Characodon lateralis- fry stuck, stalled labor

[Kat_Rigel]

Hi all. I have some Characodon lateralis (a livebearer goodeid and CARES species) and I find fry periodically. I found some yesterday morning, and this morning I found this female with a fry halfway delivered. The fry definitely looks dead to me and I'm not sure what to do. I isolated her to monitor if she progresses through labor at all but I dont see her straining or anything. Since she'll die if the fry is left in, I was considering anesthetizing with clove oil and seeing if gentle pulling would remove it. It seems like I should try this sooner rather than later so that the fry has not decayed to the point where it can't be extracted in one piece.

Has anyone seen this with any livebearer species? I am not surprised that the fry is so big, as that's normal for this species, but clearly something went wrong because the babies should not be white! That looks like dead fish to me. I'd like to save the mother fish if I can but I'm very aware that she might not recover.

[Kat_Rigel]

Ok well, quick update on this. The fry was delivered and although it doesn't look very good, I'm surprised it's alive at all. Mom looks unphased. So, just another interesting thing at the fish tanks today!

[FishPlanet]

This happened to my female platy. The poor baby was stuck and I thought it was dead. I keep an eye on the mom and the next morning, the baby had finally come out. The baby was very weak and sadly didn't make it, even though I had tried everything. Glad that your mommy fish is doing well. 🥲