How do I know if my molly is pregnant?

Question

Shes really big, and has been for a while now, but I have yet to see any babies. Shes in the tank with two other mollies, a betta, 4 guppies, a see-through fish [forgot the name] and a pictus cat...what do I do and how do I tell?

Answer 1

*cough cough* Mollies dont lay eggs, they give live birth.

Right now I have six babies(as of last september). The way you can tell they're pregnant is when they have a little black spot at the back of their belly. In female guppies, this is much easier to tell. This spot is called the "Gravid Spot". It means she's pregnant.

It takes about 25-30 days for her to push out her babies. Its an awesome thing to watch. But be careful, mollies love to eat their babies. Amazingly, guppies dont prey on their young. Which is probably why there are so many of them.....

When she does have babies, try to net them and place them carefully in a baby net(you can get one at walmart for 4$) or a seperate 1 gallon tank with one of the air filters. (The green ones made for small tanks, so the babies dont get sucked up a tube).

Enjoy! Also, is your betta behaving with any colorful fish? mine never do >.<

(the see-thru one may be a glass fish(round) or a glass cat fish(long), depending on what it looks like).

Answer 2

Molly females like yours release babies about once a month, provided the water quality is good, the temperature is about 78 to 82 degrees F., and they have plenty of good food to eat.

Like most livebearers Mollies will do better with 1 Tablespoon of Aquarium Salt per 5 gallons of water.

Mollies do best in a group with a few males and several females. Mollies are good tank mates for Swordtails, Platies, Angel Fish, Corydoras Catfish, one Plecostomus, and Bigger Tetras such as Black Skirts, Red Serpaes, and Silver Tips.

Mollies have a life span of between 3 and 5 years and can grow to 5". Rarely mollies live longer and grow bigger.
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Mollies fall under the reproductive catagory of Livebearers. This means the obvious; the young are born live and free swimming; not hatched from external eggs. The male has a gondopodium, making his anal fin apear clamped and straight, while the female has a regular shaped anal fin (triangular). A diagram is available at the bottom of this page. Scroll down to see.

Molly fry will gladly eat floating dry food, but it is neccessary to crunch the flakes up really fine. If dry food is used, crushed FLOATING flakes are the only way to go, because the young spend most of their time at the surface where oxygen is most plentiful.

Mollies are canibals by eating their young. To prevent this, use a breeding net in a separate breeding tank. If your Mollies breed in the maintenance tank, a dense planting is the best way to ensure the survival of most of the fry.

Answer 3

Mollies give birth to live, free-swimming young. I assume the other mollies in your tank contain at least one male? The Pictus catfish is a voracious predator & will eat anything that fits into it's mouth. ( & that includes baby mollies)

Answer 4

First, mollies don't lay eggs - they're live bearers!! If you have any males in the tank, she's been having babies every 4 weeks, but unless there's tons of hiding places for the fry, the adults will have eaten all of them.

Answer 5

I received tons of babbie mollys everywhere in my tank just let them be and most of them will live and will find hidding places in the gravel REMEBER TURN OF FILTER AND GET BUBBLER please help them live by doing that it will suck them up when the minute there boron they have no stranth will have big belly and hide

Answer 6

their belly get bigger

Answer 7

if in a few days she starts laying eggs.