lizzle

We recently purchased a black molly who was pregnant (intentionally). The gal at the store thought it would be a few weeks before she gave birth since she didn't appear all that big (I couldn't tell - we're kinda new to this). The day after we brought her home, she gave birth to her fry. We only counted 5 but not sure how many she might have eaten before we got home from work.

That was 2 weeks ago. None of the fry survived, mostly because we weren't prepared with any breeding apparatus at the time. Now we're ready and hopeful, since we have a male in the tank also.

Thing is - she isn't any smaller in the belly than she was when we brought her home. I've seen photos of black mollies and I really expected her to slender up once she gave birth. And since she's black I have no idea whether she could be pregnant again. We have the breeding tank at the ready but I don't want to put her in there if she's not pregnant. But I also don't want to have a repeat problem where suddenly she's giving birth again and we can't get her in there in time.

Help!!

Izabela

Hello,
Well, if you have a male and female and they are mating, she will have fry. Mollies typically give birth every 28 days or so, so you can count from her last birth. This is just a guideline, but if she is pregnant, she will continue to get bigger, and then her belly will start to look a little more like a square then round. Usually they give birth soon after this happens.

What kind of setup do you have for the babies? As you know, the babies are pretty small at first, so I would recommend using a sponge filter. I normally place the babies in a net breeder and when they are big enough not to get stuck in the filter I place them in their 10G tank. You do know to remove the mommy as soon as she is finished giving birth, right?

Good luck and have fun. They are so cute to watch when they start to grow and develop personality. Mine nibble on my hand and I can scoop them in the palm of my hand...they are not afraid at all.

Izabela