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I was reading your post and it looked exactly like what I needed to know. I have had 2 mollies and 1 swordtail give birth in the last 2 weeks and all 3 died within hours of the birth. I also had another swordtail ready to give birth and found her dead this morning. Makes me worried about my other mollie who is pregnant. It is almost like being pregnant or giving birth makes them die.

well, my bumble bee died this after noon

I always move my females into another tank (fry tank) when it is about time for them to have their babies and I have never had a problem with this.

The reason that I do this is because I have a dojo loach in my tank with my female guppies and they like really cold water. When it is time for the guppies to give birth I crank up the temp to 82 degress F to help the lil mommy along with her labor. After it has been at least a day after birth and I know that she is done... I move her back to the adult tank. (acclimating her of course both times)

This helps me by not having to chase the little fry down to put them in the fry tank and also I don't have to worry about the other adults eating the fry for dinner.

Of course... this is only my experience.

Good luck with your fishies!

i have only had 1 sword die after birth with me keeping her away from the rest, but i thought i would let them do it on their own in the 10 gallon wit hthe rest, i lost 9-10 when i left them, and 2 of the guppies must have given birth, but the babys dissapeared, they are thin, but no babys, i looked the all the hiding places and nothing, and it is a heavly decorated sand bottom tank, i am currently treating 1 of the 2 guppies, she has 2 rings of discolored scales, around her waist, i am treating in a blue bucket "blue because it is calming to a fish" with melafix, i also took my last female guppy out in a red tub to give birth, maybe they "i have a platty 2" will both survive

I agree with cory addict. I dont move my females to have there babies in a seperate tank or anything and i dont have any problems with them dieing. If you do have to move them, try moving them way before they are do and dont move them back into the main tank for a week or two after birth. That will help minimize the stress on the mom.

HTH

I used to have Swordtails, never did anything to help them give birth and had lots of babies, ok, most did get eaten by other fish but a few did get to be adults and survived with great success. Eventually I got bored of Swordtails and took them to the store but they where cool fish, if I had more space I would probably buy some more

Every time my sister would try to "help" her platies by moving them to a separate tank or to a breeding trap, they always died after giving birth. Now she does nothing to assist them (just leaves them in the main tank with the other fish), and she has tons of babies and none of the mothers have died.

You might want to try just not fooling with them before birth, because it seems that even the slightest bit of stress is enough to prove fatal.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

I am on my 3rd day of treating with antibiotics (Maracyt)..have always added salt to that aquarium because the mollies supposedly like it..however I am a little leary in doing either because not only do I have a pregnant one but my babies are in the same tank for lack of a hospital or breeding tank.

I had this happen to about 8 of my guppy females within 30hrs of giving birth as well. I cannot say that this was your situation...but at least in mine I found out I had a fungus in my tank which made the females succeptable after giving birth. I treated the tank with aquarium salt and Maroxy and I have never had a problem since...

ok in the past two days my swordtail and two guppys gave birth and all of them died within 24 hours later.

what am i doing wrong?

the temp is 80 degrees i checked nh3 and no3 and its all fine

i heard they sometimes die after pregnancy but this was later... for instance with the swordtail 2 hours after her last fry i feed her then moved her back with the community and she was fine the next morning she ate and everything. and tonight i get home (about 22 hours after birth) and she is dead.
i mean this isnt like a 50$ fish it doesnt affect me financialy but still.. it would be nice to know how to prevent this from happening in the future

Bumble bee what? Catfish? Goby?

And why did you post that here...

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

I have a new problem. My Molly babies in which I started with about 30 have dwindled down to around 8. and the 8 that are left have seemed to lose their tails. Holy cow. I just treated the tank with antibiotics that should have covered fin rot if that is what is going on.....why are they losing their tails????????? My 1 baby swordtail in the same tank has its tail.....makes no sense to me.

Do you put aquarium salt in your tank? Some people think it is a stupid idea, and some people swear by it. I think it is helpful.

I do put salt in my tank...I get so frustrated.....I love my Aquariums and my fish...but no matter what I do I lose 1 to 3 every other day.....I read up on the species I have to be sure I am doing everything right....seems the harder I try...the more I fail....

How about just leaving them do it all by themselves, don`t help with anything, no breeding traps etc and then only help would be to add a lot of large tanks so they can hide in amongst the leaves (the fry that is) and when the fish give birth just leave them in the tank to relax and feed them as normal and feed away from where all the fish are so they all get sucked over away from the female and then sprinkle crushed up flakes above the plants for the baby/ies

Wow! Anyone up for a good 'ol fashoned thread hijacking? :%)

Weslet:
Just to throw my 2c in, Giving birth is stressful enough without being yanked out of your home IME it's better for all concerned to just leave the mother where she's comfortable - nature's a wonderous thing - let it happen ... & if you really want to save the fry, provide plenty of cover & be on watch with a length of air hose to syphon them out into a grow out tank

iamgentlelady:
It sounds like you're having a few problems. I'd strongly recomend starting your own thread so that you can sort out exactly what's going wrong & why, and what you can do to rectify it. Most of us totally understand how frustrating it can be to be having problems & not know what to do to fix it. DON'T GIVE UP! There's an abundance of knowledgable, helpful people on here who would be happy to help you - you just need to start a thread so that they CAN.

fishyhelper288:
Like Cory Addict, i'm not quite sure what your bumblebee's doing in here ... but anyway, my condolences.

Sin

Put your females into a clear floating baby livebearer box. There should be a section in the bottom of the box for the babies to drop into put a small section of a plastic plant in this bit. situate the box in a darker area of your tank. dont mess with anything about your otherwise healthy main tank.