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I bought 2 balloon mollies this morning. One just started giving birth. She had one in the tank (dead). and so far has had 4 in the breeder's net. They are also dead. What is happening? Any info is appreciated as I have 3 more soon-to-be moms. Things are looking up! One live one!

Good morning. Well, my mom only had 2 live births and this morning I found her dead. Momma #2 is in the breeding box delivering now. All the babies are alive and seem okay so far. I guess maybe the first mom was stressed over the ride home or wasn't healthy. Can I leave the babies in the breeders box? I'm cycling a 10 gal for them but it isn't ready yet. Thanks. Oh, Can I put more than one mom in the box at a time? The third one is showing signs. No way could I be an obstetrician! This is nerve-wracking! More questions! Mom hasn't had any more babies for the past hour, so I put her back in the main tank. All the babies are laying on the bottom of the breeders box. They are alive but are just sporadically swimming around. Is this normal? Also, the other fish were poking at the bottom of the box trying to eat them so I cut the top off a clean, rinsed well pair of panty hose, tied a knot in the end and stretched it around the bottom of the box. Will this hurt anything? Will there be enough waterflow? This is my first experience with livebearers so please excuse all my queries.

For your first problem, your mollie was most likely stressed on the way home. The only reason I can think of that why all the babies died was that they might have been premature. Premature birth happens alot with mollies, especially if they are moved tanks to soon. It took me a few times to figure it out.
The size of your breader box determines 1) how many females can give birth in it at a time, 2) how many babies it can hold in total. I have a 10g set up for babies, lots of java moss and hornwart for the babies to hid in and I use an undergravel filter with low air pressure (baby mollies do not produce alot of waster. After a few weeks, most adult mollies seem to look at them as youngins and less like food so I place them back with their parents and off the go.
As for your other questions, mollies are a fish that are easy to bred, but it takes a few tries to get it right. The good think is in nature, it isnt uncommon for 2 or 3 to survive out of 20. In the tank, you may seem to lose that many, but if you pay close attention and read, read, read, you will have 15 out of 20 survive.
GOOD LUCK

"There is also a Clown Pleco in this tank some where. I am telling you, HE IS IN HERE."

Thanks for the reply, des_sniper. I think I have everything under control. I picked out all the casualties and the rest of the 30-40 are getting around a lot better. I fed them Hikari First Bites. Is 3 times a day enough? How about frozen blood worms, or brine shrimp? Am I missing anything?

A reason why they could be born dead is because
you put her in a breeder box, she flipped out and aborted them all.
This is why I never use a breeder box. I used 1 twice,
both times I ended up with aborted fry and a dead mother.
I usually just let the female have her fry in the tank, then collect any that I find. That way fry who are
poorly developed or deformed get eaten so you dont have to cull as many and the strongest survive this way.
Its much much less stress on the mother too.
Add lots of live plants if you want fry to make it.
Floating plants like anachris and hornwort are great for
fry hideouts, and java moss is great for a bottom plant for fry.


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