I saw my mollie give birth - at least 3 fry - but I suspect there were others I didn't witness. She is thin now. This was Sat. night. Sunday she just sort of listlessly laid in the plants on the surface, although she did eat and she is still that way this AM. She ate a little, swam the length of the tank, went to the bottom and kind of flipped on her side like she was rubbing on the gravel and then went back to her perch in the plants on the surface. I read that female (and male) bettas are exhausted after the birthing process, but is it the same with other fish?
Livebearing Fish
- Thread starter Thyra
- Start date
I've never noticed a difference in my female platies when they've given birth, except right before they've given birth they've gotten a little aggressive with the other platies. What do your parameters look like? The flashing (rubbing on the gravel) almost sounds like she has ick, possibly from the stress of birthing (?). Has she ever given birth before?
I don't know if she has given birth before, but she is about 3 inches and she has looked pg for the past 3months. Parameters are fine - 0,0, and 5. I can't see any signs of ick as yet and everyone else in the tank looks find. I did buy 4 new female (platys and mollies) on Sat. because at that point she was the only female mollie left. (the other two mollies turned out to be males and we had a little problem) Casanove (as I decided to call the Dalmation mollie was more than a little aggressive and also would leave this mollie alone - he may have worn her out. I was actually starting to wonder if an experimental castration was going to be the order of the day! lol
I've heard that statement somewhere before - that they sometimes die after giving birth - I think I had her for about 3 months and she looked like most of the mollies I have seen - about 3 inches. I am not absolutely positive she was pg when I got her. Unfortunately this morning she is dead. I don't know if any of the fry made it. The couple of fry I saw born dropped down and went immediately into crevasses in the gravel - with a couple of platys hot on their tails! My husband says fish don't have a long attention span, but those two platys have stalked that same place for three days now! lol
Where are you getting this information? It is false. Like any living creature giving birth could result in death but this is not the norm.
From personal experience I can say I have never lost a livebearer after giving birth, I have never had one act as the OP's is either. Mine have always acted normally.
Thyra, sorry about your loss
From personal experience I can say I have never lost a livebearer after giving birth, I have never had one act as the OP's is either. Mine have always acted normally.
Thyra, sorry about your loss
I don't know what to say because of very limited experience with fish. (Horses and cows, yes) This is the second silver mollie I lost right after it gave birth. The current one I saw give birth, the first one 2 months ago was very pg, I noticed the fry and at least one was silver because it has survived. She was the only silver in the tank. I don't know exactly how many hours it was after wards when I found her on her side. I thought she was dead and she still looked pg. The next day she swam across the tank and also ate a little and then laid down again. This went on two days before she died.
I've had many livebearers die after giving birth. I posted on this site and other sites as to why they died and I was told many times that if fish are bred too young or too much, their immune systems are weak and they die after giving birth. I have never had a single livebearer live more than one week after having fry.
my problem is in your wording that it is the norm, when while it may not be all that uncommon it is still not the expected result or the normal outcome. When doing more research other than just my personal experience I did find forum postings stating the same thing you are saying but I find no reference to documented evidence to support that theory. I would say if you are experiencing high mortality rates when your live bearers give birth then I would find another source to purchase your fish, this way you can be certain they are not pregnant when you receive them and you can keep them from breeding until they are older. Just so you know all my live bearers in the past 5 or 6 years have come from Petsmart and I have never experienced this problem.
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