Premature Birth

[cwolfe]

my 125 tank had a broken thermomitor and all my fish had to be moved to other tanks, most died. i cleaned the tank and most of the survivers are back in the tank but today when i moved my female gold dusted molly she gave birth to babies in the bag. about a third were just balls or balls with eyes. two were still born but the rest were swimming or moving but they ll have sacs on their bellies. i put them in a ten gallon with anoter baby who is only about a week old. is their any chance they will live and is there anyway to help them and keep them from dying?

 

[LauraFrog]

The ones that have sacs on their bellies are only a few days short of being ready to be born anyway. I've had them born like this before. Do not feed them as the sacs are yolk; this will be absorbed and then they will be able to swim normally and feed. Most of them should live. If the tank has a filter reduce the current as much as possible, because they cannot swim or balance properly until the yolk sac is absorbed and they might get sucked up the filter.

The ones that are just balls are too undeveloped to survive and will not develop. The balls with eyes might unroll if you leave them, but if after a few hours they are not unrolling it's best to euthanise them as they will not develop normally. If any of them survive they will be severely deformed - expect undergrowth, bent spines, missing or deformed fins - put them down, as IMO fish can't be happy when they can't swim.

The ones that are swimming around with the yolk sacs have a very good chance, I had an entire brood of guppies born like this and I only lost one. Good luck!

 

[cwolfe]

i already put down the ones that weren't swimming. i don't think they could have unrolled they were literally jus eyes no tails or anything else. i have to feed the tank cuase i have one baby from another mother in the tank with them. do you think i can put babies that are about a month and a half old? it would be really helpful cause their in an over crowded tank while i move fish out of the other tanks that were in there from my 125 being sick. i already lost 6 babies i don't want to lose anymore.

 

[LauraFrog]

After the yolk is gone and the fry can swim properly, mixing them with older fry should be fine. I just wouldn't do it when they can't balance properly. Put only enough food in the tank for the week old baby, as the new ones won't eat until the yolk sac is absorbed. Once it is no longer hanging down, you can start feeding them and also put in the month old babies.

 

[cwolfe]

thanks hats a big help. do you have any clue how long that will take for them to lose the sac?

 

[cwolfe]

well overnight i lost at least 10 of the near 30 that i put in there.