I think my Dalmatian Molly is pregnant

[NMfishmama]

I bot a Dalmatian Molly from a LFS in May 2018. 8 days later (May 14, 2018) I found 3 fry in my tank. Not knowing what they were (I had gotten 3 new fish) 2 of them survived and they are obviously Dalmatian Mollies. One of them is quite a bit larger than the other. The smaller one lately has been nosing at the underbelly of the larger one. If the larger Molly is pregnant “she” would only be 7 months old. Can she be pregnant? These are the only Mollies I have so I am presuming the smaller one is a male. I tried to upload a pic but I keep getting an error that the file is too large. Any information would be appreciated.

 

[Jessie J.]

A picture would help a lot; is the female's belly big and square-shaped?

 

[Colin_T]

yes a 7 month old molly can breed.

If you post pictures of all the mollies we can sex them for you. You can also check the sexes yourself by looking at the anal (bottom) fin and seeing what shape it is. Male livebearers (mollies, guppies, platies, swordtails) had a long thin anal fin called a gonopodium. Female livebearers have a fan or triangular shaped anal fin.

 

[NMfishmama]

I bot a Dalmatian Molly from a LFS in May 2018. 8 days later (May 14, 2018) I found 3 fry in my tank. Not knowing what they were (I had gotten 3 new fish) 2 of them survived and they are obviously Dalmatian Mollies. One of them is quite a bit larger than the other. The smaller one lately has been nosing at the underbelly of the larger one. If the larger Molly is pregnant “she” would only be 7 months old. Can she be pregnant? These are the only Mollies I have so I am presuming the smaller one is a male. I tried to upload a pic but I keep getting an error that the file is too large. Any information would be appreciated.

 

[NMfishmama]

I was finally able to get a couple of pictures loaded. The first is of both my Mollies and the second is of the one I think is pregnant. I circled what I think is her gravid?? marking. I’m not sure I used that term correctly though. If this Molly is a female AND she is pregnant any idea how long till she drops her frys?? Both of these Mollies were born in this tank last May about 8 days after I brought their mama home from PetSmart - apparently pregnant. Mama has since died.

 

[Colin_T]

The black marble molly (the darker molly with more black and less white) without the filaments on the tail is a male.

The black and white spotty one with the filaments on the tail is a female dalmation lyretail molly. The dalmation is given to them because of the spots and the lyretail is from the filaments on the tail. And yes she is pregnant but no idea how pregnant.

The gestation period for livebearers is about 1 month. She could be days away or only half way through her pregnancy. Generally young females have smaller batches every month. As the females get older they have bigger batches but less frequently. Your female will also have sperm packets stored in her body that she will use to fertilise more eggs as soon as these babies are born. Females can carry up to 6 sperm packets and use them whenever conditions are good. They use 1 sperm packet per batch of eggs so females can continue to give birth for up to 6 months after breeding without any males being present.

Have lots of floating plants in the tank and that will give the babies more places to hide. Then you can use a small plastic container to scoop the babies out (with some water) and put them in a breeding net or another tank. Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides/ cornuta) is my preferred plant for livebearers.