Dalmation Lyretail Behavior

Question
QUESTION: I have a female Dalmatian lyretail Molly who has just given birth, @ 2 days ago.  I removed her from my breeder tank after the birthing was finished and put her back into my 32 gallon with her friends.  She was fine for the first day other than typical stress from moving.  Now she is swimming face down and tail up and she's kind of contorting her body alot.  It seems as though she's trying to fold her self in half.  What's going on with her?

ANSWER: Hi Jayson,
 That sounds very bad.  Is there any way that you could isolate her?

-- Ron C.
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
  Cichlid Research Home Page <http://cichlidresearch.com>


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I did isolate her, I kept her in the community tank however, I moved her into one of those floating breeders so she would not be harassed by the other fish. She passed about a day later.  After asking a few "fish" people I knew, we all came to the conclusion that her back was broken some how, either during the birthing process or shortly there after.  Only 1 of the fry was born alive.

Answer
Hi Jayson,
 Hmm... I'm sorry to hear that.  Clearly something went very wrong, likely during the birthing process, but I doubt that she broke her back.  I don't think that is possible.  The backbone of a fish is very strong and there is nothing for a fish to break it on, i.e., typically a human breaks there back by falling on something or some such thing and that can't happen to a fish.  

-- Ron C.
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
  Cichlid Research Home Page <http://cichlidresearch.com>