Anyone out there ever tried to breed mollies?

I have 3 that look pregnant but not ready to deliver, then one day they don't look pregnant at all, then they are back to looking pregnant??



Just looking for someone who may have seen this or been involved in breeding mollies.

Brooksie

imo opinion doing a large waterchange with a bit of colder water will re-enact springtime.
And get them spawning.
Works for my guppies.

Plus removing the surplus of fish, once you got young fish, will induce spawning again.

Is the tank heavily planted?
That may help.
I use fast growing easy maintenance plants and they make the tank very low maintence.

Brooksie wrote:

what substrate do you have? mollies and guppies could be always pregnant.
yes, they can be pregnant today, and not the following day...and after a
few day will have the same pregnant features.... my guppies releases a lot
of fries before aro could consume the pregnant one.... thus you have to
look in your substrate for wigglers....

i had a single female guppy,solitary in a tank that spawned 3 times, with having not had a partner around for a long time.
First spawn was 3 fry, second only one, third it were 17 and the tank was full again.
Plants serve as hidingspots for the fry,as well as some small pebbles i placed on top of the roots of my canadian duckweed. and i never took any fry out.
They keep the tank balanced by eating some of the fry ,i guess.

As for the substrate - very little gravel. I kept this tank simple. It has plants in it but not too many. Nothing hanging out in the gravel.

I have 1 male and 4 females now. Two females are very very pregnant. I see the difference in them now compared to the pics I posted on my other thread. Plus the anal whole has turned white. I have moved the 2 into the breeding net, doing the daily small water changes, temp is at 81 and they are eating like pigs! Just waiting for the pop!!!

do you use salt in your tank? mollies do very well with some salt in their tank and people have been known to slowly convert them to full saltwater fish. i advise you to get some aquarium salt and add the amount of salt recommended for your size tank. in case you were wondering, i went on a full fledge livebearing fish breeding adventure. had two ten gallons set up. one with guppies, one with mollies. luckily, i had turtles who loved the fry of the mollies and guppies. otherwise, i would have been over-run by countless numbers of fish. one guppy had 50 babies one time. anyways if your not going to take the parents out of the tank a heavily planted, live or fake, tank is the way to go. the parents eat their fry. plus you have to crush the flakes finely for the fry to eat. i only fed my fry flake food and microworms. they grow slow though. probably because i only fed them twice a day compared to the recomended 5-7 times a day. i can honestly say though, i never lost a fry unless it was quickly culled do to a deformity.

you can pm me with any questions and i will happily answer them for you

I have read that about the salt in a lot of places. I was thinking of adding that today. One of the females in the net is breathing rather hard. I can't tell if she is stressed or delivering !?!?!

well in my personal experience none of my fish breathed hard while they were delievering. they just did it. i never used the net breeders. to small of a space imo. i have a one gallon "betta" tank and put that inside of the aquarium with some fake plants and left them floating. no substrate either. i also had a ten gallon for just the babies. with a regular HOB filter and no substrate (makes it easier for the babies to find food). however if you use a HOB filter remember to put panty hose or something or that nature of the intake tube so as not to suck up the babies.

Thanks.... I will let you know how things fall!

great! i would love to see pictures of the babies and even the adults. if possible can i see a picture of the tank set up? im just curious as to how you have it set up.

I took these on the 1st of August. I lost 2 of these mollies though. Just purchased 3 black ones. I have 1 male and 4 femals. I will try to get some pics tomorrow when it is day light - helps in the house!



Today I made the following changes though - removed the prego ones from the nest, placed a nylon over the hub filter and continued with my water changes, and added salt to the tank. Current temp is 81 degrees. All are eating nicely and swimming around all happy... except for the most prego one, she is hanging out near the plant.

yes, the majority of my fish that were close to popping (say within a day or two) would hang out in any plants i had. be warned, if the tank does not have quite a few hiding spots you will loose alot of fry. to the mother and the other fish.