Balloon Molly

I bought 6 mollies about 4 months ago and they started giving birth almost every month. But I don't know why, it's been more than 1 and 1/2 month that none of my mollies give birth. Can someone tell me what would be the cause of all the mollies to stop giving birth.

Surprisingly, I can see they are pregnant but no fry so far. Please help!

Welcome to our forum.

The female fish of live bearing species can store sperm enough to fertilise several batches of young. Apparently they were fertilised when you bought them, but the male you have could be a dud. Another possibility is that fry are being eaten just as they are born. A dense growth of a floating plant like hornwort will provide plenty of hiding places for the fry. Hornwort is very easy to grow if you start out with a large bunch of it. One other possibility is that water quality has deteriorated since you added fish. Be sure to test water parameters, including temperature, and do weekly partial water changes. Fry can be very sensitive to water conditions. Finally, you could be over crowding the aquarium, especially if all the previous fry are still in the tank. Over crowding seems to interrupt the reproductive process; maybe it's a natural population control.

Please let us know if any of those suggestions helped.

Thanks a lot for your reply. I have been doing 10% water change everyweek and I put a little bit of salt together with the new water. Is this the correct way? Should I do about 25% water change everyweek? I have plants in my aquarium and small pots and houses where the fries can hide. For the past three months, whenever I see the fries, usually in the morning, I separate them into smaller tank so that they will not be eaten. But about 15 of the fries are already in adult size so I have put them back into the big tank. They grow very quickly. I have heard that it will take about 6 months for the fries to be in normal size but for me they took only 3 months and some of them are already pregnant. Is it normal or am I overfeeding them? I found one black balloon molly almost ready to give birth so I put her into breeding tank. I will update you their condition often. Thanks again!

The more common partial water change is 15 or 20 percent every week. However if you have a small aquarium with lots of fish, you need to get another, larger aquarium and do more frequent water changes in the small tank. If you change a large percentage of water every time, you risk changing water parameters too quickly, which is very bad for the fish. Personally, I stick with a 20 or 25 percent maximum; other people get by with larger water changes. There is some formula about inches of fish per gallons of water, but it does not apply to all species. If your aquarium is as crowded as the ones you see in pet shops, it's critically over crowded.

About salt: Mollies can survive in brackish water, but it's easy to overdo the salt thing. Depending on how much you add per water change, the salinity level could gradually increase. As for hiding places, fry usually head for the top of the aquarium; floating plants give them an immediate hiding place.

After all that, it sounds like you have a healthy aquarium, especially since the fish are growing fast. You should feed them twice a day and give them no more than they can eat in a couple of minutes. Healthy fish always act starved. If you are over feeding, the ammonia level will be above zero, and the fish will show signs of stress.

Send pictures if you can, and let me know if i need to explain something better.

Hi there!

How large is your tank?

I would not add salt to the water... During water changes I add Chlor-Out. Just a dechlorinator.

I would do at least 25% every week, and add the dechlor.

I was just curious about over crowding...

Oops...

Sorry John!

I guess you posted while I was posting...

LOL!

Hi, This is what I did when my mollies gave birth suddenly!! I got a breeding trap, you could even get a few if you have more than one molly pregnant at a time. They work like this: you put mum in when you can see she is pregnant, its like a clear plastic box which you stick on the side of your tank. you put a slide sort of thing in the middle, but the slide has small holes, small enough for the fry to get through when they are born, but not for mum, then that will save the fry being eaten. Then of course, you take mum and the slide out, and leave the babies in the trap, or put them in their own tank. This was the answer to my problems, but I dont know whether it will be to yours. Hope it helps though, this is what they look like.

Hi,

I will try to send you the picture of my aquarium soon.

And ya, I'm using exactly the same breeding cup that Xxpony_madxX suggested. Thanks for your helps.

I don't know what dechlor is. I am quite new to aquarium thing and I don't really know the chemicals. But one thing I'm sure is that I'm using ph7. Can u please explain me more about dechlor? Thanks in advance.

There's lots of different name brands of dechlorinator.

This removes the chlorine from the water to make it safe for the fish.

I'm not a fan of adding medications or chemicals to the water hastily. I'm also not a big fan of pH changing chemicals. Most fish can acclimate to a lower or higher pH. It' more stressful on them fighting to change it with every water change.

I know there are some exceptions to my feelings, especially in breeding certain fish.

I think the name of the dechlorinator that I use is Chlor-Out. Just ask your local fish store about one. They'll point you in the right direction.

Water conditioners like Amquel Plus or Stress Coat also remove chlorine along with some other harmful substances.

You can buy inexpensive test kits that will measure important water parameters like nitrate, nitrite and ammonia. Some kits also measure hardness and pH, and of course there is always the good old thermometer to measure one of the most important parameters. Weekly partial water changes will take out the dangerous things like ammonia and nitrite. Pet shops sell numerous concoctions that promise to make your aquarium water perfect, but like Angela pointed out, those things get over used and can cause more harm than good. A well maintained aquarium with a reasonable biological load is better than any chemical fix. Of course, that's just an opinion.

I'm sorry for my long silence. I was away on a trip. But thanks a lot everyone for all of ur help. I followed ur instructions. And I have now more than 50 baby mollies. I guess they are from more than 1 mom.

Thanks again.

Welcome back. I'm glad the mollies are doing well. Maybe you can sell a few at your local fish store, and that will help with some of the hobby's expenses. For that matter, you could buy more aquariums.

Hey, Grats on your Baby Boom!

I read alot, and I guess I could have told you wrong on adding salt.

Since you do have mollies, and I'm guessing no other species in that tank... Then it's ok to add some salt. The mollies actually like that.

Just make sure it's aquarium salt, or Epsom salts, no table salt...

Grats Again!

Another thing I'd like to add.

We don't really talk about this much, but I age all the water that goes into my fry tanks.

You see, I remove my eggs (it helps that I have egg bearers... LOL) and hatch them in a separate tank.

I have a 5 gallon (or less) Ice bucket that I fill with water.

So when I do my daily water changes, I use the water that's been sitting in the bucket for at least 24 hours.

This way I don't have to use chemicals to dechlorinate the water. I use the drip acclimation method to put the water into the tank.