My molly is shaking

[bball4life]

I have a very pregnant molly that has a gravid spot. I just noticed that she sank down to the bottom of the tank and would start to shake really quick, almost looked like a person if they were shivering because it was cold, then she would swim to the top of the tank, and after that she starts to just swim around again. Does that mean she is trying to push out babies or what? If not is she sick or something? Whats going on ?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

She is most likely trying to release her fry, just make sure her enviroment is as least stressful as posible and keep an eye out for fry .

 

[Annastasia]

Or it could be the shimmies. Is there any salt in the water?

 

[bball4life]

yes I add 1 teaspoon of aquarium salt for every 5 gallons of water every other day or every other 2 days.

 

[JoLtNbolt]

Hmm won't all of that salt accumulate over time and become very concentrated in the water? How often do you do water changes?

 

[bball4life]

every other day

 

[afireinside]

i agree with tokis pheonix. if her gravid spot is like that, she's most likkely to have birth soon.

 

[bball4life]

My molly finally had her fry last night !! I saw them when I woke up this morning when I went to go check on her. I am so glad I decided to put the female in the breeders net last night. It was so wierd when I first looked in there through the glass I saw that she was really skinny, so I thought she had them but I didnt see any fry so I thought she ate all of them, but when I lifted up the tank hood I saw about 25 little fry . It is so cool you can already see there color coming in, but they are not like mommas color since she is white with itty bitty tiny speckles of orange on her, but the fry are kind of a dalmation color with some being more black, yellow, and white than some others so I dont know what the daddy looked like. So am so excited

 

[Annastasia]

Awwww, congrats!

Are you raising them in a seperate tank, or growing them up in the net or what? And wow, I can't wait to see what they grow up like. They sound very interesting...although, if they are dalmations, you never know if the black is going to take over all the other colors or what.

 

[bball4life]

I am thinking of maybe putting them in maybe a 5 gallon tank to grow up in maybe, but I am not sure. Yeah it will be interesting to see what they look like when they grow up. I wish I knew what the daddy looked like I am pretty sure that he had more orange on him than the female. Some of the grandparents must have been dalmation and red dalmation, but I dont know.

 

[bball4life]

hmm... I started with 25 now I have 14, I know its normal for fry to die, but is it normal for this many to die in one day?

 

[Annastasia]

Not really. Water params? Any way they could have escaped? Could the mother have eaten them? Did you actually find the dead fry bodies, or just count some missing?

Sorry for all the questions. )

 

[bball4life]

Yeah I checked the water parameters they were fine. It was both I found some of there bodies, and I noticed that some were missing. Could it be the fish in the main aquarium since they are trying to eat them and they are nipping them through the net?

 

[Annastasia]

Yes...sometimes fish will jump into the breeding net, eat babies, and then jump back out. Or the babies could have just been stressed out by the other fish, as they are VERY sensitive at that young age.

It's hard to say, but I'm betting stress. Could you set-up the little fry tank for them, and see if they do any better in there? Or It may just be a weaker batch...sometimes the more fry you have, the weaker each individual one is. But 25 isn't very many for a Molly, so maybe that's not the problem. Have they eaten? And what have you been feeding them, and how often?

 

[bball4life]

The ones that are living are the ones that have been swimming all day. Whats a good tank size for molly fry? Yes they have been eating, I have been feeding them hikari first bites, and I feed them every 1-2 hours