Is this Molly pregnant/Balloon type/overeaten?

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myriam

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Sep 27, 2003
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Here are 3 pix of one of my female molly. I thought she was pregnant so I put her in a divided section of my tank. Three days later and no fry, so now I'm not so sure. I've had fry before, but I don't know from which of the 2 female mollies. The other one looks much thinner than this one. I guess it's possible she is a Balloon Molly or she's just eating too much.

One of the pix shows her doing strange behavior--kind of standing on her tail and just sitting still on the gravel--is this normal??

I'm worried I'll put her back into the main part of the tank and she'll then give birth, but then like the last time, all the fry get eaten.

Any advice would be great.
 
So do you think I should keep her separated from the other tank? I mean, is it detrimental for her to be in a divided part of the main tank? She seems pretty happy and relaxed, though I don't know about that standing on her tail thing...
 
i have a black molly and she has had alot of fry.i think your molly is more likely to be pregant then be bloonmolly or overfed. I left my molly in the big tank but when she give birth she turned and eat them just as quick as they come out...so it is down to you if you dont put her in a breeding tank.just keep a good eye on her and if you see her giving birth then take all the babys out.....good luck in your fishkeeping
 
The first pic looks just like my female lyertail molly when she is within her first couple weeks of pregnancy. I would say that she is pregnant, but you have a little while yet before you see any babies. When she is about ready to birth the fry, she will look as if she is about to explode. I didn't notice any other strange behavior from her before she had them. I would have to say that you just have a very talented fishy that likes to stand on her tail. LOL
 
Great, my molly is a circus performer 8O

Thanks for the info. Do you think I should just leave her in the divided area of my 20G? Or should I put her back into the main tank with the rest of them until she looks ready to burst?

With her apart from the other 2 mollies, my other female one is constantly zipping away from the male. Ayayay.
 
I would say put the other female back in with the other fish until she looks ready to burst. This will hopefully take some of the stress off the other female. Believe me, you will know when she is ready to have her fry, or very close to it, she will get unbelievably huge. When she gets that big, I would say it would be safe to put her into the divided section of your tank.

Also, is there enough room in the divided section to put some more plants in? The fry will need plenty of hiding places to get away from mommy. Floating plants would be probably the best bet. Most of my molly fry hang out at the surface more than in the plants that I have. Just a suggestion. :)
 
Ok platylover, I will take your advice and move her back in. I keep looking at her each day (hour?!) to see if anything seems to be happening. You think in a week or two she'll be ready to burst?

I have one big plant in the divided section. Where do I get a floating plant? I didn't notice any at the LFS.

I hope this all works out. I keep reading here about all these people with molly fry and I'm so jealous! Fry-Envy, you might say :wink:
 
I would guess in a week or two she would be ready to burst, but that kind of depends on the fish. I've had platies that were pregnant for 6 weeks before they gave birth. Be patient, your fry will come and then you will be overrun with them in no time.

I use plain fake plants and just not anchor them down to the gravel. It might look a little tacky but it does help.

HTH.
 
I came here to ask this same question. I have a molly who is being chased my a male, and every time he starts that nosing around at her belly, she floats above him and stands straight up and down for like 20seconds, but he does nothing. I thought that I read somewhere that a female molly does this when she wants to be mated. Does anyone know for sure? I think she is pregnant, she is pretty swollen but I never can tell when it's time to have babies, as we bought her because we thought she was pregnant about 5 days ago, and I can't tell if she's gotten any bigger or what. I originally had her in an isolation tank but moved her to my community tank when she hadn't dropped fry for 3 days, because I thought maybe she wasn't as ready as I thought.

I have 2 males and 6 females.
 
contactpsb,

I've learned a lot since I posted that message. It's hard to miss a female molly who is ready to drop fry--they are really painfully huge and swollen looking. Mine did not have behavior changes with eating, but did seem to hide behind plants near the gravel more. I never saw her actually drop the fry, but I'd see the tiny little guys flitting about a day or two later.

Your male:female ratio is good and should keep the females from getting overly harassed.

P.S. The molly in the pictures has since passed :( She dropped about 2 dozen fry, and a few days later she was dead. Never figured out what happened.
 
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