Ballon Molly

[Ky'smommy]

We have a white ballon molly That im over 90% sure is pregnant and shes huge but shes been huge for months but now she has the black in ur belly.. My dad says its been to long for her to be. I was watching them waiting to get pictures and i know her and the male are breeding i seen it. lol weird things. but if she is and its been that long. Should i move her? or just leave her. It has been a really long time. And i think she is square at the back but not to square. I've only seen pregnant guppies. So i wouldnt know. I'll post a picture later tonight. But if anyone has any idea let me know. Thanks

 

[Zagz]

It's harder to tell with balloon mollies for obvious reasons. A pic can certainly help. What are the other tank mates?

 

[Ky'smommy]

a male betta, a bunch of guppies and two other mollies
since we are trying to save some of the older baby guppies

 

[Big Ben]

I'm also debating whether or not my balloon molly is pregnant or not. She seems to have developed a black spot on her belly towards the back and a little to the side and she looks even fatter then before, wider and longer. Not sure tho if that's the gravid spot commonly spoken of. I've seen pics and usually the spot looks alot bigger.

 

[cappieBridget]

Sounds like how my platy looked when pregnant. She dropped yesterday! Now waiting on the next batch due any time!

 

[Ky'smommy]

well i cant get pictures it says it cant upload empty files or something. so if anyone can help with that part of it. im new to this site.

And i have had pregnant guppies and they black in the side of them look the same. so im not sure.

 

[studmaster]

well i cant get pictures it says it cant upload empty files or something. so if anyone can help with that part of it. im new to this site.

And i have had pregnant guppies and they black in the side of them look the same. so im not sure.

Did you "browse" to the file first before you "Add Attachment"?

 

[Ky'smommy]

yup i sure did.. so i dont know and i know the pictures are there arnd working

 

[studmaster]

hmmm, some random ideas.....is the picture open in another application? Maybe the other application hasn't fully released it from memory. I hate to give the typical customer service answer, but try restarting your computer. And make sure that it's not huge and exceeds the size limits for the board....sometimes you get weird error messages for something simple.

What browser are you using to try to upload? Firefox works fine for me. Make sure you don't have javascript turned off. Looking at the source code for the page there is a lot of javascript on this site. And last but not least, make sure your browser is upgraded to the most recent version.

I have balloon mollies too and am pretty sure if I saw a good picture I could tell you if she's expecting or not.

 

[Ky'smommy]

And i was watching her last night and ii noticed her acting weird.
Like getting air. or making bubbles.. And picking at everything the rocks and the trees... Also she would run and hide.. Even from me when usually shes always face to face with me..
And she would go to the corner of the tank and turn upside down and rub her huge belly down it. and shes always rubbing it on something. I noticed everytime she tried to do soemthing he tried to breed with her. So i got out the net breeding box and just put her in it with a water change. And seems ok in there right now.. its just that damn male wont leave her alone.

 

[studmaster]

Well it's kinda hard to tell from those pics, can you post any more? She is VERY balloon like if she isn't pregnant as my balloon mollies are never that big. Usually when they are about to release fry they hide a lot trying to find a safe place. Be careful though as some balloon mollies and mollies in general will eat their fry....mine do. Make sure they have some place to hide. The dark spot is also a postive sign for holding fry and ready to pop.

The sign that always indeicates it for me is when their stomach starts to have a square side to it. Here area couple of my not pregrant balloon mollies...well one is a male, so I would hope he isn't, but it'll just give you something to compare yours too.

 

[Ky'smommy]

yah she definatly has a black spot. and shes very big. i dont know how square she is lol.. She seems alot less stressed now and carefree. So only time will tell. cause she definitly looks like shes pregnant.. So we will see how long now.. I hear that an high temputare like 82 is good for helping. its only at 80 should i increase it a bit and see if that helps?
Any help would be good .. seeing as its my first molly birth..

 

[studmaster]

Can you try to get a couple more pics in focus? I hate for it to be dropsy or something.
Also unless there is some place for the fry to hide, your molly could give birth but the other fish could eat the fry, so could the mom. My female molly snack on their own fry.

edit:
82 degrees might help a bit, not much higher though.

edit:#2
on a side note, make sure the balloon molly isn't just big because she's constipated. What are you feeding them? Molly's need a higher vegtable based food than normal flake food. If you have a community tank, mix up vegtable based flakes with normal flakes, or feed them different food every other time. One of my balloon mollies started swimming weirdly and I noticed hadn't pooped in a long time so I fed her a cooked squished up pea (works as a laxitive) and about 3 hours later she was a poop factory, probably clogged up for a week or so.

 

[Ky'smommy]

well shes pooping up a storm as is. not just a little four times the amount as all the other fish in the tank. So i really doubt that she is constipated. I will try to post more pictures as soon as i can. I got some really good pictures on my camera but my camera is at home and i will get it as soon as i can..

 

[studmaster]

Nope, doesn't sound constipated. From the pictures she looks really big....but if she has been that way for a couple months, she must just be like that. I think from the time the male and female molly breed to when she gives birth is in the 3-6 week range.....6 weeks being very late. Has she ever looked smaller?

 

[Ky'smommy]

yah she been grown alot. but she definatly keeps getting darker spot. Still no babies tho. we will see tho.ill keep you posted..
and what is Dropsy anyways??


also her bum area isnt white anymore its black and pink and its like it opening up cause a couple days ago it was barly noticeable the color and now its almost all open. Is that what u mean by getting read to drop?

i think if she was getting big all this time maybe she was just growing and maybe got pregnant later or that male just bugged her so much that she was holding them. and now that she feels safe and un annoyed. Shes getting ready to drop them. Shes so happy in her little cage.
i can definatly see changed in her like size and behavior and color..

 

[studmaster]

When her bum is "open", I always think it's right before she drops or after she's fooled around with a male in the tank.

Dropsy is when the fish swells up and their stomach looks like a pinecone. It's not good news if she has it. You will know as her scales will be sticking out.

Let us know when she drops.

 

[Ky'smommy]

well then its agreed shes pregnant cause she sure doesnt look like a pine cone and her scales are all normal. Thanks for all the help..

 

[studmaster]

No problem, I wish you luck, and if she's that fat, expect a lot of fry.

Just another warning, some mollies (in my experience most) do eat their young and the young of other mollies. I have a quaranteen tank, that I put 5 new mollies in and just checked again today and saw two fry swimming around. Scooped them out and have them in a small 2 gal. From the other time my mollies have had fry, they have never had under 20 fry at a time. I have some hiding places in the QT tank but only have two fry left....so the others must have gotten eaten.

 

[Ky'smommy]

yes i know. we dont have any extra room tho. so once they are born we will take her out of her net box. and put the babies in with the piranahs. they have a much better sucess rate.
like maybe one goes missing but thats prolly all natural. thery are to little for the 5 6"-8' rbp to even waste there time. we have 10 2 month olds in there and none have gone missing yet.