balloon mollie died because of not giving birth..?

[firsttime-fishkeeper]

ive been thinking bout this for a while guys and now im just wondering.. cud a fish die from not giving birth??
it happened while i was away on holidays and i knew she was pregnant because of the dark spot around the anal area....

any help?

thanks =)

[Brownsnoutuk]

Re: balloon mollie died because of not giving birth..?

Maybe she died from giving birth. Ive had a couple of guppies die when they were very pregnant. It may be because theyre being chased around by the males when they need a rest.

Isnt a balloon mollie a deformatie thats selectively bred? Maybe your mollies insides were in worse shape than normal. Is it the first time she was pregnant?

[Mzungu]

Re: balloon mollie died because of not giving birth..?

I guess a fish could die from not giving birth...but in your case I don't think there's really any way to find out. If you left while she looked pregnant, there's a good chance that she had babies, who didn't survive or were eaten by others. Maybe if you could tell a little bit more about the tank, we could try to figure out what happened?

[firsttime-fishkeeper]

Re: balloon mollie died because of not giving birth..?

i dont know if it was her first time pregnant but it was most certainly the first time she was pregnant in my tank...

the tank is an aqua one a380 which holds up to 7 and a bit us gallons. it has 1 piece of driftwood in it live plants (do not know their names as the shop didnt present any names) it holds 2 balloon mollies 6 neon tetras 2 glass catfish and a chinese algae eater. it used to hold an additional 2 balloon mollies (one died by getting stuck under driftwood and other one died giving birth?) and a bristlenose catfish which we were told by our store had a fungal infection. we treated the tank for fungus after the we told the store about our dead catfish.

[Brownsnoutuk]

Re: balloon mollie died because of not giving birth..?

You probably want to upgrade to a bigger tank. The fish may have been more affected by the ammonia concentration because they were pregnant?

[firsttime-fishkeeper]

Re: balloon mollie died because of not giving birth..?

hehe not sure my dd would approve of a bigger tank cuz i got dogs as well n yeh
big tank n 3 dogs =P whos gna look after em all

[Brownsnoutuk]

Re: balloon mollie died because of not giving birth..?

You have probably around 3-4 times too many fish for a 7gallon tank. If you put a bigger filter on it, it might help. I'd think about giving up the glass cats and the chinese algae eater. The CAE will get more aggressive to the smaller fish and in 7 gallons theres nowhere to go.

[firsttime-fishkeeper]

Re: balloon mollie died because of not giving birth..?

lol i just recently read that the cae will grow up to 12 inches so that ones gotta go sometime soon... but i rkn the fish in there are doing fine.... i think the main reason theyve been doing fine is because the live plants in there taking up all the harmful chemicals =P right now im trying to promote the plant growth by turning the bubbler off when the light is on so they can photosynthesize more with more co2.. im trying to go all natural =D

[Brownsnoutuk]

Re: balloon mollie died because of not giving birth..?

Well my CAE got to 4" before they started bullying. The Glasscats can get upto 5-6".

For more CO2 you can use a DIY CO2 setup. Its really inexpensive, consisting of a two litre bottle, 2 cups sugar, 1 teaspoon yeast, 1 teaspoon baking soda and some air tubing. Lasts for about 3-4 weeks. Theres a couple of posts on this site that covers the subject. Just do a search.

[firsttime-fishkeeper]

Re: balloon mollie died because of not giving birth..?

lol that defeats the purpose of natural =P

[blacksmith37]

Re: balloon mollie died because of not giving birth..?

I think I lost a few guppies due to not being able to release their young. They were in a 29 with no males ,and medium angles and a few swords. One or two at a time they would swell (not dropsy) , eat well and act normal til just before they died. They were about 2 yr old.

[Brownsnoutuk]

Re: balloon mollie died because of not giving birth..?

2 yr old is old for a guppy.