My Molly Dropped Fry....

[deeps]

Hello Everyone,

All might hve seen my earlier post where I was asking abt Dropsy... My poor Yellow Balloon Female Molly died of Dropsy... I was very depressed.... But the very next day, when I wanted to change the water in my tank for the other molly, I found some fry and was very happy and exited that I called up everyone and told them.. lolzz

Now, i know that the Silver Female Sailfin Molly is pregnant as I have seen the male mating with her some 15 days back
And am #41#### sure that it is this male which impregnated her, as I dnt hv any other male in my tank and i bought her 1.5 months back and she was not at all pregnant... All my male Sailfin molly mated with her, i found her stomach growing day by day... but i didnt see any gravid spot, and even her belly isnt that big enuf to think tht she is going to drop soon. So, i thought she wuld require another 2 weeks minimum... but she dropped the fry just in 15 days(noted the date when she mated ) How culd this be?? To think that she dropped prematurely, there were no eggs or still to develop fry... all the fry are very active and very much fine...
Just wanted to make sure how to decide from next time onwards, so that I wont miss any fry.....

Below are the pics of the pair..::

http/picasaweb.google.co.in/dilip.mdk/Mo...869039660335202
http/picasaweb.google.co.in/dilip.mdk/Mo...868987623223746

 

[Harlequins]

In general livebearer females can store sperm for several months without a male,so even though you seen them 15 days ago,doesn't mean to say she didnt have stored sperm

The best way to keep track of roughly when they drop and aim for 4-5 weeks later they'll be ready to drop again.the gravid spot is not always a good indicator,my blue platy didn't have much of a gravid spot yet she dropped 21 fry last week.
Best indicator is that the female look square on the back end of their belly instead of rounded,its where the rear end drops down for the birth.

Congrats on your fry,how many did she have?

 

[OldMan47]

A female molly in that color will never show a gravid spot. The dark colored gravid spot is for guppies and a few of the colors of swords or platies. I don't recall ever seeing one on a molly because they have some color to their skin. The skin must be transparent to see the gravid spot through it. I always go by shape with my livebearers. It is a much more reliable indicator on all fish and can be used for any of them. Size also is a poor indicator because it can change so much right after a meal.

 

[deeps]

thnk u guys.. you are always there to help us...

Ohh!! so its hard to see a gravid spot in molly.... and coming to the belly growing... it didn't square off at all... i was just waiting for it and it dropped the fry....

also, though they store the sperm, it at least need to have a big belly to identify that its pregnant.. and i could see its belly growing only after mating with the male.. thats the reason, I was thinking if a molly can drop the fry in 15 weeks, as its gestation period would be 20 - 40 days..

also, the male keeps chasing my black balloon female molly and stopped moving around this marble female sailfin molly. culd there be any specific reason?? it actually tried to mate with this white female sailfin for not more than 2 days.. while it mates with the black balloon molly almost everyday

And finally, the white sailfin female dropped the fry and i culd save 12 i guess.. coz i hv 12 now with me... even these 12 were hiding in the gravel and plants and it became very difficult to identify them and also took an hour to capture them all..

 

[OldMan47]

The gestation period for a molly is about 30 days. When I have no male with my female, she drops fry about every 6 weeks until she runs out of sperm packets. Each drop seems to be smaller than the one before it so there must be a gradual quality decrease as the stored sperm gets older.

 

[deeps]

yeppiee... I bought a new lyretail black molly yesterday and i know tht its heavily pregnant. Since, the fry arent surviving (may be, am not taking gud care ) i thought of leaving the fry in the tank itself to control the population even... When I came back from my night shift, I saw fry moving around in the tank and my betta chasing them... So, i netted them out and added them to my white sailfin molly fry which are a week or 10 days old.. And when i counted the fry, guess the count.... they were between 30 to 40... and i still found one between the gravel..not sure how many more i have them still in the main tank...

My black balloon molly dropped a month before, culd find 11 remaining... but I was not able to raise them, the last one died yesterda morning... and later my white sailfin molly dropped 12 fry and I now have only 8 left

I change 20 to 30% of the water daily, feed them tubiflex worms frozen ones, thrice a day.. but still not sure why they die...

 

[OldMan47]

Stop feeding them on tubifex and feed them a vegetarian flake food instead. Mollies are not carnivorous although they will accept almost any kind of food. They need a diet high in vegetable content and will thrive on that type of diet. They are also not strict vegetarian so a mix of other foods is good for them but a carnivore's diet will leave them malnourished. If you have very soft water, it does not work well with mollies. Mollies need water with a high mineral content. If your water is very soft, I would add a teaspoon of sea salt to each gallon of water when doing a water change. I usually don't like to add salt to my mollies but would do that if the water is too soft for them.

 

[weejen]

i think u should maby vary there diet mollies are veggie but do like a frozen treat now and again

 

[OldMan47]

Thrice daily is not a treat WeeJen. In the case of fish like mollies it is a prescription for malnutrition.

 

[deeps]

Will water plants be sufficient to provide their veg food? Or should I add some boiled and crushed peas?? Anything other veg food that am supposed to add... plz suggest..

 

[weejen]

Thrice daily is not a treat WeeJen. In the case of fish like mollies it is a prescription for malnutrition.

thats not what i sed, i sed feed a varied diet but a treat of frozen food every now and then is ok.. i was suggesting to add more veg to the mollies diet

Will water plants be sufficient to provide their veg food? Or should I add some boiled and crushed peas?? Anything other veg food that am supposed to add... plz suggest..

i add cucumber blanched to my tank for my mollies and also for my plecs plus an algae wafer occasionaly

 

[Harlequins]

Will water plants be sufficient to provide their veg food? Or should I add some boiled and crushed peas?? Anything other veg food that am supposed to add... plz suggest..

I'm sure crushed flake food and/or baby fry food will be good for growing fry,you don't necessarily need to add vegtables, liquidfry3 powder and tetramin baby are 2 of the power forms for fry,otherwise just crush up regular flake food small enough for the fry to eat 3/4 times a day,works for my fry

 

[deeps]

thnks weejen and Harlequins for the suggestions... My LFS doesnt maintain a wide variety of food.. grrr
Will check that with smone else today and hv to get it.. I Love to see my fry growing and wanna add them to their Mama... Today their Dad died, dont know why... al the other fish are very active and this male is the most active one of all... always keeps chasing the females ...

Anyways,thanks once again... and thanks always to OldMan47 who helps me always will try for the recommended ones..

Here are the pics of the fry and Mama before giving birth.. (please bear with the pic quality

http/picasaweb.google.co.in/dilip.mdk/Mo...752848846597282

http/picasaweb.google.co.in/dilip.mdk/Mo...752889596523986

http/picasaweb.google.co.in/dilip.mdk/Mo...752952203519538

http/picasaweb.google.co.in/dilip.mdk/Mo...752909468798786

 

[Harlequins]

Cute fry

Sorry to hear you lost another fish,hows your water stats?

I noticed your fry in a bowl do you have an airstone or anything circulating the water?

good luck with the fry

 

[deeps]

Havent checked the water stats yet... i guess they are fine, but the problem is with the new lyretail females i bought the other day.. One of the female is chasing all my mollies and my betta even..... all the other fish are moving away when it comes near them and also, this it is chasing every fish.... i guess, it might hv hurt my male coz, my male is smaller when compare to that female..

And abt the fry...Yeah, had them in a bowl sort of which can hold 2 gallons of water or more.....I was advised not to have an airstone into it, so havent added any... was changing water, clearing all the dirt taking care that no fry are sucked.... doing it everyday in the morning....