Update on pregnant molly

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Emma73525

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Hey, I asked a few weeks ago whether anyone thought my molly was pregnant. Now that I can compare it to another one of my mollies (in the pic) I believe she is getting closer to her due date. Anyone know by looking at the pic roughly how long? Thanks
 
Could you re-post the pictures here?
And... Mollies have a pregnancy period of around 60 days. Depending on when you realised she may have been pregnant, you could make a rough estimate from there.
 

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haha...sorry forgot that part ?
Dalmation one looks gravid, the scale colour change around her tummy makes me think if she were head on facing the camera, she'd look massive, lol. I honestly can't tell you how long it will be. They can be unpredictable, and to be honest, I find it harder to tell with mollies than with other livebearers.

If you have any males in there, she'll be gravid and popping out fry sooner or later!

I'm a bit leery about the look of the white one. Looks skinny to me. Has that look to her that makes me think she looks wormy. Do your fish ever do stringy white poops? How are they looking health wise, and how long have you had them?
 
Dalmation one looks gravid, the scale colour change around her tummy makes me think if she were head on facing the camera, she'd look massive, lol. I honestly can't tell you how long it will be. They can be unpredictable, and to be honest, I find it harder to tell with mollies than with other livebearers.

If you have any males in there, she'll be gravid and popping out fry sooner or later!

I'm a bit leery about the look of the white one. Looks skinny to me. Has that look to her that makes me think she looks wormy. Do your fish ever do stringy white poops? How are they looking health wise, and how long have you had them?
Yeah she’s getting fat ?. I’ve had her for about a month maybe a little more and the white one I’ve had about 2 weeks. Sometimes they have stringy white poops but always kind of have since I got them so thought it was normal?
 
Yeah she’s getting fat ?. I’ve had her for about a month maybe a little more and the white one I’ve had about 2 weeks. Sometimes they have stringy white poops but always kind of have since I got them so thought it was normal?
Stringy white poop isn't normal I'm afraid, usually means they have worms of some sort :( Livebearers especially are often carrying worms, having been bred in huge fish farms abroad, often in not the best of conditions. Then exposed to all sorts in the stores too. I learned this the hard way as well I'm afraid. When the worm burden gets to be too much for them (because the worms are attached to the fishes digestive tract, hogging all the nutrients), they start to get that skinny, listless look about them, eventually getting looking quite wasted, usually their colours dull, they start to look s though they're struggling to swim, like they have to work quite hard just to be in the water without sinking. Then when often be found resting on the substrate. Once it gets that bad, they're getting pretty close to dying.

Colin's advice for treating worms below, all credit to him!

"To treat intestinal worms

Intestinal Worms like tapeworm and threadworms cause the fish to lose weight, continue eating and swimming normally, and do a stringy white poop. Fish can do this for months and not be too badly affected. In some cases, fish with a bad worm infestation will actually gain weight and get fat and look like a pregnant guppy. This is due to the huge number of worms inside the fish.

Livebearers like guppies, mollies, swordtails & platies are regularly infected with gill flukes and intestinal worms. If the fish are still eating well, then worms is the most likely cause.

You can use Praziquantel to treat tapeworm and gill flukes. And Levamisole to treat thread/ round worms. If you can't find these medications, look for Flubendazole, which treats both lots of worms.

In the UK look for:
eSHa gdex contains praziquantel that treats tapeworm and gill flukes.
eSHa-ndx contains levamisole and treats thread/ round worms.
NT Labs Anti-fluke and Wormer contains flubendazole.

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 4 weeks. The first treatment will kill any worms in the fish. The second, third and forth treatments kill any baby worms that hatch from eggs inside the fish's digestive tract.
Treat every fish tank in the house at the same time to prevent cross contamination.

You do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean 24-48 hours after treatment. Clean the filter 24 hours after treatment too.
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 next time you treat them. 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. At the end of the treatment you will have healthier fish."
 
Stringy white poop isn't normal I'm afraid, usually means they have worms of some sort :( Livebearers especially are often carrying worms, having been bred in huge fish farms abroad, often in not the best of conditions. Then exposed to all sorts in the stores too. I learned this the hard way as well I'm afraid. When the worm burden gets to be too much for them (because the worms are attached to the fishes digestive tract, hogging all the nutrients), they start to get that skinny, listless look about them, eventually getting looking quite wasted, usually their colours dull, they start to look s though they're struggling to swim, like they have to work quite hard just to be in the water without sinking. Then when often be found resting on the substrate. Once it gets that bad, they're getting pretty close to dying.

Colin's advice for treating worms below, all credit to him!

"To treat intestinal worms

Intestinal Worms like tapeworm and threadworms cause the fish to lose weight, continue eating and swimming normally, and do a stringy white poop. Fish can do this for months and not be too badly affected. In some cases, fish with a bad worm infestation will actually gain weight and get fat and look like a pregnant guppy. This is due to the huge number of worms inside the fish.

Livebearers like guppies, mollies, swordtails & platies are regularly infected with gill flukes and intestinal worms. If the fish are still eating well, then worms is the most likely cause.

You can use Praziquantel to treat tapeworm and gill flukes. And Levamisole to treat thread/ round worms. If you can't find these medications, look for Flubendazole, which treats both lots of worms.

In the UK look for:
eSHa gdex contains praziquantel that treats tapeworm and gill flukes.
eSHa-ndx contains levamisole and treats thread/ round worms.
NT Labs Anti-fluke and Wormer contains flubendazole.

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 4 weeks. The first treatment will kill any worms in the fish. The second, third and forth treatments kill any baby worms that hatch from eggs inside the fish's digestive tract.
Treat every fish tank in the house at the same time to prevent cross contamination.

You do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean 24-48 hours after treatment. Clean the filter 24 hours after treatment too.
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 next time you treat them. 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. At the end of the treatment you will have healthier fish."
'Stringy white poop isn't normal I'm afraid, usually means they have worms of some sort' I posted Mollies with Tape Worms here. (You might remember me. ?) This is so true and something that I hadn't seen until I got my mollies in January. It was a big fat flag that I didn't understand. Until now. But, hindsight is always so clear, isn't it? I mentioned this a couple of hours ago in another fish group, but when a fish is passing white poop, that is most likely mucous from the intestinal tract. That mucous always there, but if all you see is that, it means that there's something else there hijacking that food that the fish is taking in.
 
'Stringy white poop isn't normal I'm afraid, usually means they have worms of some sort' I posted Mollies with Tape Worms here. (You might remember me. ?) This is so true and something that I hadn't seen until I got my mollies in January. It was a big fat flag that I didn't understand. Until now. But, hindsight is always so clear, isn't it? I mentioned this a couple of hours ago in another fish group, but when a fish is passing white poop, that is most likely mucous from the intestinal tract. That mucous always there, but if all you see is that, it means that there's something else there hijacking that food that the fish is taking in.
We live and we learn! (and yes, I remember you! We have several things in common!) :D

I don't usually like to medicate fish unless there's a solid cause, but since having to treat all of my tanks for camallanus worms, I've decided that if I buy livebearers again, those will be wormed as a matter of course while in quarantine, for both round and flatworms. It's just too common for them to be carrying them, and it's not necessarily going to become obvious while they're in a four week quarantine, you know?

I haven't learned why livebearers in particular are often infested with worms, maybe @emeraldking or @Colin_T can shed some light on that.
 

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