Help Please!!!!!!!

[jenica86]

Ok. Well, I have a one hundred gallon fish tank, and we bought some mollies awhile ago. Two were huge and fat and one had babies. Unfortunatly, we didn't get to see her have babies. We thought the other fat one was pregnant as well, and so we could get at the fry we moved her about an hour ago to a floating breeding trap that is in our tank. However, now she just "hanging" in the water facing the bottom of the tank. She is still alive (we can see her gills moving), but she isn't moving, and her fins aren't moving at all. Does this have to do with her having fry, or is she sick?

Please help. If she is sick, I think I better do something pretty quick............

 

[Katchan]

It could be a few things

She is pregnant and moving her was probably stressful so it could be that.

How big is the trap compared to her, if its not big enough she not want to move

Girlies near the end of their pregnancy often dont do alot of moving around.

Those are the ones that come to mind first

Katchan

 

[jenica86]

thank you!

uh the breeding trap is about 7 inches by 5 inches......shes about regular sized (well that is, the same as all the other mollies we have)

i will try to get a picture on here, just a second.....

 

[xanthianacid]

She could also be experiencing birth complications, which may or may not work themselves out. There is a thread about where kiarra helped me with assisted birthing, I'd PM her, if I can't find a link for u. Livebearers tend to have it tough in labour!

 

[Tolak]

When I was breeding livebearers, I didn't use a breeding trap. I just put plenty of silk plants & piles of rock in a 55 with the parents to give the fry places to hide. She may be acting out of sorts from being put into such a small place. Big change, 100 gallons to a breeding trap.

If she has scales sticking out, a sort of pine cone appearance as you look from the top, it is dropsy, a sign of bacterial infection. I fnot, she is about to drop fry, just wait it out & enjoy baby fish.

Tolak

 

[Katchan]

regular sized molly, about 3-4 inches I'm guessing. The risk in a trap that size is that fish may feel overly stressed and this may cause her to abort in itself. If she doesnt let go soon I'd put her back into the main tank keep as much of an eye on her as you can and try to A-catch the fry or B-if you can net her quickly and without stressing her put her back in the trap. I've done the second one with guppies but with my swordtail I used a seperate tank because I didnt want the fish stressed in a small net and I wanted the fry.

Katchan

 

[jenica86]

ok, i think maybe if she doesnt drop in about an hour i'll release her

thanks four your help, i havent had fish all that long, and it kinda freaked me out when i saw her floating upside down in the water

i'll let you know how it turns out

 

[jenica86]

ok we released her and she is floating around and going wild....

my dad is asking if anyone has ever done a c section on a fish? or something else to help her along?

 

[Katchan]

Its good to hear she's swimming around fine, I'd guess it was probably being in the breeding trap that was stressing her out, those things are fine for smaller fish like platies and guppies, they push it for medium to large swordtails and even more for mollies.

As far a C-section for a fish goes, only if you want to loose her. If however you think that a fry maybe stuck on the wayout (usually indicated by the fish looking to be in extreme difficulty eg spasams, looking near paralysed on the bottom of the tank etc) you can massage her very gently between thumb and first two fingers or fingers and side of the tank, massage gently in smallish circular motions towards back of fish, you maybe able to "assist" the stuck fry out, you may also need to assist the rest out in a similar way, the mother may or may not recover from this.

katchan

 

[xanthianacid]

I wouldn't do a c-section! From memory:
get her into a small container containing tank water she's currently in.
hold her gently against the side then massage her gently in the direction the fry would be birthed in. Kiarra is the expert on that kind of thing though... she's got some success from doing this.

 

[Kiarra]

You got some success yourself if I remember correctly, Xanthia.

It's not really that difficult a procedure when it is necessary. Signs that it is necessary tend to include the livebearer folding herself in half for a long period of time with no fry coming out. She may have birthed some before this, but she may not have. Either way, it means the fry is stuck if this goes on for a while with no success.

The way to resolve this (not 100% sureproof, but I've had success numerous times, and usually both mother and fry survive) is to put the fish in a small enough container that you can access her readily, filled with tank water. Press her lightly either between your fingers or against the side of the tank. Be firm, but be very gentle. You don't want to crush her...you merely want to hold her in place. Take your thumb or forefinger (whichever is more comfortable for you) and place it against her belly. Press down gently but firmly on the abdomen and stroke your finger towards where the baby is going to come out. Repeat as necessary. Always be firm, but ALWAYS be gentle. If you press too hard, you can hurt her. If you don't press hard enough, you're not going to get any effect out of this.

This procedure is only really necessary when the female has already folded herself in half and is struggling through her labor. It is not meant to initiate labor.

 

[xanthianacid]

A little off topic:
Kiarra, yes I did get success from this, but we lost our girl guppy, and the fry didn't survive past a week unfortunately. I was really sad to lose the babies after losing the girlie as well.

Good luck Jenica!

 

[Kiarra]

That IS sad, Xanthia.

My fry and their mothers are still alive and reproducing (though, fortunately, not with each other).

 

[xanthianacid]

It inspired me to get some really pretty girls to go with the one male guppy that came with our first girl guppy to give birth. She too died in childbirth. This boy is gorgeous, the reddest colour I've ever seen on a fish, and he grew up really fast too (he also has some black lines on his tail. The other fry to live were all females, about 6 - all plain black and grey. What odds eh? I'm not sure if he's too young to have the ability to reproduce, but he certainly gives the girls a good chase around the tank. He'd be two centimetres by guess. So alot of my energy has gone into him. One day when he becomes a dad I'll post pics of parents and fry.

Sorry Jenica, not really wanting to hijack your topic. I hope all is going well with your molly now Sometimes it really is a waiting game. What do I mean, sometimes, ALWAYS!!!

 

[jenica86]

well unfortuantely we lost her during the night. she continued to swell, until she looked like a balloon. then we tried your suggestion about massaging her, and some bright orange eggs came out, but later on, the fish died. we put the eggs in our floating breeder......maybe they will hatch?