What Are The Chances?

[K3lly]

When I bought my Big Momma Molly, she was preg, or had decided it was time to use the eggs she was holding. Due to her size anyways, I really didn't notice her belly enlarging, I woke up to fry in the tank! Well as they got bigger, and easier to count, I counted about 25 of them, now they are starting to mature, I can tell which are males, or females. Out of every one of those fry, there are only 2 male. I was wondering if that is common. If it makes any kind of difference I really think that the fry are 'fathered' by 2 separate males. The majority by some male at the LFS, and my male I had already in the tank. The reason I think this is because the female is a dalmatian molly, The male I had is yellow. Out of the 25 fry, about 6 of them were yellow, and the rest dalmatian. And my Yellow male was petite, and all the yellow fry are smaller than the dalmatian fry. The 2 male fry, are yellow. I hope I explained that to where you understand, and I dont come across like a weirdo!!

So my question is...... how common is it for 2 out of 25 fry be male?



ETA: I meant to post this is the live bearer forum, could someone kindly move it for me!? THANKS!

 

[Curiosity101]

Chances are you have more than 2 males, it's just the others haven't developed a gonopodium yet.

But it's not that unusual to get more females than males.

 

[K3lly]

At about what age would I for sure be able to tell?
Its just kinda funny, the 2 that are males...... are the smallest ones!!

 

[Curiosity101]

I can't remember off the top of my head how big mine where when I could tell. Just get a divider for the tank the fish are in (if possible), and split them as and when you see a gonopodium form.

 

[drobbyb]

I'm not sure if mollies are affected by temperature, but it has been suggested that temperature plays a role in deciding which will be male and which will be female in some species.

 

[OldMan47]

I find that mollies are fairly easy to sex properly by the time they reach about 1 1/2 inches long. That typically means anywhere from 4 to 6 months depending on how fast you can help them grow.