5teady Or Someone Else Knowledgable In Livebearers

[Spishkey]

ok i have posted a fair few times on here about a female marbled molly i have.

shes been with us 4 months now, and given birth four times.
each time she has given birth to a few live fry, and the rest of the batch seemed to be dead/deformed/unformed 'balls'
each time the few live fry have died after a short while

there is no male in the tank so she must be using 'old' stored sperm
could this be the reason for so many deaths/unformed fry?
or could she just be a female who cannot seem to carry her fry properely?

my plan was to get a male shortly but am now wondering should i find another female to breed from?
it must be distressing/painful to 'pass' these big round balls everytime (as opposed to giving birth to little fish)should i not breed from this fish or give it a try with a male and see what happens?

 

[kewskills]

Molly's are inter bred heavily in the trade, so some of them will give birth to fry that die fairly quickly and are weak, i have had some that seem to lose the fry very quickly etc, and also some that seem to give birth to lots and all seem to survive.

Whether the weakness is from the female or male side will be unknown unless you introduce a male and see if the same occurs.

Hope all goes well

Cheers, Karl

 

[Colin_T]

Wait until she no longer gets pregnant and then give her a month to recover. After that introduce a new unrelated male (for about a week) and let them breed, then move the male to a different tank. Keep the female really well fed and see if the same problem occurs. If it does then you have a bad female and she should not be used for breeding. If the problem stops then it was the male she bred with before you got her.

Before you introduce a new male, keep him away from other females for a few weeks and feed him up. This will give him a chance to build up his strength and develop good sperm, which can then be used during breeding. If you just grab a male from the LFS and breed them straight away, the male will probably be in a weakened state due to being kept in a crowded shop tank, and have weak sperm that could lead to the same problem.

Feed both the male and female molly really well. I used to feed mine 3 times a day with flake food in the morning, then flake, frozen and live food in the afternoon and at night. Feed them until they are full and make sure they get some vegetable matter in their diet. Spirulina flake is a good food for them and makes an ideal food for the morning if you have to rush out to work. Then normal flake, followed by the frozen or live foods in the evening when you have more time to spend on them.

 

[malakye]

Are you trapping the female at all or letting her give birth in the tank? I just wonder if she is getting majorly stressed and miscarrying rather than giving birth to healthy young.

 

[5teady_2012]

Are you trapping the fish?
Does she seem stressed?
Whats her diet?
Water temperature?


Mollies are a pain for this kind of thing, many times its due to them holding on to thier fry too long which is not uncommon, but yours sounds like early aborting which is more on the stress side rather than delayed dropping.
My suggestion would be to feed her on really good quality and a variety of foods and also make sure your water quality is good and there is nothing stressing her out.
I would see her next drops through and make sure she has got rid of all her previous sperm packets, then introduce a new male who is in great condition.
Also i would add another 2 females if you have room so the male does not harras just one all the time.

When breeding mollies you should really follow these few guidelines..

Temperature at 27 degrees celcius
Feed them, flake, high protien foods, pellets, bloodworm, daphnia, brine shrimp, mosquito larva (white and black).
Only feed them bloodworm 1 time a week though, same with other live/frozen foods.
More frequent water changes when breeding fish as it helps a lot. (maybe a extra water change a week of 20%)

If you can add aquarium salt (depending on other tank mates) then its never a bad thing to do so. but not 100% necesary.


Good luck.

Wayne

 

[Spishkey]

thanks everyone for that fantastic advice.
will try and remeber the questions i was asked now


do i trap her? i used to trap my fish until i got a 'birthing/fry' tank. its a 60L which i put the fish in a few days before they are 'due' its the same water as the main tank, same temp, small filter lots of plants/caves etc. both my mollys and platys go there to give birth. this is the only fish who seems to have the problem so it cant be the tank

diet - she gets fed the same as the others. flake and daphnia mix 4 times a week. frozen (defrosted) cubes 1 time per week, spirunlia (sp) pellets 1 x per week, 1 x 'starve' day per week. fresh veg is put in the tank a few times a week for 24 hours and they all have a nibble on that.
i could add aquarium salt for the short time shes in the birth tank if this would help and not harm fry, but i cannot put it in the community tank due to some of the other residents

 

[Colin_T]

if you are breeding fish then you don't want to starve them for one day a week. Breeding fish need regular feeding and a good diet. I would increase the spirulina to every day and add some other types of frozen food, raw prawn is pretty good if fed a few times a week.

When you move the fish into the breeding tank you should catch them in a bucket rather than a net. If you lift a heavily pregnant female out of the water you can damage the eggs or young. Use a net to chase the fish into a 2litre icecream bucket, then lift her out with some water in the bucket.

 

[Spishkey]

no i dont use a net to catch her i 'tempt her' into a 1L measuring jug. dont like chasing fish round with a net when you can just bribe them to where you want them to go

 

[malakye]

She could be just getting majorly stressed and aborting. She might not feel happy and secure in the smaller tank.