So I just recenly discovered that my female guppies are pregnant, and now I think that one of my silver mollies might be preggers as well... but the only way I can make this assumption is to compare what I know about guppies to my molly...
I got my fish from a friend who breeds them and she told me that only the male guppies were colorful... so when I ended up with two pregnant females I was fairly surprised... I learned that they will balloon up with eggs and you can see what is called a "gravid spot" near their tales...
okay, well recently my silver molly has gotten pretty fat and it looks to me like she has the same kind of spot as my guppies... I'm assuming it's a she, I don't even know... How do you tell a molly's gender? Does it sound like (s)he's pregnant?
I tried to take a picture of her, but she's too speedy for me, sorry...
Do mollies even get gravid spots?
please help me!!!
-thefishnoob
2007-08-25 17:55:03 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Pets ➔ Fish
P.S. I have them in a 10 gallon aquarium and I put the two pregnant guppies and the suspect molly in a net breeder... I don't know if you can have that many fish in a breeder.. I'm new to this and I was never really trying to make my fish breed... they just kind of... did it... so if this is cruel my sweet lil swimmers, just let me know so i can correct the problem... please don't accuse me of being an animal hater or a fish killer... that's not my intention...
-me
2007-08-25 17:57:07 · update #1
Well, you aren't going to have thousands. A couple hundred at most, but more likely 75-100 if you're lucky.
Your best bet would be to get a separate breeding tank, 5 gallons would be okay, and place the females in it. Make sure you have some hiding places for the fry, like Java fern or Java moss. The molly especially is sensitive to being moved at this stage of pregnancy (though without seeing her I'm not sure just what stage she's in).
A Molly's sex is determined the same way a guppy's or platy's is. A long thin anal fin indicates a male, while a fan shaped anal fin is a female.
How many other fish do you have in your main tank?
2007-08-26 04:22:41 · answer #1 · answered by TopPotts 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Don't leave them in the net, that'll just stress them out. Especially if you don't know how far along she/they are, can take a month or longer. Sounds cruel, but with your tank size, and that many fry/babies and other fish, you're best to let nature take it's course with the fry. You're going to end up with ammonia problems from the tank being overstocked, and the fry and possibly the adult fish will end up dying. Unless you have another tank to move them to. Especially if you're planning on keeping the fry. Very large tank....lol.
Even to raise the fry, you should have a separate tank, it's not uncommon for them to have 20+ fry at one time, and you have many that are getting fat? That many fry won't do well in a small breeders net. They mess them up pretty quick with their poop and uneaten food.
Here's a photo, not the greatest, and they're platies-they're livebearers like mollies and guppies, so it's the same. If you look at the platy on the bottom and on the left, their bottom fin closest to their tail is triangle shaped. Those are females. The one on the top is a male, that area on the bottom closest to the back fin has a tube shaped "thing", it's called a gonopodium, males don't have the triangle shaped fin back there. Once you can see it and compare a male and female next to each other, you'll notice right away.
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=1067
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2007-08-25 20:14:32 · answer #2 · answered by tikitiki 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
uh leave the mamas out of the breeder and put the babies in the breeder when they are born with a very fine mesh net... That way they don't have their babies at different times and eat them while your waiting for the others to have their babies... unless it is one of those that the babies fall through the bottom...
I would be careful when transporting molllies as they can abort their pregnancies if they are moved within two weeks of them having their babies...
To sex a molly, look at one of the bottom fins and you can see one is a fan shaped and one is long and skinny.
To see what I mean they girl molly is on top and the boy molly is on bottom... hopefully this makes sense
http://www.edas.com.au/EDAS-Weird-P-latipinna.jpg
The same way you sex mollies you can sex platies, and swordtails. feel free to email me with any other questoins or if I missed anything...\
Hopefully I made sense xD
oh and Im not sure if mollies get gravid spots (sorry)
2007-08-25 18:21:03 · answer #3 · answered by werdna963 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Here are some links that should be able to help
http://fishlesscycling.com/articles/how_to_sex_your_fish.html
http://fishlesscycling.com/articles/breeding_tropical_fish.html
And you're suppose to put only one pregnant female in one breeder, not more
I would suggest buying lots of live plants for the main tank, or buying another 10 gallon tank for the purpose of breeding
Hope that helps
Good luck
EB
2007-08-25 18:30:40 · answer #4 · answered by Kribensis lover 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
well to tell the gender of a molly i belive is that the anal fin (the fin closet to its but) if its flat on its bodie its a mail and if its triangular it female dont quote me on this im not sure but check out the msn.com/mollyfish they have some great info on mollies sorry bout ur guppys tho i have no experiance with them just try googling guppy birth and u might find out what your looking for, well i hope this helpd u
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-fishboy
2007-08-25 18:18:35 · answer #5 · answered by b-rizlle 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
let me have the guppies my turtles will eat them and solve your problem
2007-08-25 18:12:03 · answer #6 · answered by Brian 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋