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One of my brand new dalmation lyretail mollies died today, quite suddenly and under mysterious circumstances. Yesterday it was quite happy and swam around with its mate. Today, it gave birth in the morning (none survived the wrath of the killer cories!) and afterwards, just hung out at the bottom of the tank, not moving much at all. I know I acclimated the fish well, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't water conditions that did it in. It died while I was over at a friends house late this afternoon. There were no marks on the body, and it had died while resting in a plant. I didn't know it was dead until I noticed the fish was not breathing. Does anyone know if some kind of internal injury could have occured while the fish was giving birth? That's the only lead I have...

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

I'm sorry to hear of your loss.

I had the exact same thing happen with the first 4 mollys I adopted. I would get her appropriately acclimated to her new environment only to have her give birth a week or so later then go on to swim in the great lake in the sky.

It was suggested to me that perhaps it is just too much stress on the molly's system - being pregnant, relocated to a new home then giving birth in a short period of time. Mollys are also not as hardy as other livebearers which would explain why platys and guppys survive this process.

Not much help I guess but my 2 cents.

Edited to add: The exception was the last molly I adopted. She, too, fell into the pattern of giving birth not long after coming to her new home. I then found her struggling to survive. She was swimming nose down and could not get her equilibrium. I set up a 10gal hospital tank and somehow she pulled through (thanks again GaryRoland). YaY!

[span class="edited"][Edited by 2004-08-08 04:58][/span]

I've had the same problem. Once mine have their fry, they end up dying. I think what happens is that they hold on for too long to have their fry safely. They either die after they have them, or when they are still pregnant.