Kidsmollies

Hello all... My daughter has a 10 gallon for Mollies, and I have a couple of questions. I've done allot of reading on the proper water temp, foods, and so on for mollies, but have not found info on these 4 questions...

#1. How old does a baby male molly need to be before it can fertilize?

#2. How old does a baby female molly need to be before it can become pregnant?

#3. We have a large female silver molly. She has had 3 batches of fry so far. We HAD 2 orange and 2 silver, but the other 3 died (1 jumped out of the back of the tank, 1 was sucked up by the filter and 1 just didn't make it) Our female left has had 2 batches of fry without us knowing 2 times (1 batch we were able to save 1 baby, orange; and the next batch we were able to save 4 babies, all orange, before mama ate them).......... SO ANYWAY........ my question is..... If mama silver molly has more babies, what are the chances that we will end up with a different color of molly like a black or Dalmatian (any color other than orange)?

#4. A week ago we moved her into a bredding tank and it looked like she aborted...(we counted 19, almost ready babies).....from what I read, it looks like it was from the stress of being moved too early (so this would have been her 4th batch. We noticed the dead babies today, so I figure about another 3 1/2 weeks to move her again to the breeder)?

Thank you all so much! I'm trying to get on top of the game before more babies come!

Jon

is your tank cycled...?

vin

I have swordtails which are also live breeders...I've got water issues of my own, but my swords are on their second spawn in 10 weeks....(go figure!)

We've got a pregnant female that we just moved into the breeding net within the same tank. My guess is that by transferring your mollie to a separate tank it put her into shock.

I would recommend getting a breeding net that hangs onto the side of your tank and sits on the inside so the fish stays in the same water. The female can give birth there and then afterwards be put back into the general population. Let the fry grow in the breeding net until they are large enough to be put into the population. About 8-10 weeks later.

Kidsmollies

I have a breeder net, and this is what I did with her. I think it stressed her too much, because she had 19 dead fry with the sacs still on them in the breeder net that was in the same water. I guess I moved her too soon..?

Jon

maybe... i think the pregnancy period for mollies is 4 weeks right? just pay close attention... also post your water parameters plz

Kidsmollies

The tank is cycled and not new. It is brackish water we started out with cichlids (we have a 30 gallon cichlid tank, and will be setting up our 75 gallon of cichlids), but the cichlids did not take well to the 10 gallon in our daughters room.

-The temp is kept between 78-82 degrees.
-We use aquariuim salt with every water change which is every 3 days (and use 1TBSP).
- We also use chemical to take out the chloramines in the water
-Use tap water conditioner
-Use amonia remover
-We add stress coat and stress Zyme
-When the tank is starting to look a little cloudy we will use a little Water Clarifier
-20% water changes are done every 3 days and water is treated before it goes in the tank
-We use a filter for the size of a 30 gal. so tank is VERY clean
-Flouresant lighting is used for about 10 hours a day instead of regular light bulb.
-There is an under gravel filter that we clean with the hose with every 20% change

Kidsmollies

Sorry, somehow posted before I was finished...
-nitrate (NO+3) are at 20
-Nitrate (NO+2) are at 0.5
-Hardness is at 75
-alkalinity is at 40
-pH is at 6.8

Okay, I hope I have provided enough info for you all now. We are on target with those cichlids, but for some reason these mollies are confusing! And I know, cichlids are the hardest to take care of!!! LOL!

Sorry for not giving enough info before. Guess I just wasn't thinking (please forgive me) LOL!

This is a great site! Once I get my molly situation under control, I'm sure this will be wonderfully helpful for tips in setting up our 75 gallon also. And also, between hubby and I when it comes to cichlid questions, I hope we can help here too!

Jon

you dont need stress zyme or amonia remover if your tank is cycled.

Butterfly

You need to put dechlorinator in the tap water before adding it to the tank, that is the only chemical you need if your tank is cycled. When the tank is cycled you will have an ammonia reading of 0 and a nitrite reading of 0. If you have live plants they and water changes will pretty much take care of the NitrAtes. when you add salt only add enough to replace what you take out when you do water changes.
Unless I missed it you didn't give an ammonia reading.
Mollies like most livebearers can have fry every 28 days for four batches of fry from one mating.
Usually livebearers can mate at four to six weeks.
Hope that helps
carol

Kidsmollies

Yes, it does. I hope that my oldest fry is able to mate with our female. I'm wanting to keep all of the fry (5 in all now) and cannot tell what sex the fry are yet, so I don't want to rush out and buy another female molly, when I know for SURE that we got one grown female!!! LOL! Hopefully she'll have one more batch of fry that should be coming any day now. If not and it seems she's done, I'm going to go buy the fatest most pregnant looking molly at the pet store!!!! A black or dalmation! LOL

Thank you!

Kidsmollies

Oh yes and about the amonia level, we have a gage that stays in the tank to give constant readings. MONTHS (like 5 months ago), it went into the danger zone, but never sense then. It is showing safe and has been sense that incidient.

The chloramine remover also dechlornizes the water too when we do changes.

Thank you so much!

0morrokh

Water changes every 3 days is too often. It will stress your fish. Oh wait...is that for the fry or the adult fish? They say very young fry need more frequent water changes...although I raised 2 guppies in my tank, which only has weekly water changes. Unless you have very young fry, weekly water changes are fine. And you don't need to add so many chemicals. All you need to add is dechlorinator and salt. Stress Coat is actually a declorinator as well as helping the fish, so you don't need anything else to remove chlorine/chloramines. Too much stuff in the water can be harmful to fish, and adding ammonia remover is starving your filter bacteria. That stuff is meant only for emergencies, not to use all the time.