Pregnant Molly, don't know what to do.

Right now there's an older aggressive male molly in the tank with 3 other mollies one's a female and obviously pregnant. The older molly keeps like attacking her so I removed him from the tank. (There's a pacostimy in there as well)

Can someone tell me how they breed and what to do.

 

First: If there are 4 mollies and only one female she will be harassed to death in no time. Mollies as with most livebearers should be kept in ratios of 2 females per male.

Secondly: They are livebearers, that means once she is 'hit' or impregnated she can be removed to a birthing tank and will have the babies after the gestation period of 28-32 days, in most circumstances.

Thirdly: Plecostomus

What size tank are they all in, if you don't mind my asking?

 

I believe it is a 20 gallon tank may be a 30, I also have a small fish bowl I can put the pregnant fish into. I'm really not too sure what the male to female is but she seems to be doing fine. I'll remove her in a couple days to the fish bowl. How many babies should I expect before some get eaten( I know a lot of fish will eat their babies)?

Also, how do you know if she's giving birth?

 

You'll want to keep her in an environment with filtration and a heater.. if you don't have a smaller tank for her, a breeder's box (the ones made of netting) may work for her. seeing little black dots in her belly or seeing her back end 'square off' are signs of the drop coming soon. she'll drop most of her fry the first day, but can drop more over the next few days. hard to say how many will get eaten.

check: for pictures to help determine how many males & females that you have.

 

well with all the other males in the tank she was harrased, but I put her in another tank, but unfortunatly she died.

 

:'( poor girl.. we're sorry that you lost her.

 

Sorry to hear that, if you get livebearers again remember that for the most part they should be kept in ratios of 2 females per male.

Good luck with your fish.

 

I was just going to point that (the two females per male) out.

Out of curiosity, I've heard a few times in the past few days, to use the net-sided breeder boxes, not the solid ones. From what I've seen, the solid ones have space for the fry to get out, so if you float the box in a separate tank, the fry can get away from Mommy Dearest, and then she can be moved back to her original tank. The mesh on the net ones seems to fine to do that, so there must be another reason that I'm missing.

 

i've seen post after post on here about the plastic boxes failing, the fry getting eaten and the mother dying from stress.. the netting boxes are less stressful for her and more fry are likely to survive.. especially with some guppy grass or hiding spot inside the netting for them.

 

All very good reasons. Thanks

 

np.. livebearers are supposed to have a chemical/hormone that makes the mother not hungry for something like 12 hrs after dropping fry. Our platy Daisy didn't know that and was hungry without interruption, but hopefully that's an exception.

 

Ah! A further bit of information that I didn't know about that makes things make more sense.

 

Afraid to say that ours don't really seem to have that hormone either.

np.. livebearers are supposed to have a chemical/hormone that makes the mother not hungry for something like 12 hrs after dropping fry. Our platy Daisy didn't know that and was hungry without interruption, but hopefully that's an exception.

 

I wish that these fish would read the manuals! > It would be great for fry survival rates if the mom gave you at least a few hours to get the fry away from her.

 

I might be going against the mainstream grain here, but I am against the birthing units. The stress often leads the female into aborting most of her batch. That was my initial fear, and I've now read about it in the Practical Fishkeeping Magazine.

My method (risky for the fry too) is to wait until she's given birth, and then isolate the fry I can find.

 

I like the net ones, because then you have constant flow from all around of the same water, which I would think would be easier on the females, and easier for the fry eventually.

 

I might be going against the mainstream grain here, but I am against the birthing units. The stress often leads the female into aborting most of her batch. That was my initial fear, and I've now read about it in the Practical Fishkeeping Magazine.

My method (risky for the fry too) is to wait until she's given birth, and then isolate the fry I can find.

that is the ideal method & the way we do our livebearers, but if someone uses breeder boxes, the net ones are much better with more room and the option to put some decor in it.

 

I'm glad I found this post.... we just went out a bought a net breeder box and I was originally planning on doing it the way you said with letting the fry be born in the tank then rounding up the ones you could find, but then I found that my black moore could eat the ones even as big as this line __ so I don't know what to do.... heres a question..... how do you tell when a black molly is about to bear? I know the whole black dots thingy....but shes black..... also, I don't know how long shes been prego since she was that way when we bought her.....

 

we've not had mollys, but our platy would sort of "square off" around her back end when she was getting ready to drop and I believe other livebearers do that. She may also change behavior and seem to be looking for a quiet spot. If you have a corner of the tank that you plant real heavily (live or artificial plants), she may try hiding out in there when the fry are about to drop.

 

he he he. The famous black molly's gravid spot question. I have spotted dalmatian mollies, same problem, LOL.

I totally agree with Dave on my mollies' behaviour when about to give birth. The only other thing is that some will also display a lack of appetite (incredible for a molly) a day or two before hand.