Black Molly Fry Question

[kristins1877]

OK so miss reliable, every 29-30 days almost to the day, my black molly has been dropping fry. Her 1st batch she had only 2 and I watched her eat them before I could get to them. The 2nd and 3rd batch I didn't get her out of the community tank in time, but this time I placed her in the fry tank to deliver and I really got a chance to look at her fry and I have a few questions...

I know how my swordtail and platy fry look when born, but my mollies seem to look different - many of them have "lumps in their upper belly. is this a sort of yolk sac that will disappear or is there some deformity wrong with them? Not all of them look this way (2 days old). My 2nd question is, how long before i can tell their coloring? They all look grayish clear. Mom is obviously black, dad is either white, or orange with speckled sailfin (has blue on his sail - hoping for some cool sailfin babies!!

 

[OldMan47]

A black molly is black at birth Kristins. I have a mix of colors because my creamsickle is in a tank with a black male and a dalmation male. At birth, I can tell whether I am looking at creamsickle fry or fry with black areas on them. This is a picture of 1 day old mollies. Some are obviously a pure creamy color and others obviously have black spots on them. I have not noticed mollies being like some other livebearers that get their main color later in life.

I'm not sure I understand the lump reference but these are the same fry at day 10.

To me, they just look a bit bigger and a little more adult molly shape than the new fry did.

 

[kristins1877]

beautiful fry! Almos all of mine look a dusty gray. Thought maybe it would take a while to see their true coloring come out but maybe they will just be a heavy marble, which is OK. How long before I would be able to tell if any are sailfin? Does it take a while to appear? My male is just beautiful and im trying to find the perfect combo to create the coloring Im looking for, lol Heres my male - you cant see it in the pic but there is specks of turquoise blue in his sail.

 

[OldMan47]

He is a beauty for sure. I have a very nice male but nothing as nice as that guy.

 

[kristins1877]

Hes my Petsmart beauty! It is quite amazing to watch him fan his fins out when hes trying to score with his ladies! lol. Hes gotten a bit larger since the pic but his top fin has gotten so big that when hes trying to mate his top fin sticks out of the water like Jaws!

 

[Carl the Crimson Wonder]

That's awesome, I have a solid black one and all he does is try to mate with my female one lol. I need to get him another g/f so she can have some rest I spose. But to be on topic, I've never heard of this thing you are discribing about your fry. I would wait a while and see what happenes.

 

[nosoup4you]

In my last batch of Molly fry about half were born black and gold and half were a dull silver/gray color. It wasn't until these silver/gray fry were nearly 3 months old that they started getting lots of black spots (dalmation). The gold and black fry still looked pretty much the way they did when they were born only larger but these gray fry changed rather drastically. Give them time...