Anyone ever squeeze babies from their mama fish??

[Jackee]

So....I know some people have done this but the thought of doing this myself makes me very uncomfortable, as I do not want to cause any pain or discomfort, injury, or God forbid death to the fish. I have a molly who has been pregnant for a very long time, about two weeks ago she began giving birth and we do have four of her babies who are doing well, but she stopped after that. She may have had more than that and eaten them, however she is definitely, without a doubt, still very much pregnant. You can see that the area where the babies come out of is very pronounced still, and she has a little bit of mucousy material just barely hanging out of that opening (it’s definitely not a fry). While I was at my LFS today, I was talking with one of the employees and she had mentioned squeezing the babies out very gently and I have heard of this but...eeek...have any of you actually tried it?? What was the process, did you sedate the mama first, and what was the outcome? Was the mother OK afterward, were the babies OK afterward? I honestly don’t know if I can even do this but I am very curious about it. At this point I am pretty much convinced that even if she were to have the babies at this point, they might already all be dead because they have been in her for so long. The mama seems to be fine for the most part. She is eating, she is swimming around, no clamped fans, no sitting in a corner all alone, she is pooping.

 

[Colin_T]

You DO NOT squeeze babies out of a healthy fish. If you try, you have a 99.9% chance of killing the mother and babies.

-----------------------
If your fish is still fat after giving birth 2 weeks ago, she could be full of worms.

You can use Praziquantel to treat tapeworm and gill flukes. And Levamisole to treat thread/ round worms.

Remove carbon from filters before treatment and increase aeration/ surface turbulence to maximise oxygen levels in the water.

You treat the fish once a week for 3-4 weeks. The first treatment will kill any worms in the fish. The second and third treatments kill any baby worms that hatch from eggs inside the fish's digestive tract.

You do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean 24-48 hours after treatment.

Treat every fish tank in the house at the same time.

Do not use the 2 medications together. If you want to treat both medications in a short space of time, use Praziquantel on day one. Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate on day 2 & 3. Treat the tank with Levamisole on day 4 and do a 75% water change and gravel clean on day 5, 6 & 7 and then start with Praziquantel again on day 8.

The water changes will remove most of the medication so you don't overdose the fish. The gravel cleaning will suck out any worms and eggs that have been expelled by the fish. Repeating the treatment for 3-4 doses at weekly intervals will kill any worms that hatch from eggs.

 

[Jackee]

Its not worms. She’s pregnant. Birth stalled, something is wrong. The babies are stuck inside.

You’re guessing this fish has parasites but my other fish is “probably just fat”?

 

[Colin_T]

If she gave birth 2 weeks ago, then the sack inside her body opened up enough to let some of the babies out. The sack in the female's body will not close up part way through labour and trap the remaining fry. Once it's open, the fry come out regardless of if they have developed sufficiently or not.

Is it possible you had another female give birth 2 weeks ago?

-----------------------
Most fish have intestinal worms and livebearers are renown for having them. I have had female mollies that were huge and looked like they were ready to give birth but never did. These fish remained fat for 2 months and never produced any babies. I dewormed them and 24 hours later they were all very skinny. About 2 months after that, they all gave birth to healthy babies.

Fish (and other animals) can be full of intestinal worms and look fat and healthy. But they lose that weight rapidly when dewormed. Basically their intestines are full of worms and make the animal look fat.

Deworming medications like Praziquantel and Levamisole are very safe for fish and deworming any new fish when you first get them is advisable to make sure they are free of these parasites.

Personally, I would deworm all your fish tanks now and see if it makes any difference. Otherwise leave everything as is. As long as the fish continues to eat normally and poops normally, then there is nothing majorly wrong with her. If she stops eating, does stringy white poop, or her scales stick out sideways from the body, then post a picture and relevant info, otherwise leave it.

 

[Jackee]

Yes she was with another (allegedly) pregnant molly but her belly wasn’t completely boxed off quite yet, so my best guess was that they came from the other one. I ordered PraziPro on amazon so I’ll have that in a few days. I suppose I’ll treat any new fish with that moving forward.

 

[Jackee]

Woke up this morning to molly fry in my tank!

 

[FishGuest5123]

Please, don’t ever squeeze fry out of a fish! Holy cow!!! A sure way to kill a fish and fry. For some reason, platy and molly fish do sometimes hold off on giving birth to some fry. Just wait it out always. Mother Nature knows her stuff.

 

[Jackee]

Please, don’t ever squeeze fry out of a fish! Holy cow!!! A sure way to kill a fish and fry. For some reason, platy and molly fish do sometimes hold off on giving birth to some fry. Just wait it out always. Mother Nature knows her stuff.

I absolutely agree with you, I never would have been able to do that. I was just curious about other people's experience with it. I woke up this morning and she was finally having her fry! I didn't even want to go to work! lol Needless to say, I am very eager to get home after work, and check and my mama fish and her babies!

 

[Guppylover3x]

I absolutely agree with you, I never would have been able to do that. I was just curious about other people's experience with it. I woke up this morning and she was finally having her fry! I didn't even want to go to work! lol Needless to say, I am very eager to get home after work, and check and my mama fish and her babies!

Hi and welcome to the forum

Congratulations! I hope all your fry are nice and healthy

You should consider entering the tank of the month contest that’s currently running. The winner gets their own TOTM badge on their profile.

If you don’t fancy entering this one, don’t worry there is one every month. Be sure to vote!

Best of luck.

 

[Jackee]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Congratulations! I hope all your fry are nice and healthy

You should consider entering the tank of the month contest that’s currently running. The winner gets their own TOTM badge on their profile.

If you don’t fancy entering this one, don’t worry there is one every month. Be sure to vote!

Best of luck.

Thanks! Maybe I’ll wait to enter once we’ve upgraded to our 75 gallon and it’s all settled and beautiful!

 

[FishGuest5123]

I absolutely agree with you, I never would have been able to do that. I was just curious about other people's experience with it. I woke up this morning and she was finally having her fry! I didn't even want to go to work! lol Needless to say, I am very eager to get home after work, and check and my mama fish and her babies!

Congrats on the new fry! They are such fun to watch grow. Set up a baby brine shrimp hatchery and feed the fry baby brine shrimp. They grow quickly on them. You can find instructions on how to make a hatchery out of a water bottle and airline tubing online. Just Google it. Super easy and cheap. Good luck!

 

[Jackee]

Congrats on the new fry! They are such fun to watch grow. Set up a baby brine shrimp hatchery and feed the fry baby brine shrimp. They grow quickly on them. You can find instructions on how to make a hatchery out of a water bottle and airline tubing online. Just Google it. Super easy and cheap. Good luck!

Thanks, I just keep them in a breeder box (I don’t use breeder boxes for the mama fish) and I just feed them ground up fish flakes. My other fry are thriving under these conditions.