Balloon mollie ready to pop?

[gilly640]

Hi. Any assistance with this is greatly appreciated. She looks huge compared to when I got her (about a month ago)...

There was a male balloon in there for the first 2 weeks but he died unfortunately, since then ive got another female balloon and a normal male mollie...

Recently the male mollie will not leave her alone...chases her like a nutter EVERYWHERE. He doesn't bother with the other at all!? I've put her in the breading tank just to give her a rest...plus I saw a white tiny little tube near her rear end earlier so thought she might have been giving birth...

Although she probably appreciated the rest from male mollie...she looks bored and a bit agitated so I may release her if she's not due to drop...

Thanks in advance!

 

[snork6]

Here at TFF we don't recommend putting expecting moms in birthing tanks as it can stress the fish out and cause her to 1. abort the pregnancy (absorb the babies into her body) or 2. give birth prematurely. Make sure you have lots of hiding places in your tank and floating live or plastic plants at the top. Not all the fry will survive but the strongest will. As for when she will give birth, it's hard to tell with balloon mollies as they are naturally fat. But I would say she could give birth in the next 24 hours or the next week. One key factor to look for is the squaring off of the belly, once you see that the fish will normally give birth within 24 hours.

Let me know if you have anymore questions

~Snork6

 

[gilly640]

Thanks for the reply.

I've taken her out of the breeding tank now but straight away the male is nose to arse chasing her around...surly if she is to give birth the male will just swallow them up as it never leaves her side? Also it looks quite stressful for her trying to escape the little pest...is that doing more harm than good?

Cheers

 

[Anz]

I just got my mollies today. Could you guys please let me know how do I know if they male or female and if there is any pregnant females. I told the guy I only want female's but I have a feeling he might have given me males aswell. I had guppies but they all died on NTS so I cycled my tank out with only my bottom feeders and algae eaters for a week and tested my water and its not perfect. So I got mollies.

 

[gilly640]

Looks like the pale yellow balloon is a male....look at the fin near the rear...when it's like a dagger it's a male; females are more fan shaped. You'll notice a size difference when it's pregnant.

 

[gilly640]

The darker of the Dalmatians might be a male too but hard to tell...

 

[snork6]

looks like you have 2 maybe 3 males and the rest female

 

[gilly640]

Still not popped

 

[gilly640]

Stilllll nothing