Hi There!

[themandy]

Hi there, my name is Mandy and i have just joined this awesome site.
I have recently been consumed by the love of tropical fish. I've had my tank for a while now. I have a large angel fish, 3 Platy's (2 female, 1 male), 2 sword tail platy's (1 male, 1 female), 7 guppies (3 female, 4 males - i think) and 2 balloon mollies (1 male, and 1 female -or at least i think she is a female).

I have a question regarding my female balloon molly. she has grown in size over the past month or so, i have had her for about 3 months now, and I am trying to get her to breed, but with no luck. I was wondering if some one would be able to tell me if she is pregnant from the pics below, as I am unsure. i tried to get the best pic i could.

I have also included a pic of my large angel fish

any comments would be appreciated! many thanks

thats the male in the top corner

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum TheMandy.
Unless I am mistaken, the first picture has a creamsicle male and a dalmatian male in it while the next picture only has a dalmatian male in it.
I know you may well be aware of this and there is no intent to offend but we use the shape of the anal fin to sex common livebearers. In a male it is elongated and is used as the male sex organ and called a gonopodium. This is a closely related fish species male.

This is a picture of a female of the same species with the typical fan shaped or triangular anal fin.

 

[Bebobb]

This isn't really relevant to the post, but at my club meeting last night, we had a talk on fish genetics and mutations. The speaker actually said that balloon mollys are dwarfs. I don't remember what he said makes them dwarfs, but he said that they were dwarfs. Maybe someone else here could explain? Just a fun little fact for you!

On the matter of sexing. I can't really tell from the pictures of your post. As Oldman said, the most common method is looking at the anal fin. And in your pictures, it is a bit hard to make out the anal fin. But if she is getting bigger, then I might say that she is growing, however I am not completly sure.

 

[Jenste]

Hi Mandy, and Welcome!!
I agree with OldMan - - I do believe your dalmation is simply a growing male. also how big is your tank? When your angel becomes large enough I fear your guppies will become dinner!

It is also wise to keep atLEAST two females to one male for livebearers such as guppies, mollies, and platies - have more males than females will lead to bickering among the males and the females can end up being pestered by the males intending to mate to the point of exhaustion leading to death!

Also, mollies seem to thrive with a bit of salt added to their water, where as guppies have no tolerance for salt....



so, a few questions....
how many gallons is your tank and what are the dimesions? (Angels need a height of atleast 18 inches to be comfortable and need more than 20 gallons!
Angels will eat small livebearers like guppies and all livebearer fry!
how often and how large are your water changes?
What type of water testing do you do and how often?
What are your current stats for your water? (temp, ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, ph etc)



right off the bat I would recommend a bit of altering to your stock - depending on your tank size - I would consider rehoming either the mollies or platies and the angel...or rehome the angel and get a handful of molly females, atleast one more platy female, and atleast 4 more guppy females.....

Ideally, I would choose 2 types of livebearers, and keep numbers with ratios of 1 male per 2-3 females....I usually keep one male per 7 females...seems to keep my male very happy and the females pleasantly unbothered

 

[helterskelter]

You have 2 balloon mollies, so the seconed pic is your female. (1st pic dose look like 2 males being honest)
I've had a close look of her, and yes you have a pair, you can clearly see in that pic.

Balloons yes are dawrfs and highly deformed fish too. The body is compressed squeezing the body organs all together.
This gives these fish the well known balloon look.

However the problem is the sexual organs are compressed to.
Saying how close they are to giving birth or even stating if their pregnant is almost impossible, unlike normal fish.

If think it's been a month and she been swelling then she cant be to far off now.
Mollies tend to be longer them most other common livebearers an average of 5-6 week is common.

However i notice you have an angel. These fish are fry eaters. If you miss the birth of the fry then your angel will happily eat all the fry with in a few hours.

So good luck with them and sure your have fry soon.

 

[kribensis12]

Hi Mandy! I'm Zeke! Welcome to the Forum!
As most people have previously stated in one way or another, it is almost impossible to tell when a female balloon mollie is ready to drop her fry. It is due to the fact that her body is being compressed together by a genetic defect. They still breed normally, but you just never know when she is going to give birth. If you have a seperate tank laying around, and you think she is ready to give birth, I would put her in the seperate tank to ensure some of the babies make it.

On a slightly side-tracked note, how big is your fish tank? Angelfish, like yours in your picture need to have a tank ideally 18" tall, as their fins grow to be quite large. If not, they can trail on the tank bottom, leaving the fish vulnerable to infection. All the fish you have listed, including your angelfish, should be kept in a tank holding around 20 gallons of water.