Preganant Mollys?

[Awestralian]

I have three mollys in a community tank, one male sailfin, one femail sailfin, and one female (i think!) ballon molly.
The ballon mollys stomach is almost double its usual size, and the female sailfin has a huge stomach as well. I have put the two into a fry tank, floating inside the main community tank.
What i want to know, is if they are pregnant - how long do they usually take to give birth? (They are live bearers right?!? lol)

If they arent pregnant then they are staying in the fry tank so i can feed them less and they can loose some **** weight!

[thom336]

If your balloon molly is female then it will have a fanned anal fin, like your other female, or a modified gonopodium instead of the fanned anal fin, like your male. The anal fin is the one by its arse!

They are most likely pregnant, and the gestation period (before they give birth) is usually 28-30 days or so, depending on temperature. I dont really like those fry tanks, or, as they are also known 'breeding traps', as I find that the fish get very stressed in them. I would set up another tank for the birth if you can, providing plenty of plant cover for the fry, such as java moss. The parents should be removed as soon as the fry are dropped.

And yes, they are livebearers.

Hope this helps, and good luck,
Thom.

[mickey]

Nice piece of info on the location of the anal fin thom :D
Cheers.

[thom336]

I always like to give detailed answers where I can...lol. :D

[Awestralian]

28-30 days! ****!

I dont know how far along they are, but i have them in a slightly larger fry tank.
I might dig out my other tank and clean it up for them to go into...

Thanks for the help!

:D
J

[tricksterpup]

If you just have a molly tank, just keep them in there but put in a lot of plants and make a lot of areas for them to hide them. With most of my livebearers, i tend to get a lot of fry to survive in a tank like that.
If you want to breed mollies it is best to keep them in their own tank, the larger the better. The like a large tank to move around. Also, they need lots of greens in their diet, so i recommend a herbivore flake to be added to the diet. I like mixing my foods for my fish, give them something different every day.
I do have a 29 gallon brackish tank with mollies but have no fry because of my Chromides and knight gobies. The fry basically become live food for the others in the tank.
I am thinking on turning an empty 55 gallon tank into a brackish tank and everyone in there except for the mollies.
jim

So basically for breeding, remember the following.
Plenty of room.
Plenty of hiding spaces for the fry.
A varied diet with plenty of vegetable matter.
And mollies can tolerate salt in their water but do not necessary need it. Check out my other link. From what I have read, they actually should have regular water changes and DO NOT over crowd your fish.. again, give them plenty of room

[Awestralian]

I didnt intend to breed them, and i didnt think they would in a tank comprising almost 50 fish, but i guess there is no stopping them.

My female ballon is looking quiet ill atm, the rear half of her body seems to be turning whitish...