Pregnant Forever

I have 3 black lyretail mollies.
1 male 2 female.
I added the male around 2 months ago and almost immediately, both the females became pregnant.
The problem is, they are still pregnant.
Surely this is too long. Is there a problem?
They seem fine. Just not giving birth.
Any ideas?

 

Hello!

Depending on your conditions, there is a chance that something is not to their liking and they're choosing to hold the babies in. All livebearers in general are capable of reabsorbing their developing fry and not giving birth or simply holding off the birth of their fry. They do this is they feel stressed and/or when your water parameters aren't optimal for them. Other times, they just stay pregnant for a long time; I had mollies where their bellies would grow for a little less than a month, and for the next two weeks, their stomachs would be HUGE. then, one day, there would be babies! (As you can see, my mollies had quite a long gestation period; it's all relative). It really depends on the mom. Try testing your parameters for any abnormalities, or do a 25% water change to help induce a birth. Also make sure there aren't any stresses (this includes putting them in a breeder box). Unless you suspect that they look bloated (which would be a problem) rather than pregnant, don't worry too much, mama will have babies when she's good and ready

Hope this helps and best of luck!

 

Thanks.
They're all happy. They still will eat like pigs (typical mollies) and even take food from my hand. They're very active, no hiding or fighting.
Parameters are all stable.
I did wonder about removing the male. Would this make any difference? I'd rather not, because they all seem happy together.

 

Unless the male is being aggressive with them, you shouldnt have to and wouldn't make a difference if you do. As a side thought, there is a possibility that they could have had fry overnight (a good time for dropping fry because its quiet and no outside stress factors) and eaten them before you've noticed. Especially with teeny fry and ravenous mollies (like the piggies they are) this is a plausible idea. Because mollies always seem plump (at least to me) to some degree, I wouldn't be surprised if they had a few batches lately and their naturally plump size doesn't indicate that they have had fry (if that makes sense); that sometimes happens too. There are some mollies that have and drop fry and don't even look like they were ever pregnant/changes size!

 

I agree with above. An unlikely possibility is that they didn't get pregnant right when you got them. Like I said unlikely, or they just have a longer gestation period

 

Perform a little daily water change with this add little live food. (Basically you simulating a rain shower durig which fishes get plenty of live food to eat. This makes them to gives babies a little faster). Do NOT OVER FEED. A little bit of live blood worms would do and perform daily water changes.

 

Thanks.
I've always been a bit confused as to live food amounts. How many bloodworms per day for instance.
It's really easy to over feed mollies, as they are constantly hungry. And I've had so many different opinions, from as much as they can eat in 20 minutes, to the size of the fishes eye per day.
I have frozen bloodworm and daphnia, but never really know how much to give them per day.

 

If your feeding live worms feed only max to max 3 worms per fish n feed fishes only so much which they consume entirely within 2 min

 

Back again.
It's been about 3 months now and the 2 females are still huge. What to do?
They have been wormed and are currently being dosed melafix, as the male had a swollen eye.

 

That's way too long, I think. My girlfriend got guppies two months ago and the female gave birth twice. Highly doubt they ate all the fry. Unless there is no hiding spaces. My suggestion is to add some live plants. You could get ones that require zero maintenace like java moss or guppy grass( you could literally dump the guppy grass and forget about them) if you could find them at your lfs. I think having plants promotes birth in livebearers.

 

My Uncle Clarence looked 8 months pregnant for 20 years, but he wasn't. I think that sort of thing is what's up here. They are heavy mollies that dropped their fry - you never said your tank size but if it is less than a 40, they may have eaten them.
After the drop, they were still heavy.
They can't hold babies in intentionally, and are infinitely more likely to miscarry than to reabsorb.

Melafix, even if it worked, wouldn't be good for mollies. They are hardwater fish and that's a softwater remedy. The eye is bacterial, and need clean water and luck to clear. I'm sure someone could suggest an antibiotic - I live in a place where they aren't legally available for fish.

 

Sorry. I need to explain myself better.
I've been keeping mollies for 2 or 3 years. These females are 3rd gen.
They are 2 females (sisters), 1 male (not related) and a juvenile bristlenose plec, in a well planted 100ltr, with plenty of swimming room and equally plenty of places to hide.
My maintenance schedule is bang on.
I know what I'm doing.
Parameters are all stable and everything is perfect.
Up until I added the male, the females were half the size.
I have seen this before (add a male, the females start to swell and 20 to 30 days later, you have fry).
Everything is as it should be, except for they haven't given birth.
They haven't eaten any fry and are not over fed.
I knew all this before I came on here for answers.
I know the default position for this forum, is to automatically tell the asker, that they have a tank that's too small and that they need to check parameters, but it's not really helpful.
What I really need, is someone who has actually had this problem and knows how to solve it.
Because I'm completely stumped.