Pregeant Molly

[swampey]

Hi

I am more that sure that I have two of my mollies that are pregeant... seem to be getting bigger as each day passess... My question is how the hell do I now when they are gonna give birth......

Do I use a breeding trap...or do I let nature take its course and leave the mollies to give birth in the tank, considering that I have an area that is well planted

Plus is they do give birth, whos going to be the fish that feel like a snack., Tetras, guppys, or the cory's or even mom

Dont have a spare tank at the mo, but I do have one of these planted dome bowls that some one gave as a gift afew years back, could I take all of the crap put out use that

 

[Harlequins]

Hi and welcome

Fry do make nice snacks for most fish,but if you have a well planted tank some will probably survive.
Here's 2 very good articles about livebearers,worth a read

oldman47 topic

steady's topic

 

[Haych]

if you want to keep the babies, use a trap, but if like me your tank isnt huge, i let nature be.

a few of my guppies were pregnant and gave birth, had around 10+ babies, left them to hide and I still have 5 to this day

with regards to knowing when shes in labour, she will act out of character. she will loiter in coners, be extremely quiet and may even chase other fish off.

be careful if you do put her in a trap though, i used the plastic one (as my fish used to suck the babies through the netting ones) in my last tank, and the mom got so stressed she just kept going up and down the side of the trap, and actually squished her babies to death with her panic, and also, mollies LOVE to snack on their own young, so you have to remove her ASAP asfter the birth

hope this helps

 

[OldMan47]

If you have no other place for the fry to drop, many will be eaten by the tetras and guppies. The female herself may eat a few but if you looked at the thread that Harlequins posted you will see that my own experience with a female is that I lose very few to her. The same female in that thread dropped about 35 fry just 2 days ago in a 55 gallon tank. I count 35 and she is still in the tank with them, just as she was with the earlier drop that got documented. Mollies in general are not very big fry eaters if they are well fed. My old girl is getting on in age and I really didn't know if she would survive long enough for this drop but I wanted her genetics along with her most recent young boyfriend's, so I took the chance and isolated her. I never use a breeder with mollies. A molly is just too big to go into one comfortably and even though my picture series helps me judge her progress, I can still miss by a few days and I don't like to stress her like that for days or cause her to deliver early. I will take the 35 fry instead of the 40 I might get with a trap.