Orange molly?

Question

I have a orange molly in my tank and just recently i have noticed that it started to get fat.
In my tank i have all liverbearers: platys, guppies and mollies.
Im almost certian that all of my 3 mollies are female because of there large nut unpointed anal fin.

So why as my molly got so big?
Can liveberers cross breed ?
If it is pregnant when shall i put it into the breeding box?
And how can i be 100% sure what sex they are?

Best answer which is explained well .. will get 10 points !!

Please help! Danny !

Answer 1

Here is an example of a black mollie
http://www.bbayaquariums.com/black-molly.jpg (female mollie)
http://www.exiledplanet.org/images/fish/black_molly.jpg (male mollie)


If your female is pregnant you should be able to see a black gravid spot, here is an example of a guppy
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kFkBjD2Le3k


You have 2 choices when she's pregnant
1. you can put her in a 3 way plastic breeder just befor she gives birth, they kind of get a square appearance just beneath their head, as soon as she is done with birthing take her out and feed your fry with "First Bites"
or
2. you leave her in your tank, but only if you have enough real plants in there for your fry to servive and hide from the other fish (that's how I do it, and at least 5-10 always servive, sometimes more)

The gestation period of livebearers is 28 days



Hope that helps
Good luck



EB

Answer 2

There are two reasons:

1) She is pregnant as mollies and platys are very common, the only difference is the dorsal fin (on top). Yes they do cross breed.

2) She is ill and one thing to look out for is dropsy, it is very dangerous and highly contagious, if the scales start pop out like a pine cone then it is definitly dropsy, not many fish survive from this. I have lost a silver mollie and an african dwarf frog through this.

Diseases come from poor water quality, how long has the tank been set up for? Have you let it go through the nitrogen cycle process?

Buy a test kit for PH, Nitrite, Nitrate and Ammonia if you haven't got one. Livebearers like it around:

PH - 7.0 - 7.6
nitrite- no more than 1.0
nitrate no more than 50
ammonia no more than 0.5

an established aquarium should be around this.

More info here.

http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm

http://www.aquahobby.com/e_articles.php

Answer 3

There mollies the only different thing about them is colour mollies will mate with one another and i cant answer to whether they will mate

Answer 4

I'm afraid its getting fat because when you go to sleep at night they call for take away, have a little munch then hide all the packaging under the stone in the tank, have you checked you filter for McDonald's packaging! lol

Answer 5

were they bought recently?
when you buy livebearers from a pet store, they are most likely already pregnant.
yes, they can crossbread. ive seen guppy/molly hybrids before, it is not uncommon.

males are usually smaller and more colorful. males also have a gonopodium (a modified anal fin). females lack a gonopodium.

Answer 6

it could be possible that it was pregnant when you got her ..... that is if you got her recently. that is the only reason i can think of well the only positive reason :)

Answer 7

Is is possible that she may be swollen because she is sick?