Post-mommy Syndrome?

[foxy_lady126]

Ok, so I have started my first fish tank ever and I brought home two beautiful balloon mollies two days ago. Yesterday, to my delight, I noticed a teeny little fry swimming around and quickly realized that I had walked in on my Mollie giving birth. She continued to swim up and down and kept popping them out till there was about ten swimming around the tank. She continued to swim up and down when I went to bed but I figured that she was just stressed or something.So thismorning when I woke up I swear the poor thing went crazy over night. I have a suspicion that she has been bullying my other mollie because he/she (i haven't quite figured that out yet) has a "fat lip" i guess you could call it with a little orangish red spot. The new mommy was swimming around like a crazy woman and kept ramming herself into the side of the tank and the rocks in there.Is this normal for post birthing? Is it possible that she could be bullying my other mollie? As you can tell I am extremely new to the hobby so I really have no idea what is normal, especially with breeding. I've only had these new fish for a little over two days so I don't know any of their normal habits or anything yet.Any information or site or advice would be EXTREMELY appreciated before my poor fish tank becomes a homicide scene.Oh dear. I just walked upstairs to check on my little fishies...turns out the murder has already been committed . Mommy is however still acting like a mad woman! HELP!

 

[bubblej17]

Ok, so I have started my first fish tank ever and I brought home two beautiful balloon mollies two days ago. Yesterday, to my delight, I noticed a teeny little fry swimming around and quickly realized that I had walked in on my Mollie giving birth. She continued to swim up and down and kept popping them out till there was about ten swimming around the tank. She continued to swim up and down when I went to bed but I figured that she was just stressed or something.So thismorning when I woke up I swear the poor thing went crazy over night. I have a suspicion that she has been bullying my other mollie because he/she (i haven't quite figured that out yet) has a "fat lip" i guess you could call it with a little orangish red spot. The new mommy was swimming around like a crazy woman and kept ramming herself into the side of the tank and the rocks in there.Is this normal for post birthing? Is it possible that she could be bullying my other mollie? As you can tell I am extremely new to the hobby so I really have no idea what is normal, especially with breeding. I've only had these new fish for a little over two days so I don't know any of their normal habits or anything yet.Any information or site or advice would be EXTREMELY appreciated before my poor fish tank becomes a homicide scene.Oh dear. I just walked upstairs to check on my little fishies...turns out the murder has already been committed . Mommy is however still acting like a mad woman! HELP!

wow, well ok, first of all every fish is different during pregnancy and birth, she may of been protecting her fry by killing her tank mate,
all's you can do for now is remove any kind of rock you have in your tank as she may hurt herself, put plenty of plants (fake or real) for the fry to hide in you may also consider fry food!!, dont add any more tank mates until your fry have grown a bit and mummy has calmed down, do you have any idea what your PH is or ammonia, nitrite nitrates are? have you added any salt at all?
i know it seems like a lot of hard work but once you get used to it all you'll be fine lol, hope this has been of some help!! let us know how you get on!! good luck

 

[foxy_lady126]

wow, well ok, first of all every fish is different during pregnancy and birth, she may of been protecting her fry by killing her tank mate,
all's you can do for now is remove any kind of rock you have in your tank as she may hurt herself, put plenty of plants (fake or real) for the fry to hide in you may also consider fry food!!, dont add any more tank mates until your fry have grown a bit and mummy has calmed down, do you have any idea what your PH is or ammonia, nitrite nitrates are? have you added any salt at all?
i know it seems like a lot of hard work but once you get used to it all you'll be fine lol, hope this has been of some help!! let us know how you get on!! good luck

i put my fry in a net breeder...there's eleven in there, two died and one that i can't seem to catch! no wonder she went crazy. after i took out my poor dead mollie and put the fry in the breeder she seemed to settle down...i'm still mad at her though. and she's not as cute as she was pregnant my ammonia is steadily decreasing so it should be back to 0 soon. I haven't gotten any salt, my dad has some but it's packed away so i'm going to have to wait till he gets it out. anyways, thank you for your help, i'll post pictures soon!

 

[bubblej17]

she will calm down once she's delivered all her babies maybe a few days after, mine was exactly the same, just remeber to change the water in the breeder at least twice a day as it will sart to go stale, yeah post pics when ya can

 

[foxy_lady126]

she will calm down once she's delivered all her babies maybe a few days after, mine was exactly the same, just remeber to change the water in the breeder at least twice a day as it will sart to go stale, yeah post pics when ya can

you mean she's not done having babies oh my.

 

[Kevinator]

Wow that is weird! I have 5 female balloon mollies who have all given birth and none of them have acted like that! BubbleJ gave you some great advice and is correct in saying that she maybe not yet! Don't be suprised that some of the weaker fry die along the way. I have had over 100 fry altogether but I only have had 30 survivors 3 or which I have kept. As a matter of fact one my fry is in my avatar it is about 2 to 3 months old.

You just got into this with a shock!

 

[foxy_lady126]

Wow that is weird! I have 5 female balloon mollies who have all given birth and none of them have acted like that! BubbleJ gave you some great advice and is correct in saying that she maybe not yet! Don't be suprised that some of the weaker fry die along the way. I have had over 100 fry altogether but I only have had 30 survivors 3 or which I have kept. As a matter of fact one my fry is in my avatar it is about 2 to 3 months old.

You just got into this with a shock!

tell me about it! poor mommy put herself out of her misery though...so in the last three days i've lost the two original fish i bought and gained at least eleven, i just saw a couple more swimming around that she must have popped out before she died. now it's operation raise the babies!

 

[bubblej17]

thanks kevinator!

and foxy im sorry for your loss, but you can let let your fry out of the breeder now and they may have more chance of survival with well oxygenated water, and will grown faster, just feed them 3-4 times a day until a little older then cut them down a bit good luck and keep us informed, anymore questions just post we're all here to help one another

 

[modaz]

i suppose that its possible for fish to suffer badly from giving birth in a way in which it makes them act like this, could and i state COULD be a reaction that has affected her nervous system to her dropping her fry, it happens to some mothers regardless whether they are animals fish etc....

hope your fish turn out to be ok

 

[theotheragentm]

My Gourami did this after a fall when he jumped from the tank. He smacked into the walls of the tank and jumped into the hoods on my tank. Unfortunately, he was on his way out and died shortly after.

 

[bubblej17]

My Gourami did this after a fall when he jumped from the tank. He smacked into the walls of the tank and jumped into the hoods on my tank. Unfortunately, he was on his way out and died shortly after.

awww bless r.i.p gourami, my goldfish used to just from his bowl all the time i used to wake up at stupid o clock in the morning and hear him jumping around on the floor, why do some/most fish try to jump, if anyone has an answer for that lol

 

[Thirdfloor]

If you dont like a room, don't you leave it?

 

[kribensis12]

Did you ever cycle the tank? Sorry about your losses. And congrats on the new arrivals. If you havent cycled you are likely to lose all your fish.

 

[foxy_lady126]

Did you ever cycle the tank? Sorry about your losses. And congrats on the new arrivals. If you havent cycled you are likely to lose all your fish.

yes it was cycled. i think i just had the unfortunate luck of picking the wrong fishies. or not enough, should i have gotten three mollies instead of two?