VERY Pregnant Molly not giving birth! Help!

[Sassygrrl]

Hello... I have at least 4 brackish tanks dedicated to mollies and their fry (at different ages). My Platinum Lyretail molly has always given birth to large, healthy fry. My breeder mollies live in a 20 gallon tank. When they start to get rounded to the point that they are looking like a "square" from behind, I will move the female to the "pregnancy quarantine tank". The PQT is a 5 gallon brackish tank with lots of foliage and a floating plant for the fry. It keeps her away from the every-so-horny males in my community tank and provides her with a peaceful area to have babies.

This time, when she looked very full, I moved her to the PQT as usual. She's been in there a couple weeks though, and is still very full, but not releasing any babies. There are several things I've noticed. Once in a while, her eyes will turn a darker color, nearly black (and her eyes are white). Her back also gets darker, with her stripes more pronounced. I looked through my fish disease book and couldn't find any reason for a fish to turn darker.

Should I move her back to the community tank and "hope" to save all the fry? She tends to birth 70-80+ fry and I sell them to the LFS.

HELP!!



Thanks in advance!

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

Just stick with it...keep her in the PQT untill the time comes i say...i had two pregnant female mollies in my breeder trap...but went on vacation for a week so let them back into main tank...came back yeaterday expecting to find a tank full of little babies...no sign...just two fat females...so i put the biggest one into the breeder and woke up this morning to about 30 fry

 

[wrs]

when my platy was going 2 give birth she got all balck, and shes orange. sadly she miscariged though.

 

[Sassygrrl]

Thanks! I will just leave her in the PQT then. I just changed 10% of her water. The temperature is perfect. I also added a better "hiding spot" for her since she seems to want to hide. I will just be patient

I can't help it, I love mollies!!

Thanks!