premature molly fry

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dubleshortlatte

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Oct 13, 2005
Messages
23
Location
the CO
My molly prematurely dropped her fry. Most of them were eggs or way under developed, but one or two made it out okay. There a are a few that I didn't think would last the night (they're able to swim, but they look under developed...their abdomens are clear and I can see their hearts beating), but they're still alive 12+ hours after being birthed. Is there anything I can do? How long should I expect them to live?
 
Nothing you can do at this point. Moving them will most likely result in their death. All you can do is hope for the best.
 
Thanks. It's been nearly 24 hours, and they're still alive. Just for clarification, if I continue to feed them/allow them to grow under normal conditions, will they mature normally? or will their lack of developmental maturity prevent them from living much longer?
 
Hard to say, they may develop fine. It certainly doesn't hurt to allow them to feed and grow. IMO if it is meant to be they will make it just fine.
 
Thanks! They seem to be doing all right...it still scares me that I can see their tiny little hearts beating, but as long as they're okay! Here are pictures of 2/3 of them hiding in some of the plants...

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The bottom fry doesn't look that underdeveloped to me....

I think you're going to have survivors.

I just had a fancy guppy drop 24 fry. They're small too, but so far none of them have died. I think livebearers are pretty resilient as long as they can swim to food.
 
In the last 4 months, I have had 3 batchs of mollie fry (2 from a dalmation and 1 from a orange and white lyretailed mollie) and from the picture, they look to be about normal size. Give them a couple of weeks and they will look more like fish :)


Steve
 
Thanks for all of your help! I was observing them this morning, and they look so much more normal now. When they were first dropped, they looked half-egg-half-fry...but they now look like normal babies! phew.
 
I was taking another look at the molly mommy today, and she still looks pregnant...I thought i'd post her picture here and see what your opinions are...is she going to drop more fry soon? Or is she just kind of tubbers, lol? She's a balloon molly, btw...

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I have had a few balloon mollies and usually when they are about to drop more fry the front of their stomachs (belly) start to get a squarish look to them. From that picture I don't think she was fully ready to drop yet, but you said she has droped early before.

I guess by now you would know if she did or not since your message was from a couple months ago.
 
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