Help Me Tell How Far Along She Is

[weejen]

one of my silver mollies i got a couple of weeks ago is preg but i cant tell how far along

can anyone help thanx

 

[nosoup4you]

She looks pretty far along though I'd give her another 7-10 days.

 

[helterskelter]

ye look's about a week away. but knowing our luck she'll have them tonight!!!

 

[weejen]

i have been watchin her for over a week thinking tonite will be the nite lol have missed all my other mollies drops. i just would like to see one lol

 

[weejen]

got her her own little tank today. set up with mature media from my community tank. she got a little stressed and is now quite happy in her own little tank

 

[OldMan47]

Be sure to put some plant cover in that tank Jen. It will reassure the female and give the fry a place to hide.

 

[JohnRossDele]

this happened to me one time; you always think they stay the same size but before you know it you see little fry

BTW i use a breeding trap i suggest you use one 2 coz i got 100% of my fry surviving one time!!

 

[OldMan47]

With a separate birth tank, a breeding trap is not needed with mollies JohnRossDele. I get close to 100% survival in a small birth tank with my mollies and never lose a fish to the stress that a molly will experience in those tiny confinements. A molly adult is far too large for a typical breeding trap. With any cover in a birth tank, a molly can end up with results like this. The picture was taken after about 4 1/2 weeks but the female stayed in the birth tank while the fry were growing and was still in it when the picture was taken. I had to crop her out of the picture because I was using it to illustrate something else.

 

[JohnRossDele]

With a separate birth tank, a breeding trap is not needed with mollies JohnRossDele. I get close to 100% survival in a small birth tank with my mollies and never lose a fish to the stress that a molly will experience in those tiny confinements. A molly adult is far too large for a typical breeding trap. With any cover in a birth tank, a molly can end up with results like this. The picture was taken after about 4 1/2 weeks but the female stayed in the birth tank while the fry were growing and was still in it when the picture was taken. I had to crop her out of the picture because I was using it to illustrate something else.

does the female not get really hungry just after she drops, would she not eat the young then?!!

i have read reports that mollies eat the young



BTW OldMan i normally get 2 mollies pregenant at the same time so would one of them eat the others fry?!!

 

[OldMan47]

This picture may answer your question JohnRossDele. It was taken the day that the female delivered that same batch of fry.

She did chase a few fry but soon gave up. Mollies are not much when it comes to being predators. I kept that female with her fry until she gave birth again at 6 weeks. I was trying to purge her of some of the sperm packets she was carrying because I want to actually get her fry from a relatively new male that I have.

This is her and her fry at day 41, right before the next batch were born the next day.

Finally the fry only picture on day 42 when the new and old fry were sharing that little birth tank. You can see a couple of out of focus older fry in the foreground.

 

[JohnRossDele]

This picture may answer your question JohnRossDele. It was taken the day that the female delivered that same batch of fry.

She did chase a few fry but soon gave up. Mollies are not much when it comes to being predators. I kept that female with her fry until she gave birth again at 6 weeks. I was trying to purge her of some of the sperm packets she was carrying because I want to actually get her fry from a relatively new male that I have.

This is her and her fry at day 41, right before the next batch were born the next day.

Finally the fry only picture on day 42 when the new and old fry were sharing that little birth tank. You can see a couple of out of focus older fry in the foreground.

Is it certain that my molly that just droped her fry will use an other sperm package.

and will the other pregenant molly eat the others fry since i always get them pregenant at the same time!

 

[OldMan47]

I find that mollies will continue to use up whatever sperm packets they might have until they are gone or the female has new sperm to work with. In my case, the female had not seen a male in a couple of months before the first drop and obviously had no opportunity while in the fry tank to interact with a mature male again. Since people say a molly only has a gestation period of 28 days, I must assume she didn't start again immediately. It is one reason I have returned her to the tank with the male I want her to breed with.
The second female in a birth tank is an extra predator that you certainly don't need. Even though mollies are lousy predators, they will catch newborn fry to some extent. When there is only one female in a tank, she is a bit busy dropping fry to turn effective predator but the other one would not be too busy.

 

[weejen]

she has some plastic plants and some live floating plants. been 24hrs still no fry but mother happy

i have anothe question.
after this mollie has given birth i will be leaving fry in the tank to grow. but i have another couple of mollies preg. can i use same tank as fry from this mollie are in. they will be bout a couple of weeks old by that point?

 

[OldMan47]

Be cautious doing that Jen. At 2 weeks, my female had given up even chasing the fry but she had been with them all along. Your mollies will not have experienced that frustration and may well be willing to do some fry chasing before they deliver their own. If there is plenty of cover for the fry, that would not be a problem but you need to take a cautious approach.

 

[weejen]

ok will see how things go. mite just let the other deliver in com tank as will have alot of work to do and just let the fittest survive.


mummy fish been very quiet tonite not moving much just hiding behind some plants fingers crossed?