Still No Fry!

[Doug62]

Ok so its been over 9 weeks since one of my mollies became pregant and she still hasnt dropped. She looks totally ready to burst and is now spending most of her time resting on the bottom (on her enormous belly) usually in the most secluded part of the tank. Ive also noticeed the male seems to be hanging about her a lot too, not hassling her for a shag, as is normally the case, but just to her side. Has anyone known it take this long?? i read about 4-5 weeks is the usual.
Cheers
Doug

 

[bucsfan914]

seems to me like it should happen any day now

 

[Annastasia]

Is she stressed at all? They can hang on to their fry if they are stressed, or they feel the conditions are not right. How many males and females do you have? What size tank? What other fish? Are you keeping them in salt? What are your water stats? Is she sick at all? Are her scales sticking out? Or does she just appear very fat? Could she possibly be bloated?

Good luck! And sorry for all the questions, I'm just trying to pin down what may be the issue here.

 

[Doug62]

Not at all, thats what i want,
100 litre tank, 2 females, 1 male, 5 male guppies, no salt but i'm about to put some in, dosnt seem stressed, just fat. Must admit the scales are sticking out a little but all water stats are good so i dont know.
I'm wondering about diet tho, i'm mixing between flake, algae tablets and the odd veg (cucumber etc) and live food rarely...prob more flake than anything tho...could this be a problem? i'm still pretty sure she is pregnant tho
cheers
doug

 

[Annastasia]

Okay, I'd add in the salt in soon. Everything else seems to be in check. Unless, she may be getting some stress from all the male Guppies following her around too? Male Livebearers try to mate with anything.

It sounds like she might have dropsy, if her scales are sticking out. Though sometimes they will appear to stick out if they are very pregnant. Have her scales pineconed gradually, or did it just happen?

The feeding sounds good. How many times a day do you feed?

 

[Kairi]

if she looks like a fat pinecone- it's prolly dropsy... if it just looks like she's too fat for her own good (and no pinecone scales) then the poor thing's stressed out. if it IS dropsy- catch her and put her in quarintine.

 

[Doug62]

Theres definatly no stress from the guppies...they dont bother with the mollies at all. I added some salt last night (just from 1 to 1.001 for a gradual increase) but theres still no sign of any fry. It dosnt look like she's 'pine-cone' to me, only really fat. However the second female molly is also pregnant, or so i believed, but only about 4 weeks. When i look at her from above, she does look pine cone so i'm starting to worry that it is dropsy. I really hope not. These are my first fish and i've really tried my hardest to do everything right. I think the best thing to do is borrow a decent digital camera (i cant get a clear picture with mine) and post them on here as you guys have got a much better chance of knowing than me.
Cheers
Doug

PS. Also if it is dropsy i have no-where to quarentine them to, so what do i do then?

 

[Doug62]

Hi all,
these are the pictures of my female mollies. I'm starting to feel like it must be dropsey...as the scales are looking more and more produded on both of them. The first 2 pics are the molly which was pregnant when i got it and the last one is the other one. See what you think.
Thanks
Doug

PS...I only usually feed once or twice a day and the 'pine-coning' seems to have come on in the last week or so

 

[Doug62]

Any ideas?

 

[Kairi]

she looks a little *too* round to be pregant to me... do you have an extra tank you can put her in? if it's not dropsy, she might de-stress a little and have the fry. if it is dropsy... well, you can treat her accordingly. it's hard to tell w/o a picture from above though about the scales.