# Round Belly Molly Problem after pregnancy



## jforst1980 (Mar 28, 2011)

I have a female balloon belly molly named Bizkit. She was actually born in my tank last June. About a week and a half ago, she gave birth to approx. 9 fry. All fry seem healthy and growing quickly. However since giving birth, she has been hiding out in the house in the aquarium, and rarely comes out, only occasionally for feeding times. Even this has dwindled. The father fish stays there with her. Lately she has been sticking close to the bottom of the tank and seems sluggish. She isn't swimming quickly nor near the top of the tank. She is still rather fat but is slimming down. Before and during her pregnancy, she was very healthy and active. I'm wondering if she is just tired from her pregnancy, although it seems like she'd have recovered by now. Or perhaps she is overwhelmed by the multiple new fish in the tank - it was bad timing, but she gave birth only 24 hours after I bought 4 new mollies for the tank. 

I was told at the pet store that she was probably bloated and had been feeding her a mixed diet for around a month. She seemed to be slimming up and didn't and still does not have any characteristics of droopsy. I added new fish because this had been an ongoing ordeal and the people at the pet store assured me after seeing pictures that she was just bloated. We added the new fish, 2 dalmation mollies, a gray round molly, and another orange round molly and the very next morning she dropped 9 fry. She is still fat. And I have noticed in the bottom of the tank where she stays (only coming out every few days) that she does sort of barrel rolls while swimming. It's weird and only around plants and such. I am not sure if it is an issue or if shes is just being evasive to the other new fish because she's not ready to mate again. I am also concerned that she was way too small for the amount of fry she gave birth to. She is barely the size of a dime. She did not seem large enough to give birth to that many fry. I am thinking the pregnancy was too much and it damaged her.

Please help!


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## balloonbelly (Feb 4, 2014)

PLEASE RESPOND TO JFORST1980's POST!!! *c/p*



jforst1980 said:


> I have a female balloon belly molly named Bizkit. She was actually born in my tank last June. About a week and a half ago, she gave birth to approx. 9 fry. All fry seem healthy and growing quickly. However since giving birth, she has been hiding out in the house in the aquarium, and rarely comes out, only occasionally for feeding times. Even this has dwindled. The father fish stays there with her. Lately she has been sticking close to the bottom of the tank and seems sluggish. She isn't swimming quickly nor near the top of the tank. She is still rather fat but is slimming down. Before and during her pregnancy, she was very healthy and active. I'm wondering if she is just tired from her pregnancy, although it seems like she'd have recovered by now. Or perhaps she is overwhelmed by the multiple new fish in the tank - it was bad timing, but she gave birth only 24 hours after I bought 4 new mollies for the tank.
> 
> I was told at the pet store that she was probably bloated and had been feeding her a mixed diet for around a month. She seemed to be slimming up and didn't and still does not have any characteristics of droopsy. I added new fish because this had been an ongoing ordeal and the people at the pet store assured me after seeing pictures that she was just bloated. We added the new fish, 2 dalmation mollies, a gray round molly, and another orange round molly and the very next morning she dropped 9 fry. She is still fat. And I have noticed in the bottom of the tank where she stays (only coming out every few days) that she does sort of barrel rolls while swimming. It's weird and only around plants and such. I am not sure if it is an issue or if shes is just being evasive to the other new fish because she's not ready to mate again. I am also concerned that she was way too small for the amount of fry she gave birth to. She is barely the size of a dime. She did not seem large enough to give birth to that many fry. I am thinking the pregnancy was too much and it damaged her.
> 
> Please help!


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

TBH, I have never kept mollies as I despise livebearers (I don't like bebehs). From what I've heard, the balloon mollies are very fragile because their weird body shape has come about from a huge amount of inbreeding, and the body shape lends itself to health issues, just like it does with the fancy, pop-eyed, and two-tailed goldies.

I know this is not what you want to hear, but personally I would get rid of all of your females and keep just males. Otherwise, I'm not much help in this discussion. Hopefully others can chime in.


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

It is diffacult to say what the issue is ,but I highly doubt having fry has anything to do with it.Many fish(not just live bearers) are breedable at very young ,even when still small.The effect of age and size would be on the fry.9 fry is only about 1/5 of a mollies potential.
As Gizmo mentioned the "round belly/ballon " mollies are a man made defect.Somehow the fish farms got this fishes body growth to stop early,but failed to have the same effect on their internal organs.although the fish stops growing on the outside the organs continue to grow giving the fish its "swollen" appearence.
My readings found that theses fish(all ballon type) have shorter life spans,lowered immunity to disease,and general poor health.There is some belief that they live in almost constant pain,but I'm not clear how anyone could confirm such a thing,but I'm willing to believe it.Some do claim to have had kept these fish for several years,without issue,but my thoughts are these people were lucky or just didn't recognise the issues in front of them.
I wish I could offer some help for your fish,but the symptoms you list don't lead me in any direction.Unfortunately my advice would be not to purchase anymore ballon type any fish.


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