mollie mystery

caseyt

AC Members
Oct 9, 2003
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oklahoma
about 6 weeks ago, i purchased a female black mollie, who greeted me with about twelve babies on the night she came home.

since then, only one of the young has survived, and i would guess he is about 1/4th of his mother's size. both have since moved from my 20g to my 10g and they are currently only in the tank with a male betta.

that was... until tonight. i now have about 8 or 9 more babies, and i'm wondering how this happened? is the 6 week old male old enough to have done this? apparently this is the case, but dang!
 
guppie females I know can store sperm so they don't need a male to continue to produce young. this may be what is happening with your mollie.

cheers
 
Most of the Livebearering poeciliids do store sperm for atleast a few months. So a female can have atleast 2-3 batches with out a male being in the tank. Once you have entered a new male or one that has bred with the female, she will use that new sperm to reproduce.

jim
 
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