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Having trouble with Molly pregnancy! Abortion?

26K views 19 replies 6 participants last post by  Sathish1982 
#1 ·
I have 2 pregnant female mollies in my tank who have been pregnant for quite some time now. The first I purchased was a beautiful Cremesicle Lyretail in late September who was very thin at the time, but I was counting on her probably still being fertile. Then I purchased 2 female Dalmation Lyretail Mollies also in late September, to which I said, "Pick out the most pregnant looking ones you can find!" After some days later, I realized that one of the dalmations i thought was a female turned out to be a fully grown male! (i had more female mollies, so I know the female to male ratio, but they passed)

Anyway! So like I said, I purchased the cremesicle not pregnant, before I purchased the Dalmation, already pregnant. I had been expecting the dalmation to drop within a week of getting her, but almost 2 months later, she's still boxy and fat! (and she's definitely NOT a balloon molly!) Within a month after getting the cremesicle, she started gaining weight also, leading me to believe she had been in the very very early stage of pregnancy when I got her. The gravid spot is a lot easier to notice on the cremesicle than the dalmation, for obvious reasons. But neither of my girls have dropped yet, and I think they're well past the gestation period!

I've heard that females can withhold their labor (for lack of a better term) if conditions are too stressful, and even abort, but if they aborted, would they still be full-figured and pregnant looking? I just wanna know why i bought these mollies pregnant and I'm not getting any babies! Water conditions have always been on point, I have a healthy established peaceful tropical community, with only 1 semi-aggressive tankmate, who keeps to herself.
 
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#2 ·
Can you post photos? Maybe they're just overeating! I had a platy once that I would swear was ready to deliver, she never did.

I kinda double if the females can control their pregnancies, but conditions certainly could. Low water temps, for example, would prolong delivery. Stressful conditions could cause premature delivery of fry with egg sacks, or even undeveloped eggs. I've seen/had both of those before. But you said your tank was ok so that's probably not a factor. If they aborted, I doubt very much if they would still look pregnant/fat. They can't have multiple pregnancies going on, in different stages, so they would be relatively thin if they aborted or delivered anything.
 
#4 ·
The temps usually stays between 76-80, it only gets to 80 when I have the heater in, and its a fixed heater, so thats only on cold nights when it gets like 30 here. during the day, the temp is normally 76-77. There definitely havent been any eggs sack or yolk. i constantly watch my tank, 24/7. (im a stay at home mom.) its just weird that they seem like they're wwell past the gestational period for normal molly pregnancy.
 
#5 ·
Took a peek and yea, the dalmation definitely looks ready, more so than the other one. Here's a dumb question... do they poop regularly? Fish can become constipated. The temps sound ok but what a pain with a heater without a thermostat? Yikes....

I think they are just taking their good ol' time delivering.
 
#6 ·
Oh yes, they poop quite regularly, very thick and healthy! And as far as the heater, it definitely is a pain in the butt, especially when a comfortable 77 reaches 80-82, just because of a little outside weather (we have a lot of windows in our house, and the tank happens to be on the only wall without one.) And like I said, the dalmation was preggers when i bought her, and the other one wasnt, and started showing after a while in the tank. I'da thunk by now, though that the dalmation would have delivered by now, and its so odd that the other one has pretty much 'caught up to her'....i guess all i can do is keep an eye on them...
 
#9 ·
If I can I stick my ten cents worth into this topic, I would say that if you have had the female mollies since September without any result, then they are definitely not pregnant. They can "store" their pregnancies and produce when conditions are good for them, but they can't go on doing this forever without a male.
I think your water temperature is good but I am a great believer in adding a tiny amount of aquarium salt to any tank that has mollies in it because they are a "brackish" water fish to start with. Mollies are also very fond of green vegetable matter in their diet so try giving them a green pea once a week as well.
The shimmying is a bit of a worry, more information please.
 
#10 ·
Gahhh I'm so sick of being told "salt, salt salt!" LOL. I understand you haven't followed any of my other posts, but I have an albino rainbow shark in the tank that tells me salt is a no no, along with a pleco and 5 kuhli loaches. Mollies do not "require" salt, and if you'd like more specifics on that topic, I can suggest an excellent article that Byron backs up about the molly-salt debate. In any case, I've posted other threads about me getting a bigger tank for the holidays to house my mollies and a violet goby, therefore becoming a "brackish" environment.

In other news, I've ruled out any other possibility including bloating, swim bladder, dropsy, etc. I have 1 male and 2 females. They may be storing right now, that's my only other option really, because like I stated, the cremesicle was very thin when I bought her, and from the pictures there is a noticeable pouch. For a while I thought the gravid spot was very much visible, as that was the only black spot on the entirely orange and white fish, ya know? It was much harder to identify on the dalmation. As far as the shimmying, none of the other fish exhibit this behavior. Not even the dalmation anymore. The cremesicle picks out her spot in the tank, next to the volcano bubbler, gets real low to the bottom, and swims in place, kind of like a zig-zag, but not in a seizurely, fast way that she looks uncomfortable. She'll maybe do this for a few seconds or until another fish approaches, and she'll swim off. That was what made me run to the tank every time, thinking she was in labor. She hasn't done it for days though. I think she's actually begun to lose weight since I first started noticing how boxy she was looking. All of the fish have excellent appetites, and I apologize for not being clear on their diet, as since I mentioned I have a pleco, veggies are already a part of their diet. :)

I just walked over to check on her and noticed she's now the only one covered in Ich. Well, this just ruined my day.
 
#15 ·
I suppose; with all the holiday shopping I've been doing, I've almost forgotten about the treatments I'll need and whatnot. Today I stopped by one of my LFS's for the first time in almost a month, and they had a 37 gallon cube with stand up for raffle, so i entered :) And I believe I'll be going back for more entries :) Only a doller per entry, lol. They also picked up some new Panda Platys that are absolutely to die for, I went gaga over them! Sadly when I got home I noticed one of my male and one of my female platys resting on the sandbed today, lethargic, not swimming..so that must mean the ich has reached them past the point of wellness :/ Isolated them...poor babies!
 
#16 ·
pregnant mollies

I see that you already figured out whats going on with your mollies, i just wanted to add the experience i've had with Mollie pregnancy. One of my female mollies have now had three sets of babies over a month period, and each time she gives birth it is after a 50% or more water change. It is so odd, she swims around for weeks pregnant and swollen, and all 3 times i changed to water, within a few hours she gives birth.
 
#17 ·
Ok I know this thread is super old, but I had to give an update. She still hasn't gone back down to her original size, and just a few weeks ago I did a 50% change (i was highly overdue for one) and had to deal with another ich treatment. This is what she looks like now, and its nothing Ive ever seen before!! Like, I thought she looked pregnant before, but now she looks twice her size and her 'baby bumps' curve in the middle of her body. She has no gravid spot, and her scales are all poking out like shes going to burst! Not showing any signs of dropsy or swim bladder, so ive disregarded any type of bloating....thoughts??
 

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