I'm back with yet another question ...

[petcrazy213]

Sorry to sound so ignorant, I haven't kept live bearers much in the past (and it was LONG past) and have just recently gotten back into freshwater.

Anyway, if you all can bare another question ... I posted earlier about raising the fry that one of my female mollies just had a couple days ago. Well, the 5 remaining fry are doing fine but sadly I found mom dead this morning. :sad She had the babies Wednesday evening. I caught her from the main tank with a net and put her into the breeder container because she looked like she was ready to pop. She had her babies that evening and so I thought it best to remove her and put her in the main tank again so she wouldn't eat the babies. She seemed fine until yesterday afternoon when I saw her hiding in one of the fake plants in the tank. She wouldn't come out and eat in the evening when I fed the tank but I figured she was just recooperating. This morning when I went to feed the tank I saw her still sitting in the plant so I moved the plant a bit with the swish of some water and she came floating to the surface. I also noticed she had some fuzzy/slimy stuff on her body.

Do you think that she was over stressed with being put in the breeder,having babies, and being put back in the main tank? Could there have been a complication with the birth that I didn't know about? What should I have done different?

The other mom molly that had babies actually had them in the main tank before I could do anything about it and she's doing just fine. I'm worried I killed this fish by stressing her too much. Any input would be helpful as I would hate to have that happen again. She was actually the picture perfect match to the male I have and I'm a little bummed about the whole thing. Shouold I just leave the females to birth in the main tank and try to scoop the fry out with a cup next time?

On a lighter note:

I went back to the petstore yesterday to get the fish a treat ... when I first got the fish I had bought only 1 live plant (Camboba - something like that) for the tank. These fish have been eating it like it was candy! So I went back yesterday and bought them 3 more to nibble on. They are in their glory I tell you! :dance Just thought I'd share some GOOD news for once.

 

[Blinky]

Sorry to hear that you lost her. Breeder traps can really stress fish out, and giving birth is very stressful for livebearers. They need time to recouperate afterwards, and if she was chased too much by a male while she was trying to rest that could have done her in. She was a baloon molly, right? They're notorious for having troublesome births - fry sometimes get stuck, or other complications arise (due to their deformed shape baloon mollys have trouble pushing the fry out I believe) and they do sometimes die during/after the birth.
Since mollys are known to be the less likely to eat their fry than platys or swords, I'd say if you get a whole bunch of cabomba carolianas (sp?) the fry will have plenty of places to hide and you'd be best off letting the moms give birth in the main tank. Some fry will survive (and the ones that do will be the strongest of the batch) and the moms will be far less stressed.
[edit] The fuzzy/slimy stuff on her body when you found her is normal on a dead fish, it's not a sign that she had a disease, it's just bacteria/fungi breaking down organic material, so don't worry.

 

[LongTime]

I haven't done livebears for a while but I don't like to stress the moms at all. Blinky is right, IMO. Mo9llies are not big on eating their fry and if there isn't anything in the tank that would eat them the babies stand a good chance of surviving if you give them places to hide.

As far as the treat you gave them, mollies do best with a lot of vegetables in their diet.