# MY MOLLY GAVE BIRTH! idk what to do... pleaseHELP



## RainbowDash (Feb 6, 2014)

I bought a female black Molly from petco, and like a week after I bought her she started getting really big. PREGNANT. It was funny, last night I almost forgot to put her in the breeding chamber (read online that they are most likely to have their babies at night) until my fiance said something about it. 
We were sitting there looking information up online about other fish that we someday want to own. I looked up at Juno (a fitting name for my female molly) and was like "I'm honestly starting to think she is just fat." About 30 minutes later we look up and there are FRY everywhere!!! I moved closer to get a better look and all of these fry have* orange orbs attached to their stomach*, it's almost like the eggs they came out of were still attached to them. I counted 15 fry, and this morning only 5 were alive... IS THIS A DEFORMITY?? I DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO!!


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## Sylverclaws (Jul 16, 2012)

Oh dear. Usually when born with the eggs still attached to the babies, it's not a good sign. Some survive, most wont, most kick out of them and lose some nutrients and get stressed by the fight to flee the shell. Now if they're fully attached, it's likely the yolk that didn't get fully absorbed into the belly. It shouldn't be THAT visible, you can see them, but it shouldn't look like orbs attached to the belly like that. It's a common sign of premature birth. Often times they're born and you can see the yolk in their bellies, but when it sticks out like it's egg attached to them it means they didn't get to fully absorb it and that's still hanging out. I've had a few survive this, but they're so very delicate. Sometimes I get one or two like this even in a healthy brood, they can grow multiple broods at once and occasionally release some too young. Only once did I have a mama give birth to the whole brood like that, it didn't end well, only two of 24 survived. The rest slowly died off over the first week no matter what I did. So try what you can, but don't get your hopes up too high. If any survive the first two or three weeks and still look good, then you can have hope.

Well, if you have any babies left and don't already have them in a breeder net, I suggest you very gently move them over, try to scoop a few up in the breeder itself instead of catching and moving them which is stressful. Leaving them in the main tank area will likely result in stress death or being eaten, healthy babies can handle being chased if they have good hiding, but these may not. After that, make sure they feel secure in the net by adding guppy grass or java moss or something they can hide in and not get squished, feed them baby brine shrimp(I would suggest offering food right off since they probably didn't get to fully absorb their yolk and may be stressed, suck out what they don't eat) and algae wafers, you can also give them blanched cucumber(I cut them into small circles, lay them flat on a cookie sheet with wax paper and freeze them over night, then move them all to a bag, warm them up with a little bit of water for about 20 seconds in the microwave and let them cool, makes them nice and SOFT, easy to eat...the babies will love that), hikari first bites is also pretty good. Make sure your water is warm and stable, clean about 2% out per day....

The biggest thing for the ones still alive will be stableness and lack of stress. They need a place they feel secure hence the plants, the net doesn't always do it for them(neither does the plastic box) and anyone who swims by may scare the heck out of them. They need small food to be fed to them at least three times per day at the minimum, and they must have stable water and heat like all mollies(if the temp is too low they'll die off, you want it no lower than 78 degrees, 79-80 is perfect).


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## RainbowDash (Feb 6, 2014)

Sylverclaws said:


> Oh dear. Usually when born with the eggs still attached to the babies, it's not a good sign. Some survive, most wont, most kick out of them and lose some nutrients and get stressed by the fight to flee the shell. Now if they're fully attached, it's likely the yolk that didn't get fully absorbed into the belly. It shouldn't be THAT visible, you can see them, but it shouldn't look like orbs attached to the belly like that. It's a common sign of premature birth. Often times they're born and you can see the yolk in their bellies, but when it sticks out like it's egg attached to them it means they didn't get to fully absorb it and that's still hanging out. I've had a few survive this, but they're so very delicate. Sometimes I get one or two like this even in a healthy brood, they can grow multiple broods at once and occasionally release some too young. Only once did I have a mama give birth to the whole brood like that, it didn't end well, only two of 24 survived. The rest slowly died off over the first week no matter what I did. So try what you can, but don't get your hopes up too high. If any survive the first two or three weeks and still look good, then you can have hope.
> 
> Well, if you have any babies left and don't already have them in a breeder net, I suggest you very gently move them over, try to scoop a few up in the breeder itself instead of catching and moving them which is stressful. Leaving them in the main tank area will likely result in stress death or being eaten, healthy babies can handle being chased if they have good hiding, but these may not. After that, make sure they feel secure in the net by adding guppy grass or java moss or something they can hide in and not get squished, feed them baby brine shrimp(I would suggest offering food right off since they probably didn't get to fully absorb their yolk and may be stressed, suck out what they don't eat) and algae wafers, you can also give them blanched cucumber(I cut them into small circles, lay them flat on a cookie sheet with wax paper and freeze them over night, then move them all to a bag, warm them up with a little bit of water for about 20 seconds in the microwave and let them cool, makes them nice and SOFT, easy to eat...the babies will love that), hikari first bites is also pretty good. Make sure your water is warm and stable, clean about 2% out per day....
> 
> The biggest thing for the ones still alive will be stableness and lack of stress. They need a place they feel secure hence the plants, the net doesn't always do it for them(neither does the plastic box) and anyone who swims by may scare the heck out of them. They need small food to be fed to them at least three times per day at the minimum, and they must have stable water and heat like all mollies(if the temp is too low they'll die off, you want it no lower than 78 degrees, 79-80 is perfect).


Thank you so much for replying!! I feel so bad for these little guys.. out of the 15 there are only 5 left.. I need to pick up some plants, I have never dealt with baby fish before so I had no clue what to do, since I wont be able to pick up plants till tomorrow, is there anything else I could for them? Luckily, she was in the birthing/breeding chamber when she decided to pop them out. I know mollies can decide to abort her young, and if stressed can stop giving birth to them right in the middle of birth, what would cause her to give birth so early? These orbs are large and orange, really orange. The ones that died over night, the orange was no longer there. I have no clue what to do.


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## rsskylight04 (Nov 9, 2013)

Sounds like premature birth. Yolk sac should be fully absorbed when the fry are born. Probaly stress caused her to abort. 
Hope you're able to save at least a few of the young.
Good luck


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## Sylverclaws (Jul 16, 2012)

Well, I can tell you the most likely cause for a stress abort, which it likely was...and don't feel bad, many do this without knowing better: The breeding box. Very few are docile enough to be ok in one of those. The other thing is moving them. You should not move them in their last week or two, and certainly not to a box early. It's usually best to let them give birth in the main tank with a lot of plants(Get java moss, guppy grass and willow moss, that's some good hiding areas for them!) and catch some babies and put them in the box. Or you can wait until mom is already giving birth, which is hard since they do often pop at night, more like very early morning...but if you can catch that happening, it's better to wait until they start and have already had a baby or two. Still, the best option is to let them go in the main tank. The more you move her, or things about in the tank, the more stressed the poor fish gets. Breeding boxes are made FOR this...so this is why a lot of people don't know better, but they're pretty much just stress boxes, and most trap the babies so they can't escape mom and they get eaten, even if they can drop to the bottom of the blocked area, the babies usually don't know better at that point and still swim up and get eaten.


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## RainbowDash (Feb 6, 2014)

I hope this picture works... There are only 4 left, oh my gosh!! I feel so bad!! How can't I?? Dang we were all looking forward to this soooo much!!! I will never use a breeding chamber ever again!!


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## rsskylight04 (Nov 9, 2013)

Hornwort is a great floating plant for your birthing tank. Its fine-textured foliage provides a great many hiding places for babies, and mollies love to nibble on it. Also its resistant to A LITTLE salt, if you use salt for your mollies.
Good luck!


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## RainbowDash (Feb 6, 2014)

rsskylight04 said:


> Hornwort is a great floating plant for your birthing tank. Its fine-textured foliage provides a great many hiding places for babies, and mollies love to nibble on it. Also its resistant to A LITTLE salt, if you use salt for your mollies.
> Good luck!


Thanks greatly appreciated!


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## Sylverclaws (Jul 16, 2012)

Breeding chambers are good to keep babies in, not parents really. =) You can move your babies to that, it will protect them from the parents.

Now, in that photo, they're already looking better. The problem now is getting them enough food, which is hard if they're in the main tank...

Here's what I do with my endlers...I put in Hikari First Bites and put it in two sides, the adults chase one area, the kids get the other. Put it under water with your fingers and don't get too much, it will slowly sink to them. Blanched cucumber works too(I cut it into 1/4 inch slices, thinner sometimes, put them on wax paper on a cookie sheet, freeze overnight, and then scoop them into a bag and keep frozen to blanch them, then I heat them up for about 10-20 seconds in the microwave on a plate with a small amount of water, let them cool, cut them in halves or quarters and drop them in for my fish and snails), if your adults don't like it, or if they leave it alone after a few bites, the kids can go poke at it.

Feeding is a problem. Babies need to be fed a minimum of three times per day. It helps to use messy foods, but unfortunately it makes cleaning a real pain, you gotta suck as much left-overs out as you can find without taking out TOO much water, or you end up changing too much...Baby brine shrimp will be great, Hikari First Bites is awesome too, algae wafers(I dust mine with a hammer and a bag...makes me feel better when frustrated xD Ahem, and the dust is easy for the kids to eat), daphnia should be ok once they hit one to two weeks old(depends how big they are...usually once they hit half inch, or the larger type baby mollies, can handle daphnia right off), you can turn flakes into dust as well, hold them under water to sink too or they can be too dry and hurt their little bellies. Variety is good if you can get them to eat it. 

Yes, floating plants are good too! I always forget to suggest them because they're so hard to find here. I put a dark green cave in my tank and let the java moss sorta...fly around it(you plant a small piece and wild up the rest so it floats higher and makes a....nest like thing, but stays put in the ground or stuck to something), the babies blend in there. Mine never get messed with anymore because it's like they aren't visible or something. lol It may be different for some mollies, the parentals like to hunt, some of mine sure do, little brats. x.x 
Endlers livebearers(not the guppy hybrids) tend to leave their kids alone more, so if you want fish that don't normally eat their kids, go for the smaller livebearers like endlers and some types of smaller killi fish(Not positive on killies, but Endlers are typically too small to eat their young, at least not more than a few of them).


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## rsskylight04 (Nov 9, 2013)

Yes mollies are especially hard on newborns because the parents are often so much bigger than many livebearers, but the babies are about the same size. A pile of flat pebbles, about silver dollar size or so, will form multiple small caves and crevices where the kids can hide and adults cannot get to them.
For food you'll not beat brine shrimp larvae.


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