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Recently in the past week I have had 2 extremely pregnant mollies die, One Balloon and one Black. The balloon died today, it was in the breeder box for 1 hour and then died. I was wondering if this could be of my well known overcrowded tank, stress, ammonia, or nitrate levels. I know this might sound very stange but i tried to squeeze the babies out of the Balloon Molly due to her minutes away pregnancy. When i did squeeze there were no fry or anything coming out. Was she possibly not pregnant?

PS. I don't check my water for anything.

Chris

You need to list your water conditions and your stock list. If you dont have a test kit you can go to the LFS with a sample and they can test it for you.

Inky

It will be impossible to answer your question unless you supply us with all the water peramiters and any other relivant infomation.

Over stocked??? what is in the tank, size, filtration, water changes how often and percentages, how long have you had the "Mollies"?

These are the basic answers required please.

I will be absent for a short time but some one should be able to assist if you answer all my questions.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info

Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

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Well look at my profiel for my tank size and fish, but i dont often do water changes. Did one yesterday. I have a bio wheel 100 and i have had the mollies for like 10 days.

EDIT: My Ph is normal at 7.2 so i dont know what else there is to test.

Chris

Mollies and platys are unfortunately so overbred that many of them have birthing issues .Eggs fail to develop and are not ejected as they are developmentally incomplete, and never emerge as livebirthed fry. Instead they form a hard crust inside the fish and block its gastrointestinal processes.In nature this is often self corrected by the reabsorbtion of the eggs, but in overbred specimens this often fails. This of course gives all the symptoms of constipation and is basically incurable. Despite this becoming an increasingly common phenomena, you should check for constipation (does the fish poo at all?) and worms, or gastrointestinal protozoa or bacteria.

Presuming an xray for the fish is out of the question, id go for a wormer first since it tends to clear worms and cause instant diahorrea, thusly shifting blockages.You can try offering blanched mashed peas to see if that gets things going, or even a little mashed garlic. Failing that youre left with protozoa or bacteria, and that can be treated with metronidazole, and if that fails then she might be egg-bound,or blocked with developed but dead fry, in which case unless you spend a huge amount on some fairly obscure hormone treatments, she is most likely unsaveable.If she dies, dont forget to see what caused it, its gross I know , but it might help you to save other fish.

Ps squeezing usually only ruptures stomach organs and damages skin, so its not recommended.

Good luck.