Baby Platies And Mollies

[Kazhed900]

I have noticed that all my babies are female - just wondering if anyone knows why this is? There have been four batches of fry now and while I can't tell with the latest, they are all female.

This may sound like a really stupid question but do they change sex at all? Sorry - am new to this Just want to know what I am up for especially as we are looking for people to give some of the babies away to.

Thanks!

Karen

 

[Dan81192]

Hi, im not sure which way but it the water changes tempreture they will breed i think, im not sure qwhich way but it the ph drops i think you get more females and if its higher oyu get more males.

 

[freddythefish]

The higher the pH and temperature the more males you will get.

Thats the rule of thumb so you if you are getting all females then your pH must be below neutral and you must have a low temperature!!

If you put the readings for the two of these up then we can judge whether this is the case for you or not

 

[lilfishie]

how old are they?
males don't develope until later on usualli 6-8 weeks old longer with mollies

 

[Kazhed900]

The temp is low but the ph is 7 - the big babies are about 8 weeks but the others range from newborn to about 3 weeks old

 

[lilfishie]

you should have a few males still, i keep mine all at the same temp and pH and end up with evenish numbers of each in the end some it takes longer to develope, a lower temp will also slow growth in some cases

 

[freddythefish]

Yes I think that because the oldest ones you have it may just be that they are developing the gonopodium later than usual...nothing to worry about.
You may only have a few but you should get at least 2 or 3 males.

 

[OldMan47]

Almost all newborn fry will look like females in any livebearer species. It varies depending on how quickly they are growing and somewhat depending on which particular species it is but in general it will be at least 2 months before it is easy to sex the fry. For some fish like swordtails,it is not unusual for many to look like females right up until they look full grown. At that time they commonly start to show their gender but people have already decided they are females so stories circulate about them having a sex change.

 

[Kazhed900]

Oh cool! Thanks for all your advice!