Spastic mollies, pregnant or disease ?

I'm relatively new to being enthusiastic about fishkeeping. I've had fish for over 10 years now but only recently started reading up on it and being more responsible (thankfully with few casualties).

Anyway, I added 3 dalmation mollies last week. 2F 1M. One of the F looks bloated. Initially thought pregnant, but no fry to date and still bloated, like about to pop. In the first few days, she would swim up and down one side of the wall incessantly but would eat normally. Now she's tilted at about 45 degrees, like her tail is weighed down. At night, she's started hiding in a decoration. She swims much less and eats normally (good appetite). What I worry about are these occasional spasms in near vertical positions that last about 2 seconds before she'd swim away as if nothing happened. I just noticed the 2nd F, who is not bloated or pregnant, having similar spasms occasionally too.

I have not noticed any worms protruding anywhere, nor redness or anything abnormal looking. They both eat well and swim well (bloated one less active these days). Everyone else in the tank acts their normal selves and are always hungry as usual.

I feed them small pinches 2x a day, alternating between flakes, dried mosquito larvaes, dried brine shrimp and algae flakes. Change 20-25% water 2x a week, adding chemicals to dechlorinate and a tsp of aquarium salt. 4 undergravel filters, 1 biowheel 330, bubble wand, 2 inch gravel (I do suction the gravel on 1 side per water change altertnating to other side nx time).

40 gallon tank
9 mollies (6F 3M mixture of black, golddust, dalmation and 1 lyretail calico)
2 platies
1 pleco
8 molly fry (i'm getting another tank)

Any ideas ? I've looked on all the aquarist forums and found no mention of spasms that's only occasional, not increasing in frequency either. Thanks.

Oh, also, how do you lower the temp in your aquarium if it creeps way too high. My heater is not on. It's hovering at 80-81 right now.

DirkW said:

I keep mollies, and she looks pregnant to me. Expect a large batch of fry and I suggest not moving her from the tank she's in until she's given birth.

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You were right, she gave birth tonight but unfortunately, seems like premature labor. About 10 looks viable, the rest (90+) are stillborn, partially developed, and most still in their sac. I don't know if I stressed her out by staring at her so much. The dalmation male was hanging around her as well.

well, we're still not over the danger phase. the babies are now in a plaster breeder trap with tiny verticle slits on the sides. the other adults are trying their hardest to suck them out. since they're premature, they're real little and a few got sucked half in half out of the slits and died. i stuffed some fake plant parts around the slits; hopefully that'll deter the ever hungry adults. i can't believe i can feel such anguish over these itty bitty fry but i do ! today, i scooped out as much of the eggs and dead fry as i can -- they're already rotting and for some reason, the adults don't want to eat them yet they try to suck the remaining live ones out of the trap. they're probably trying to suck out the uneaten crushed flakes in there. still.. oh well, i really don't need 100 extra fish.. thanks you guys, for replying.

bettagurl said:

she may be pregnate,but when my dalmation molly was pregnate she looked a little different,also you should see a dark spot on her if she is pregnate(babies eyes)before she has her fry.she could also be constipated,when you bought her was she bloated?as for the spasms im not sure,mine have done it to,and when i brought new ones home they always went up and down on the glass like they were very agitated.watch her very close for any signs of illness,also do you have a hospital tank?if so put her in it.hope she will be ok could you possibly put pics up from different angles?it would help :

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After reading through lots of fish websites, I think the spasms could be due to lack of electrolytes so I'm going to try to remedy this and see if the spasms go away. Haven't seen any spasms in the last few days but poor post partum mama molly looks all bent out of shape and lethargic. Don't know if she'll live. She still eats decently though.

No, just plain old tap w/ chlorine/chloramine remover. If that's not the answer, then why are they spazzing ? Perhaps some inbreeding problems ? I've read that dalmations are fragile. Also, I just noticed the lethargic mama and the male dalmation do an intermittent flipping on the side against the floor gravel & the driftwood last night. It's like some epileptic seizure, not the vertical head shakes I've been talking about. It lasted about 5 seconds, stopped, swam a bit then flipped all over again. The whole episode for each lasted about a minute or so. I haven't seen anything since then. I'm going to get some internal parasite meds today. I just did a water change yesterday, added salt and tested the water. unfortunately, my test tablets must have expired cos it's really old. not giving me any results, more like sediments. i need a trip to the lfs.