Mollie Gave Birth To 1 Baby 3 Hrs Ago...

K

KarenRye

AC Members
Dec 10, 2007
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British Columbia, Canada!
My marble mollie finally gave birth to a baby at least 3 1/2 hrs ago; I'm getting concerned that she hasn't had more.

Little one is doing fine swimming & eating - mommy is really big 3x the size my lyretail was when she gave birth before.

Thinking of getting another breeding tank to put baby in so he doesn't get eaten!

How long should I be waiting for her to have more??

KR:help:
 
It can go really quick or it can go slow with livebearers. I know my swordtail has all of hers at one time but my mollie is slower...only have a few at a time. It could be that she has had more then 1 but some of them got eaten and now you're just finding the remaining one who didnt get eaten. Last night my platy gave birth and i only saw 5 and that was it. It can also depend on how mature the fish is. If shes really mature she could have 30-60 babies, but fish that are not as mature will only have a few babies...sometimes not even 10.
 
My molly was having a hard time in the main tank with several other mollies niping under its belly. I separated the preg molly into a net and she gave birth to one little molly. an hour later, I put her in a QT on her own and within minutes 30 more were born. I concluded that she was feeling stressed in the main tank.
 
I've never actually seen any of my livebearers give birth, but from what I've read, how long it takes depends on the fish. If she's in a tank where she's stressed for whatever reason(water chemistry, tankmates, etc...) it may take longer than if she's not.
 
Folks:

I have no experience with Mollies but via my experience with platies and guppies is three words "Think Floating Plants"!

TR
 
jones57742 said:
Folks:

I have no experience with Mollies but via my experience with platies and guppies is three words "Think Floating Plants"!

TR
Click to expand...

Why floating plants? When guppies/mollies/platies are first born they go right down to the bottom of the tank to take cover there, thats why so many people recommend having lots of plants like Java Moss for the babies to hide in and let nature take its course. The strong and "smart" will survive. Floating plants don't really help until they get older, so that they have somewhere to hide while still being able to get a few morsels to eat from the top of the water.
 
I must completely agree with Erin. When livebearers are first born, they sink like a rock. That is why those breeding traps have a v shape on the bottom for the fry to fall through. I have even seen newborn fry make use of their ability to hide between the individual pieces of gravel in a tank with a gravel substrate. The floating plants help a day or two later when the fry start swimming on their own. That is when they can make use of the cover at the top of the tank.
 
Low thick plants are the best for new born fry. They will hide there until they feel they are big enough and strong enough to survive on their own.Of course any thick plants will do. Once when I was not being very observant, one of my black mollies gave birth to apparently a ton of fry that I did not know about and they hid in the thicket of plants along the back wall.They will take cover where they can. The trick is you need to have enough cover for them to do this or it is a lost cause. As far as the molly only giving birth to one baby, that seems odd. Are you sure the others didn't get eaten by the mom or other fish?. If for sure she has only given birth to one fish and she still appears to be full of babies it is possible that she is blocked. This happened once to one of my mollies and I tried everything to get her to give birth including doing a small water exchange with slightly cooler water which has worked in the past to get a pregnant fish to give birth. In this particular case it did not work in spite of my best efforts and the poor fish died trying to give birth.. I hope you have a better outcome to your situation. I wish you the best of luck.

Marinemom
 
Folks:

I really appreciate the input.

It has been 35 years since I have observed birthing.

My comment was coming from limited experience where fry which were virtually not visible were in the floating plants.

TR
 
jones57742 said:
Folks:

I really appreciate the input.

It has been 35 years since I have observed birthing.

My comment was coming from limited experience where fry which were virtually not visible were in the floating plants.

TR
Click to expand...

no big deal really. the main point which everyone agrees on is to have a multitude of hiding places. some people even use marbles as a substrate in tanks with livebearers, as it is easy for the fry to get down in between the marbles and safely search for food.
 
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