It was for our son because he loves fish. We bought 2 female mollies and 1 male (as recommended). One of the females looks pregnant but seems like she has been for a while now. Most sites are saying they should bear the live fish within 30 days. It has been well over 30 days. Can there be something wrong? Is there anything I can do. I really do not want to breed fish, is there a way to not have the fish breed, any suggestions would be great. Thank you so much

 

what size is the tank? Is it cycled? Are there any other fish in the tank?
And welcome to Fishlore!!!!!!!!

 

10 gallon tank, it is cycled.  I just today bought a breeder net to see if this would help her in her expulsion of the babies.  She looks like she is going to blow any moment.  There are 2 female dalmation mollies and 1 male and we also have a minI plocostomus (sp?).  I just had no idea it would be this big of a deal.  I went to the local Aquarium store and they recommended I take out the male and buy another female, although it now looks like our second female might also be expecting...   I only wanted to get something for our 3 year old to be able to feed and take care of so he begins to understand the importance of a pet...YIKES :-\

 

She might give birth in the net or she might not. I know that my swordtail will not give birth in the breeding net. She gets too uptight so I have to keep an eye out for fry in the general pop and scoop them out and into the breeder net.....and hope that I'm not too late. Keep an eye out in your tank. She may have expelled one or two already. If this is the case, it can take here days or weeks to expell more....It's happened to me.....

 

Thanks, I am going to try the net for a while and see how this goes. I haven't seen any as of yet and I have checked the tank thoroughly...she seems OK so far in the net, eating fine, looks a bit lonely though. My only big dilemma is I am pretty sure the other female is pregnant. Can I put both females in the breeder net? So many questions, so little time...thanks for all of your help to all!!! ;D

 

They should be in separate nets....Once they give birth they need to be removed after about a day. I use a breed-n-show tank. It is a clear acrylic tank that floats in the main tank. There are grates on the ends for water flow and there is a grate in theh bottom for the fry to slip through once born. They can't escape into the upper portion or into the main population. You might want to think about using one of these so the separation is done for you  and she can recover without posing danger to the fry.

Good luck! 

 

I went ahead and took her out of the net today, you should have seen her! she was like a "fish out of water" (forgive the pun) but she was so excited.... ;D The other fish were so happy to see her, she swam around like she had been gone, even though she could see every one, I know she is happier. I hope this helps deliver the fry, it has been such a long time now, I have been worried, but she seems fine and is eating well and swimming fine I'll keep you all posted on her update if the fry deliver! Thanks for all the advice!

 

If you don't want to breed, why'd you buy a male? They say to keep livebearers in ratios of 1m to 2 f, but that's just if you want to breed. if you don't want to, then take back the male and get another female. If you have both genders of any livebearer, you will get babies.

 

If you don't want to breed, why'd you buy a male?  They say to keep livebearers in ratios of 1m to 2 f, but that's just if you want to breed.  if you don't want to, then take back the male and get another female.  If you have both genders of any livebearer, you will get babies.

Like I said earlier omorrokh, I am new at this...I took the advice of the people at the aquarium store when we asked what we should get. We didn't go in there saying, "Hey, we want to breed fish, what can we buy?" I said, I want to get some good fish for my 3 year old, what do you recommend, they recommended these stating we should get 2 female and 1 male, I didn't even know they were live bearer fish until I got onto this website. Maybe I should have done more research your saying to yourself aren't you...so am I. Thank you for the advice, I have already removed the male...BUT....the deed is done at this point isn't it? She still hasn't had her fry, I just wanted some friendly advice on what to expect...that is all

 

Ok, sorry for being a little hard on you. I keep forgetting that people don't just automatically realize that you have to do a lot of research with fish. :-\ Well, I guess you've learned your lesson now. Research any fish before buying, and never trust someone at a fish store!
Anyway, even after removing the male, expect to have several batches of fry, since females can store sperm for a long time. I know this probably sounds mean, but if you don't want to raise all the fry, just do nothing, and a lot of them will get eaten. Expect some to survive. I figure that livebearers don't have much chance at a pet store anyway. A lot of livebearers are bought by people who know nothing about fish because they are cheap, small, and they are supposedly very hardy and can survive in tiny tanks/bowls. That is, if they don't get killed first by the store. If you do wish to raise the fry, though, I don't want to discourage you. Just make sure you give them to a locally owned fish store that takes good care of their fish.
A little tip: don't try breeding again until you are very competent at keeping a variety of fish.

 

A little harsh wouldn't you say???

 

Ok, sorry for being a little hard on you. I keep forgetting that people don't just automatically realize that you have to do a lot of research with fish. :-\ Well, I guess you've learned your lesson now. Research any fish before buying, and never trust someone at a fish store!
A little tip: don't try breeding again until you are very competent at keeping a variety of fish.

Harsh?  You think?  Thanks for noticing Vin!  But I did ask for advice, I didn't ask for people to be nice, just honest.  Although this website was to promote helping others, I'm not too sure that being so harsh has made me realize my mistakes.  I realized that prior to the insults. 
First and foremost, I took advice from what I thought was a well known aquarium store.  We set up our tank, cycled it, and did all the necessary things that I "researched" prior to placing fish in the tank.  I wanted a "hardy" fish for my son.  Something that wouldn't die quickly, or require too much (or I would have got a dog).  I am not on this website to argue, I only wanted advice on my pregnant molly, or "research" as you would call it from people who have fish.  I assumed I could get that from this website, but you know what they say when you ASSUME.  It makes an .... anyway...

A little tip:  when people ask for advice, and they truly mean it, and they truly sit down and type out words to get someone elses oppinion, maybe they are doing some research and not just blowing smoke.

for those of you who have helped me in my research, I thank you.

 

I hear you loud and clear....I personally don't agree with the 'never trust the fish store' line as I've personally found two that you CAN trust......Everyone makes mistakes and when you come looking for advice (not lectures) you expect some help rather than the beat down.....

Anyway, I know you're able to get a handle on it and as I'm sure you've noticed there are a lot of folks on here looking to give you good, sound advice.

Good luck with your fish! I'm having a ball with ours!

Vinnie

 

appreciate the help instead of the lecture and crude remarks, almost made me not want to come back to this site and try a new one...

everyone is a rookie at some time, you don't become a novice overnight, give me time to learn for heavens sake...

thanks again vinnie and keep those pitchers comin' ;D

 

Aw darn it, I screwed up again... :-[
I'm really sorry woodsplace1, I wasn't trying to insult you or make rude remarks or anything like that... :-\ We'll just say I'm not that great with people, sometimes things don't come out the way I mean them. I wasn't trying to lecture you or make crude remarks or anything like that, please don't be mad at me. I really wasn't trying to be mean or anything. I 'get it' with animals, but sometimes I just don't say the right thing with people. I hope you understand. I'm really sorry I made you not want to come back. I was just trying to give you some help, I never realized I sounded too harsh.
You did the right thing to come here for some advice, I hope I haven't ruined it for you. I realize that you are new to this, and reading back on my posts they sound not very nice, which I didn't intend at all. I hope that you realize that I really am a nice person, I just slip up a lot when it comes to other people. I wish I was as good with human friends as I am with pets. I don't know what got into me, I guess I just wasn't thinking at the time. I never meant to word things so bad. I hope you understand, I am only human. I just feel so bad.
And good luck with your new fishies!

 

Fishes do have a soothing effect don't they

 

WOW, I was totally freaking out in that last post... Once again totally not like me. I guess being a teenager I am entitled to occasional random 'moments'. Woodsplace1, you keep catching me on those moments when I left my brain in front of the fish tank but try to write stuff anyway. : I think you probably interpreted a lot of what I wrote differently than what I was trying to say. Like I never meant to say you weren't doing any research yourself, I was trying to criticise myself for sometimes expecting way to much out of people right away. Didn't quite come out that way. (Note to self: try reading what you write before posting it to see if it sounds right!! grrrrr...)Yeah, if I say anything dumb just ignore me. : I don't usually do it typing, usually just trying to talk to people, but whatever.
Enough of this dumb chit-chat, let's just forget this. Be sure to keep us posted on how your fish are doing!

 

HI all! I'm pretty sure my dalmation molly is pregnant. I've had her for about 20 days and her belly is getting very big. She is in an new tank with one molly fry(momma died a day after birthing him) and 3 neon tetras that were added two days ago. My tank is in the cycling process, ammonia is around2ppm and I am doing daily 25% water changes. Temp is 80 degrees. She has gotten very quiet since last night, and is totally hanging around the top of the tank. The bb fry is also spending a fair amount up there, but will swim to the bottom as well. The tetras are fine, schooling about and not looking stressed whatsoever. I initially thought ammonia poisoning, but I would think the tetras and fry would show signs of distress if that was the problem.
She is also pooping alot. Could she be getting ready to birth, or is she getting ready to die? And how long will she act this way before she gives birth, if she is indeed pregnant. She does not have a visible black spot on her belly, but her belly has become squrarish. Also, is one water change a day enough, or should I do more ? Thanks!!

 

Your ammonia is way too high for fish to be in it. You should do water changes until you get it down to .25ppm and then do 50% (atleast) waterchanges a day. Or you could do 2water changes a day at 30% (or so) each.

I would say that .5ppm ammonia in a tank with fish is the maximum I would be comfortable with.

What water conditioner are you using. For cycling with fish you should be using Prime or Amquel+ because it detoxifies ammonia and nitrites for 24 hours (giving you that long between water changes).

 

its very common for livebearers to become very stationary before dropping their fry. I wouldnt worry too much unless to last more then a few days.

as for water changes, once a day of fine, but I think you may need a bit more then just 25%

 

Anything over 0 ammonia is harmful to your fish. When you do water changes you should be using prI'm or amquel+ that will make the water safe for 24 hours. What are your other readings

now about your molly. Is she setting on the bottom or hiding? Most mollies will hid or rub their bellies on the rocks just before they drop their fry. If she is feeling bad because of the ammonia, she is able to hold the fry until she feels the water is better.

Also a mollies belly will become square looking in the front before they drop.

 

hmmmmm! Thanks for all the advice. She is a bit more lively today, perhaps she is stressed by the water and is going to hang on to her babies a bit longer. I would have never added more fish, but the pet store said it was ok Everyone else is doing well in there though, so I will continue with the daily if not more water changes.

Appreciate the replies!

 

Step up on the water changes, you can stretch them out to every 48 hours if need be, Prime detoxifies ammonia for up to 48 hours. The important thing is that you are dosing it properly, if you are around 2ppm I would be dosing 2 capfuls of Prime to combat the high ammonia level. And like it was posted above, you need to get the level down below 1.0, preferably between 0 and .5.

As to why the molly is hovering, it may be that she is getting ready to drop, but it is hard to tell with the water parameters the way they are, so it could be one or the other, or both.

Take care!

 

well thanks to everyone's advice, I increased my water changes and my molly, Spot (kid named) is back to her old self. She is all over the tank and seems fine. I guess it was the ammonia that was causing her behaviour, not labour pains! The little fry, Feisty, still hangs at the top quite a bit, but that may just be his thing. The tetras are all acting normal, albeit kinda shy. My ammonia was at .5 after my last last water change so I will do my best to keep it at that. Hopefully I will start to see some nitrates soon. My tank is a bit cloudy, so does that mean it's on it's way?
Thanks so much for the support...this place is great!!

 

Cloudy water is a bacterial bloom and once it starts to clear you know you're headed in the right direction. If you plan to keep these fish in this tank permanently, you might want to consider TetraSafe Start to get it cycled quickly. But if not, keep up the WCs like everyone said.

IME, not all livebearers get the gravid spot. It seems most common with guppies. I haven't seen it with my orange platy or my silver lyretail (may as well be white) Molly. You'd think if a fish would show it would be a white one but not mine.

ETA: regular mollies like dalmations need to be in at least a 20 gallon as their permanent homes since they get to be about 4". Balloon mollies could probably go in a 10g, but don't hold me to that.

-Lisa

 

Welcome to Fishlore ShellsBells!

If you aren't already, I would suggest that you do 50% water changes daily with Prime. It will protect your fish against nitrogenous waste (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate). You stated that your ammonia is in the 1-2 PPM range. Do you know what your nitrite or nitrate levels are? As one capful of Prime is enough for a 50G, you would need to dose 1/2 capful to have enough to detox the ammonia and have some left over for the nitrites that may be present. What test kit are you using? Prime can interfere with some which could give you a false reading. You'll need to test your water at least 24-hours after dosing with Prime.

I'm sorry to say it, but your 10G tank is overcrowded with mollies and neon tetras. Mollies should be in nothing smaller than a 20G and the Neons should be in groups of 6 or more. Your molly is most likely holding in the fry until she feels it is safe. However, unless you have a pristine environment, the fry will have a very low survival rate as they cannot handle waste in the water.

As your tank is cycling, I wouldn't be surprised if you lost some of your neons. They can be fragile fish and rarely survive a cycling tank. They do better in a tank that has been established for 3-6 months. Do you have access to a cycled tank? Getting some of the gravel or the filter pad/sponge could help to speed up the cycling process. You could purchase a product like TSS, but it does not always work and you would have to stop your water changes for 10 days which might have a negative impact to your surviving fish.

Do you have plans to upgrade your tank?

 

Jeepers!!!!! This fish keeping is such a learning curve. I tried to do as much homework as I could (I'm an avid Googler!) and the fish that have ended up in my tank were on the direct recommendations of two different petstores. I bought the mollies first, on the advice of the pet store that they were good tank starters, and that a 10 g was appropriate for them. Then last week, it was a PetSmart employee who said that neons would be a great addition, and hardy. From what I've googled since, I see that they are not so hardy. Frustrating to get such conflicting information from the people who are supposed to be regarded as knowledgeable. I guess I better stick to you guys for my answers, as the real expertise is here!!
Yes, I am interested in upgrading my tank. I had no experience whatsoever in fishkeeping and so I figured 10 g would be a good starter(again on the advice of PetSmart). Being in Canada, I'm not sure I have access to the same products, but I did get a bottle of "Stress Zyme", made by API, a biological filtration booster. Says it contains dual action live bacteria and that it is a water conditioner. Anyone have any experience with that one?
always appreciative of your responses!!

 

a 10 gallon is a good starter tank, it just depends on what you stock in it. As to pet store advice, well, they are in the business of selling things so everything they say is usually geared towards that.

I've used stress zyme with no positive effect, possibly with some negative but I cannot confirm since I didn't do a legitimate test with the product at the time. As of right now the only product I would recommend is TSS. There are a few others in question right now but I won't recommend anything without further testing (real testing not just testimonials)

 

HI my molly just had 16 fry. I have them in a container clipped into my tank, but I don't know what to do!! HELP!

 

u can raise them in the container. Best way to do it is get a small tank and raise them there, until they are big enough so that the adult mollies do not consume the little ones. They easily take crushed prepared flakes and small organisms such as copepods or baby brine shrimp

 

Make sure that you have a filter and a heater as they are a tropical fish. Water changes to keep the water pristine. This will help them grow up to be strong little fishes! At about half an inch, they can go in with the adults.

 

Actually a heater isn't required for mollies if your room temperature doesn't get too cold, although it is good to have one. The other thing is live bearers tend to be very hardy. My mollies/guppies/platys survived well without heaters while my other ones with heaters did well too. with heaters they do mature a bit faster though.

 

Oh I completely agree that if your water stays around 76-78F without a heater, then you don't need one.

 

Welcome to fishlore!

Are you thinking about keeping all of the babies, or are you going to try and rehome some/all of them when they're larger?

If you're planning on keeping a couple, what I'd do is get a 40+ gallon tank and put the babies in there. Then when they're big enough you can put the adult(s) in there too. Mollies get pretty big and require a 30+ gallon tank anyways

For now they should be fine in the container (maybe you could pop some small holes in it so water can circulate?). Since this is in a 10 gallon, though, they're going to need more room soon.

 

If it were me, I'd get myself a big bunch of java moss and dump the fry into it inside the main tank. I don't do nursery nets, grow out tanks, etc. for any of my livebearers. The fry are born into the community tank and I let nature take its course. I end up with a very well-balanced tank this way and strong and beautiful fry. I don't know what's best for the fry. They know. So, I leave them to it and the reward is great.

 

If it were me, I'd get myself a big bunch of java moss and dump the fry into it inside the main tank. I don't do nursery nets, grow out tanks, etc. for any of my livebearers. The fry are born into the community tank and I let nature take its course. I end up with a very well-balanced tank this way and strong and beautiful fry. I don't know what's best for the fry. They know. So, I leave them to it and the reward is great.

Well said! Nature is the wisest of us all ;}

 

Well with nature, there comes human nurture. :3 nature vs nurture. The effects of human nurture is that the rate of survival of the fry will increase dramatically. As with nature, sometimes adults will consume fry which are inadequate. In my experience my livebearers produce 1-10 fry when mixed with adults and left alone (this also causes fry to compete for food) while in a nurtured situation typically 30+ fry and they only have to compete with each other only.

 

I think if you're in the business of raising and selling fish, then sure, human interference would work. For those of us who are fishkeeping for the sake of keeping fish, and don't want to feel like nursery maids, then the natural approach works. I've seen so many newbies freak out about fry, that I will always recommend they just go natural.

 

Today while wrapping presents I noticed a little black dot in my mangroves section and took a closer look and found a little molly baby!! As an estimate I would say it is about a day old. Junebug if your out there suprisingly I only found one and don't know who had it.

 

anyone??