Ballon Molly died 2 weeks after giving birth

[stuhall1973]

Hi,

Had 2 balloon Mollies in the tank for about 6 weeks along with 2 guppies, 2 catfish and 2 neons. The tank is 30 gallon and cycled. The Ballon Molly gave birth to seven babies about 2 weeks ago, to which 6 have survived and swimming around happily.

My Balloon Molly which gave birth 2 weeks ago has now died, i found her lying on the bottom of the tank, scooped her out but no signs of life.

My question is, could the birth of her babies of led to her death ? .... never had a fish which has given birth before !!

Just to be safe i did a water change after she died and the levels are perfect and all the other fish including babies are fine, just very confused as to why she would die so very sudden.

Hope someone could enlighten me !!

 

[tank212]

I was told of the cause before but don't remember. I've losed a couple guppie females and mollies after giving birth. I have also just recently lost a molly before birth.

 

[WILDER]

Sorry for your loss it happened to be with female platys they die a week or two after giving birth, it happens i'm afraid.

 

[Mariah]

Sorry for your loss it happened to be with female platys they die a week or two after giving birth, it happens i'm afraid.

Wilder - Could this of been what happened to my mollie? My mollie died maybe a week after she gave birth but I also have internal parasites so im not sure.....

 

[Mariah]

Sorry for your loss it happened to be with female platys they die a week or two after giving birth, it happens i'm afraid.

Wilder - Could this of been what happened to my mollie? My mollie died maybe a week after she gave birth but I also have internal parasites so im not sure.....

 

[dirtydogg]

sorry bout losing the molly I love them!

 

[xanthianacid]

sorry for your loss... after our first batch of fry guppies the mother died...sad, but she gave us a batch of 20+fry

 

[_fish_a_holic_]

Sorry for your loss it happened to be with female platys they die a week or two after giving birth, it happens i'm afraid.

Should I clarify and say that they don't ALWAYS die after giving birth?
Mine just keep going, and going, and going... I have a dalmation molly who I call SuperMomma, she drops huge spawns every 3 weeks or so! My platties aren't so fecund but I've never had a death after birth

 

[Snowbrumby]

Don't know if this will help but I did read somewhere that because of the stress a fish goes through - breeding, transport, staying at a lfs, etc before we buy them, they are only holding on until they give birth. Once that has happened they feel like they can now 'give up' and let go to all the stress they have been through. But it also said that because the babies will be raised in a 'stable environment' - ie, your tank - they will not suffer the same fate. Hope this helps and so sorry for your lose

 

[Y2J]

Can someone answer this. I saw it on the discovery channel once, theres this insect or at least something that lives in the ocean and isnt a fish and he has a burrow and he attracts females to it but once they are in range he attacks them and brings them deep into his home where he has upto 25 other females and he gets them all pregnant. Whatever they are they can only get into this world by eating their mother from the inside and they are born when they have eaten right through and she dies. So each one of these creatures killed their mum. Anyone know the name of the creature? - i wanna do some research on it.

 

[_fish_a_holic_]

Don't know if this will help but I did read somewhere that because of the stress a fish goes through - breeding, transport, staying at a lfs, etc before we buy them, they are only holding on until they give birth. Once that has happened they feel like they can now 'give up' and let go to all the stress they have been through. But it also said that because the babies will be raised in a 'stable environment' - ie, your tank - they will not suffer the same fate. Hope this helps and so sorry for your lose

That sure makes a heap of sense... I guess some are just hardier than others tho, I've had a sailfin molly give birth to 53 fry the day I bought her and she looks like she's getting preggers again B)

------------------

Can someone answer this. I saw it on the discovery channel once, theres this insect or at least something that lives in the ocean and isnt a fish and he has a burrow and he attracts females to it but once they are in range he attacks them and brings them deep into his home where he has upto 25 other females and he gets them all pregnant. Whatever they are they can only get into this world by eating their mother from the inside and they are born when they have eaten right through and she dies. So each one of these creatures killed their mum. Anyone know the name of the creature? - i wanna do some research on it.

OMG!!! What an evil creature! How would an insect get a fish pregnant? Or do you mean he attracts female insects to his den of inequity?? That's probably what you meant, doh I'm such an airhead sometimes!

 

[Mariah]

Don't know if this will help but I did read somewhere that because of the stress a fish goes through - breeding, transport, staying at a lfs, etc before we buy them, they are only holding on until they give birth. Once that has happened they feel like they can now 'give up' and let go to all the stress they have been through. But it also said that because the babies will be raised in a 'stable environment' - ie, your tank - they will not suffer the same fate. Hope this helps and so sorry for your lose

That is the saddest thing ever. My mollie gave birth and died a week or so afterwards. I dont know if she died because of the fry or the other problem I have in my tank.... She left me with 7 fry though.....

 

[Y2J]

Can someone answer this. I saw it on the <a style='text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 3px double;' href="http/www.serverlogic3.com/lm/rtl3.asp?si=24&k=discovery%20channel" onmouseover="window.status='discovery channel'; return true;" onmouseout="window.status=''; return true;">discovery channel</a> once, theres this insect or at least something that lives in the ocean and isnt a fish  and he has a burrow and he attracts females to it but once they are in range he attacks them and brings them deep into his home where he has upto 25 other females and he gets them all pregnant. Whatever they are they can only get into this world by eating their mother from the inside and they are born when they have eaten right through and she dies. So each one of these creatures killed their mum. Anyone know the name of the creature? - i wanna do some research on it.

OMG!!! What an evil creature! How would an insect get a fish pregnant? Or do you mean he attracts female insects to his den of inequity?? That's probably what you meant, doh I'm such an airhead sometimes!

lol yeah same species as himself. I saw it on some programe about mothers who do great things for their kids. The octopus usually dies also.. she has to protect all her kids that feed off her(i think) or anyway she cant move from protecting them from these other fish and so she goes weeks without any food and when the kids are strong enough to live on their own shes so weak that she cant fight off the attacks from the other fishes anymore and dies..normally she wouldnt have any trouble if she had been eating but at the cost of looking after her children it costs them there lifes usually.

 

[Javentule]

Y2J -

Quite a few animals actually do this, but I think the one you're refering to the is Sea Louse. They had a really cool Trials of Life on it (hosted by my hero, Sir David Attenborough). Biologically every organism's goal is not to live, but to produce as many offspring as possible. The Sea Louse gives her offspring a really great start in life by giving them a ton of nutrition right before they are released into the cruel cruel world. Never mind she dies - that isn't important - she now has probably at least a hundred babies out there carrying her genes, insuring that she will "live on".

It's kind of the same thing with the mollies dying - they'll give up the ghost after they have babies because they've fufilled their biological goal. Granted, a healthy non-stressed molly can have a gazillion broods - but if a molly isn't so lucky they can at least have the babies they DID have out there.

 

[Y2J]

thanks very much