I Hate To Ask... But Is She Pregnant?

[AdamTheZombie]

I really do hate to ask as I know it's continuously asked. Sadly, I'm not even new to mollies or livebearers in general, but it's been a while and I'm quite rusty when it comes to identification. And I'm new to black mollies all together. I'm used to looking for a gravid spot, never really paid attention to shape, but now that's all I have to rely on. She seems pretty square to me. Would anyone else consider trapping her yet? How close might she be?
 

 

[jocie1976]

She definitely looks pregnant to me, but not squared off yet. I'd hold off on trapping her...

 

[AdamTheZombie]

I appreciate it. She fights off every male that comes near her, I have no idea when or how it happened. lol. Sometimes she looks fat and other times square. In the bottom most picture, she looks pretty square to me, but those images were all taken from one continuous video. I hope she squares off soon. My kids would love to see babies.
 
Related question. Does a nursey bowl need heat? I'm afraid that if I set of a nursery, they'll die from the colder water. I keep my aquarium between 78-80F

 

[jocie1976]

The babies should have the same water parameters as the adults, so if the water is heated I would say yes. As an alternative you could keep the babies in a breeder trap in the same aquarium as the adults. I have a plastic trap with a removable divider so the babies are separated from mom right away, and then you can lift the divider out and let mom go back into the main tank. I know they also make net traps for inside of tanks to keep the babies separate from the adults too. The benefit of these traps is that you don't need to do anything special to the water as they will have the same water as the main tank.