DAGES

Hi....I am new to Molly's and baby fish, so I apologize in advance if this is a question that is continually asked...BUT....I have what appears to be a very preggo black molly. I have 3 other Female mollies and one male, ( although I believe I started out with 2 other dalmation males and they both died within the first week..) anywhoo, this fish just continually grows. I know someone is having babies because i have caught 7 fry and have them separate in a breeder box...2 of which are smaller than the other 5. At one point I put this preggo in a breeder box too, and she was just not happy. She did drop about 5-6 clear eggs, so I just finally let her back loose in the tank and now after about 5 days she still hasn't done anything. So is that common to drop a few eggs if she was stressed? then now will just continue with her pregnancy? or maybe she is the one who probably gobbled all the other fry and is just plain fat? I hate to put her back in the box again, but chasing those little fish around the tank is a nightmare and with 4 small kids and myself glued to the tank on Baby Watch, I would hate to see them all eaten in one big gulp... thanks for any thoughts or suggestions!

COBettaCouple

Welcome to Fishlore.

Well, breeder boxes are pretty stressful and I wouldn't put a pregnant livebearer in one, as you saw. She'll stay pregnant, dropping fry about every 4 weeks until she runs out of stored sperm. But with a male in the tank, they'll all be pregnant their whole lives pretty much.

If you want more of the fry to survive, I'd recommend lots of hiding places: floating grass (real or fake) & lots of plants and caves in the tank give the fry places to dart to safety.

What I did with our platy tank was move the adults into a holding area.. another tank or big rubbermaid container (big enough they can swim around some and maybe put an air stone in it). Loosely cover the container so they can't jump out while you're working on the hunt for fry.

Then it's a matter of carefully pulling out the decor and substrate.. each to their own big container with some tank water in them (so any fry that hitch a ride out of the tank can have water and any good bacteria can have water too).

Yet another rubbermaid container is good to use for sucking debris out with a turkey baster (some fry will likely go for the ride here). Then you can suck out the fry that have no place left to hide. You'll need good lighting to check the debris for any fry that got into there.

For the fry, you'll want to setup a tank with a bare bottom, just some caves and plants and either a sponge filter or a regular filter with fish net netting over the intake. (cut the netting off a small net and use a rubber band to secure it over the intake slots so fry don't get sucked in.)

Walmart or Target have storage containers about 15 quarts or so - we have about a dozen of these to use for fish tank work including fry removal and tank cleaning.

DAGES

your suggestions for catching the fry are helpful!
so it is common then for a pg fish, if stressed, to drop a few eggs, but then continue that same pregnancy? i read somewhere that they can also "hold" their fry until they decide they are ready to deliver () just curious!
thanks!

ywalsh28

I have 4 Molly fish. 1 of my fish have a very round tummy. Im not sure if she is pregnant. Ive been trying to figure our how to tell what sex they are. This is my first time having a molly. One of my Mollies Im sure is a girl, she had 3 babies a week after I bought her. How many do they usually have?

xVitox

well my huge molly just had about sixty babies. i think the number is anywhere up to 60. Usually a first-time molly will have a lot of stillborn/eggs

dee34

congrats on ur babies ...

bolivianbaby

Congrats on the fry!