paul219

I am new member, and new in keeping mollies. Please i would to know how can i distinguish male molly from female. When would a molly lay eggs? How can i know if she is pregnant? Thanks.

Carillon

Well, I know at least one of these is a trick question! Mollies actually never lay eggs, or rather they do but they are fertilized internally like with mammals. Then when the molly gives birth, a little free swimming fry comes out instead of an egg!

For your other questions on mollies, a great place to look is on the molly board. To get there, go to freshwater fish -- Species Specific, and look for the Livebearers board. On this page, you'll find a place just for mollies, and hopefully you'll also find all your answers there.

Welcome to Fish Lore!

COBettaCouple

Check this post for a good way to tell male & females apart: http://www.fishlore.com/Forum/index.php?topic=2834.0. Mollies will give you many live babies for months, every 3 1/2 weeks after the first batch. when a molly is pregnant she will have a black gravid spot on her belly. when she is nearly ready to have babies, you may see black dots in her stomach (depending on her color). when she is ready to drop her babies, her back end will square-off.

both her and other fish will eat the babies, so you will want to move the babies to a seperate tank for safety as soon as you can or get a breeders netting box to hang in the main tank. you could move the pregnant molly into that when she is ready to drop her babies.