benjaminBreaker

She has been pregnant since I bought her, but since I've never actually bred fish before, especially not mollies, I don't exactly know when it's the right moment. By that, I mean size...how big are they usually before it's time? I know she is suppose to get reeealy big, and boxy. Well, she is boxy, and for her size, she's pretty big. But like I said, I just have NO idea, so here are a few pics I took of her this morning...
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Zenial

Hrmm... I'm only going by other photos I've seen. I'd say about a week and she'll pop :P

Your empty 10 gallon tank... is that for Mrs. Molly?

Congratulations.

benjaminBreaker

Yup! I can put her in there, but everything wont be completely ready for a while. I have these big river rocks in there that the fry can hide in, easily, but nothing else. No plants, nothing. I've been looking for some java moss, but so far I havn't been able to find a LFS in my area that sells any. There is one place left to look, please God, let there be java moss!
Also, I need a sponge filter still. I had an idea for a guard I could make for my filter intake. (I'll put up some pics of tank later)
It is basically a normal filter with a mesh cap on the end, but I had an idea about building a frame out of wire and putting some thin cloth over it to put on the end. It would keep the babies from getting sucked up, and it would not weaken the filter's sucktion. OR, I was just gonna' get some kind of sponge, cut a hole in it, and just put it over the cap...which seems way easier.
I'm just being kind of picky about my materials.

But I have ordered Hikari First Bites, or whatever from Sears.com. Should be here in a few weeks, but if not, can I give them crushed up flakes?
Soo...almost there. Hope that the lack of plants wont cause any problems.

benjaminBreaker

This is my 10 gallon.
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Zenial

Getting closer

Hrmmm... most fry prefer to eat live food. Maybe you can get your hands on some brine shrimp eggs (sea monkeys :P) or similar? I think the flakes would just pollute your tank...

Lack of plants won't be a problem, most baby tanks are empty

Best of luck!

EDIT: nice tank btw

rae64

She looks really close to me. You can see her belly starting to "square off" at the bottom. I'd bet in the next few days, maybe a few hours. Be careful putting her in the 10 gallon, it has to be cycled as well or the fry will die. Also, are you sure you want to keep the fry? You have to have an outlet, and I know some people (like me) have no LFS that will take them. You can always go "survival of the fittest" and see who makes it and who makes a tasty snack... lol

benjaminBreaker

I may end up having to do that...unfortunately.
I wanted to try and save them, but will some of them actually survive in the main tank? Have you seen my tank? I've added a small patch of java moss to the tank(which the final pet store did have! Thank God...)
Will that actually work?

Bribaby

Hi there don't know if the Molly had her fry yet but some information that I have gathered over the years of breeding Mollies are these.
When a fish I get from the pet store is already pregnant, for some reason (just an opinion) You lose more with this batch of fry than if you placed the mating yourself. So if you were to keep a set of fry from this Molly but are worried about number of total fish in the end, this may be the batch you want to keep.
I have had many liverbearers mate and breed in full community tanks and yes a lot of fry don't make it because of obvious reasons but ended up having some make it as well. So every now and than you might end up seeing 2 or 3 new fish which is great and keeps the total amount of fish limited.
When I decide to breed a fish and intend on keeping the fry, for instance right now I have 2 platys about to have fry. I don't put them in the plastic containers as I have had many die from that, I heavily plant the breeding tanks and small decorations from a LFS. I still come out with about 20 fry or so, just have to keep checking in to see the process and get her out after about 2 hours of the start of birth. Hope this helps and your tank looks great for the molly!!!!

benjaminBreaker

Thanks, unfortunately, the molly gave birth about 2 days ago...I haven't seen any fry in the tank since then. I'm assuming the worst, but my platy, Tanque, is pregnant and is bound to give birth at some point...maybe next week. She looks like the literally ate a pebble, and the pebbles in my tank are quite large. I'll put pics up in a bit.
Idk if she was impregnated by my male platy, but it seem likely since I've had my platies for over a month now.

Bribaby

to be sure, maybe when you feed your other fish right after put in some very fine flake food like you usually make for babies, just so if they are still alive and hiding, they are being fed if the food comes by a plant or decoration.

bassbonediva

Hornwort makes a GREAT place for fry to hide. It's a floating plant (DO NOT plant it in the substrate or it will die off) and tends to be pretty dense. Let it sit beneath the waterfall on your filter and it'll go nuts. I have a bunch in my 55gal and it is taking over the side of the tank that it's on. I just released two 2 month old platy fry into the 55gal and they immediately went and hid in the hornwort. It's easier to find than java moss and is pretty cheap (I paid $2.50 for the bunch I have). The fry will also eat off of it (mine do, as do my adult fish).

benjaminBreaker

I actually just got some Hornwort the otherday for my friend's cichlid tank that I'm keeping in my room. I didn't know that, but as soon as I saw it and how full it gets, I just knew it was perfect for keeping fry in. But are you sure about not planting in the substrate?

bassbonediva

POSITIVE! Look up hornwort on PlantGeek.net or just Google it. Everywhere you look it'll tell you not to plant it, just to let it float. If you look at the plant, it has no roots at all. I have mine floating under the waterfall of the smaller HOB filter on my 55gal and it has pretty much taken over the right side of my tank. If you plant it, it'll go brown, then it'll die. Trust me on this one.

benjaminBreaker

What if you just hold it down on the bottom with a rock? My friend is pretty bummed about it not being able to be planted.
But yeah, I also noticed it had no roots. I got some Java moss in my 20 gallon tank, and it just pinned it down with a rock. It is doing great! I also just recently got some Cabomba, Moneywort, and Java Fern for my betta tank. The Java fern is attacked to some driftwood, but the Cabomba and Moneywort are just stuck into the gravel. Not sure if they develop roots later on, but when I got them, they didn't have any roots.

bassbonediva

The cabomba will develop roots. I have some in ALL my tanks. I just LOVE the stuff! I had some in one of my divided 10gal male betta fraternity tanks and it was going nuts, so I switched it with a smaller bunch I bought recently and put the stuff from the 10gal into my 55gal. The longest piece I got out of that 10gal was about 20" long!! :O It has taken over the back of my Hex5 and created a little mini forest that my male betta in there loves to hide in.

The moneywort should develop roots, but I'd keep an eye on it. It's technically a bog plant, so it might melt later on from being fully submerged.

As for anchoring down the hornwort...I don't know how well it would do, but as long as it isn't buried, it should be fine. Mine is draped across my large piece of driftwood to make it look like a tree. You can see it on top of the big piece of driftwood on the right side of the tank (as you're looking at it). That pic was taken maybe a week and a half ago and the hornwort has spread A LOT since then.

This is a close-up of the hornwort in my 55gal that I literally JUST took:

And here's a FTS in which you can see the hornwort almost covering the right side of the tank:

(Yes, my water is "yellow." That branchy piece of driftwood on the left was such an awkward shape to soak that I didn't bother and just put it in the tank. The yellow you're seeing is the tannins. I do 40% water changes every week and it's actually A LOT better than it was.)