# pregnant molly questions



## PostShawn

So I picked up 2 female mollies from the pets store about two months ago. I knew they very well could be pregnant already when getting them from the store but they were the only two mollies in that tank and I figured oh well. They are housed in a 20g community tank with cory cats, a dwarf gourami, a sword tail, and some harlequin rasboras that keep to their own school. Then I went to feed them a couple days ago and as I was going to leave the tank I dropped one more pinch of food in from the top and noticed a little black and white thing come up and take some food and swim right back to a hiding spot in a fake plant. I did a double take and called my fiance over to look. We had a molly fry. I scanned the rest of the tank but there were no more.

So I had a couple extra tanks lying around. I first setup a 5g but the extra filter I had was too much current in the 5g so I set up a 14g and it's not so bad. I put a sponge on the filter intake. Set up some decor for hiding and added water from the original 20g. I put about 8g of water in from the 20g (figured good as any time to do water change and put the old water to good use), added 2.5g of bottled water and then the rest was treated tap. I setup a heater and let it get to a good 80*f. Then I carefully transported just the one fry into the 14g. He must be the luckiest fry around, 14g all to it self. It's been 2 days and the fry is doing just fine. I finely crush up food and it comes to the top to feed. It swims all over the tank. 

My questions:

1. This fry is about 1/3rd of an inch. Is that pretty big? How big should a fry be and if this one is big how long have I probably not noticed it in the 20g tank? 

2. I've heard mollies (and other live breeders) can keep contributions from male fish and stay pregnant up to 6 months. But most time they apparently drop fry about every month. It's been 2 months and I didn't see any about a month ago. So how long can I probably expect to look for little siblings to our current fry?

3. Both of my mollies look a bit plump. One is noticeably bigger then the other though in the belly area. She is still pretty big after dropping this one fry that I saved. Could she be dropping more for up to another 4 months? Can she drop more in the next few days or do they usually drop what's ready in a few hours worth and then wait another month?

4. I got a breeder's box last night. It says to put the momma in there when she is ready and the fry drop below the grate. How do I know when she is ready? She's still big, she looks ready now but it's been 2 days already since the fry I saved was born. Should I put the mother in the box in about 3 weeks and just see if she gives birth again? 

5. Should I put the mother or both female mollies in the extra 14g I setup with the fry or will she eat the fry? Would it still be good to put the females in the 14g and the fry in the breeder box until it's big enough and then I can have a tank dedicated to the pregnant molly/s and turn the heat up and do all the stuff for them without effecting the normal day to day lives of the other community fish? I kind of like giving the little fry all that room though. 



Anyway, lots of questions there. I'm sure they all could be summed up in a couple answers. I just wasn't expecting a baby and all of the sudden here it is and I was not prepared. Well I was prepared and had all the stuff but didn't know it was coming. I didn't care for the breeding before but now I kind of like having a fry to raise. I just wonder for people who like to breed these things, what do you do when you have like 50 or 100 fry every month? Do you sell them to pet stores or just raise them and get a 100 gallon tank just for live breeders? Unless this fry or any other are males I don't think I'll be breeding more, at least not on purpose. But secretly I wouldn't mind ;-)


Here are some crappy iPhone photos. 

The fry at the water's surface in the new 14g tank.









The 20g the fry was born in. 










Thanks!


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## TheOldSalt

1- That's normal. Molly fry are huge.

2- a month, month and a half, two months... kinda variable with mollies and with the temperature. A one day dip of two degrees can delay birth for 10 days.

3- They drop a batch and stop

4- NO! Mollies do not go in breeder boxes. They spaz out and sometimes die. You'd have much better luck with a small tank or plastic tub half full of floating plants and hornwort. That way, you can have a much larger window of opportunity. 4 weeks should be a good time.

5- Mollies often do not eat the fry, especially if they are well fed and if the fry have lots of hiding places. Again, the fry are quite large. putting the fry in their own tank is always a good idea, though.

You won't get 50 or 100 fry a month. You'll be doing extremely well to get 25, and that's pushing it with only two females. Mollies don't generally have very many at a time. ( although it happens sometimes ) Also, many molly fry don't survive very long, being what we call belly-sliders that can't swim. as such, you won't have a problem. If you get too many, though, then yes, most shops are happy to take in locally raised fish, because they tend to be better than the ones brought in from elsewhere.


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## PostShawn

Original questions:


PostShawn said:


> ...
> 4. I got a breeder's box last night. It says to put the momma in there when she is ready and the fry drop below the grate. How do I know when she is ready? She's still big, she looks ready now but it's been 2 days already since the fry I saved was born. Should I put the mother in the box in about 3 weeks and just see if she gives birth again?
> 
> 5. Should I put the mother or both female mollies in the extra 14g I setup with the fry or will she eat the fry? Would it still be good to put the females in the 14g and the fry in the breeder box until it's big enough and then I can have a tank dedicated to the pregnant molly/s and turn the heat up and do all the stuff for them without effecting the normal day to day lives of the other community fish? I kind of like giving the little fry all that room though.
> ...



First round answers:


TheOldSalt said:


> ...
> 4- NO! Mollies do not go in breeder boxes. They spaz out and sometimes die. You'd have much better luck with a small tank or plastic tub half full of floating plants and hornwort. That way, you can have a much larger window of opportunity. 4 weeks should be a good time.
> 
> 5- Mollies often do not eat the fry, especially if they are well fed and if the fry have lots of hiding places. Again, the fry are quite large. putting the fry in their own tank is always a good idea, though.
> ....




Second round questions: 

Thanks OldSalt! So just one more question I guess. 
If the molly fry are usually too big for being eaten and the molly/s might drop more should I put the mollies in the 14g all together if there is plenty of hiding places and I feed them plenty? I could put the fry only in the breeding box if needed I guess in the 14g and the mothers free roaming. In the 20g community tank my dwarf gourami looks like he'd chase just about anything he thinks he can fit in his mouth. I'm just thinking if I have a 14g setup and running healthy then maybe move the mollies to that tank so I can really setup the conditions ideal for mollies in that tank without effecting the other community fish. I mean heck, what's another tank anyway. I always wanted more tanks.


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## TheOldSalt

Yeah, I guess that would work,if making lots of mollies is your goal.


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## PostShawn

So now I have a 2 week old molly fry in a 14 gallon tank. I went to feed the adults in the 20 gallon this morning and there was a whole ton of fry. I have two mollys and both looked pregnant and one point. So the first one I found 2 weeks ago was noticeably bigger then the ones I found today. When I went to the tank this morning the mother mollys were swimming around like crazy. Then I noticed the fry, then I noticed my dwarf gourami trying to eat them. The mollys didn't seem to be trying to eat them. I think they were actually chasing the gourami away. Wow that dwarf gourami was going crazy though. Wasn't scared of me or anything and just kept chasing the fry. So I rescued at about 35 molly fry and noticed another couple in the adult tank but I had to leave for work. There is a ton of plants and places to hide so I'll see whats still in there when I get home tonight. Anyway, I thought it was weird that 2 weeks ago I only found one. Now I think I know why, there were probably a bunch or at least a few and the gourami probably ate most of them. When I found the one fry it was farily big, probably about a whole 1/3rd bigger then the ones I found today. So I think it was just the survivor of a bunch. 

So now I'm wondering will my one 2 week old fry who is about double the size of the new fry go after them? Since it's is still small I put it in a breeder box in the fry tank. I won't put the adults in the breeder box since they are huge. But I wonder if I let it out will it go after the smaller fry? My guess is not since it's about double the size and barely can bite off big flakes of food let alone a whole fry. And the mother's didn't seem to be eating the fry either so I think at least in the batch of mollys I have as long as they are fed good they won't eat the fry. Just a guess though.

I'm thinking since I have the 14g setup and running again I might move the dwarf gourami and a couple others (probably kuhli loaches and sword tail) in there since he's a lot more aggressive then most of my other fish. The rasboras seem to hide most of the time and they are so fun to watch when they actually swim around together.

Overall I think this is a cool learning experience. It's fun raising the fry. If anyone in the Los Angeles area wants some baby molly fish let me know, you can have some if you come get them. I'll be keeping a couple and probably giving the rest to my LFS in about a month. I have to go talk to them this weekend and ask about that. 

:hbd: <--- to about 35 molly fry.

:fish::fish::fish:


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