Molly's are having babies- advice & tips please!?

Hi All,





I woke up today to about 10 extra fish in my 30l tank, albiet extra tiny ones!


We have 4 white and 4 black mollys, i assume they were preganant when we got them about a week ago as they have already popped!


So, i have bought this box for them, that sits in the water, you put all the babies in so that the other fish dont eat them - saying thatby the time i get home today, i think most will have been lunch.


Howvere, a few of the otehr fish look pretty ready to pop, i know they are 'chubby' fish anyway, but a few of thier bellies look huge!


Im look for a way to identify who is pregnant, and who is female/male- i dont think i have room for 20more babies!


Also, any advice forthe little ones/how to stop the adults breeding?





Many thanks!Molly's are having babies- advice %26amp; tips please!?
I use the breeding trap/floating tanks with my mollie babies and theyve all done fine so i wouldnt worry too much about that.. okay





You will NEVER get them to stop breeding as long as they're in the same tank. They mate all the time, and its safe to say that female mollies can pretty much always be pregant because they can hold sperm inside her and fertlize her eggs again after she's given birth. So if you separate them, your females are likely to carry on giving birth for months...





Mollies are some of the easiest fish to distinguish the different sexes.





Your Males will have a gonopodium, which is the fin on his back by the way. It is very very large compared to the females and is sometimes dotted, which you can see when he expands it, for fighting off competition and impressing the girlies!!!





Their anal fin, if it is actually classed as a fin, is thin and folded and looks like a teeny little arm with no hand cos they flap it about a bit when they get near the rear end of a female and i suppose it kind of like a penis!!!





An easy way to spot if a mollie is pregnant, look for a dark spot near her anal fin, this is called a gravid spot and usually gets bigger as she moves through her pregnancy, although unfortunatley with black mollies you wont be able to tell.





They're probably pregnant again already, so keep a look out for the females getting even fatter with shadowy heavy looking tummies, and lingering around plants if you have any, they seem to like to give birth around plants... If you notice things like this place her in a different tank or LARGE breeding trap, not too small she may stress and die.... but if you do this, you're more likely to have more than 10-20 babies, try 60-100....





If you don't want babies, separate the sexes, or just let nature do its thing and let them eat them and you might even get a couple of lucky ones...





Yes they were pregnant when you got them, my mollies gestation period is usually 3-4 weeks...





Good Luck and congratulations on your babies!!! XXXXMolly's are having babies- advice %26amp; tips please!?
well I will do my best to help you I would say the brighter fish are the females if they get chubby I would say seperate them this is one way you can tell they want to mate many bubbles at the top of water well I hope all goes well I hope my advice helps.
Hello, it can be hard to tell who is pregnant on mollies. The only way that has worked for me is to see who is fat before you feed them. On some fish it can be easy, you look for the gravid spot, but sometimes the molly's coloration can get in the way. The gravid spot is a darker spot right behind her belly above her anal fin. When the spot is large, she is close to popping.





Telling males from females is pretty easy- Males have a pointy anal fin that they hold pretty close to the body most of the time. Males usually have a larger top fin, and can tend toward iridecent coloring. Females have a larger rounded anal fin that they leave hanging out from the body. I have seen some females that like to hold their anal fin close to the body, but several minutes of close observation should be enough to see her drop it so you can see the shape.





The only way to stop livebearers from breeding is to get rid of all of the females or all of the males. If you are concerned about room, you can just leave the fish in the main tank, and the adults will eat the fry.





I like the little plastic breeding pens, I use them pretty frequently. The only thing you have to watch is the air at the top- make sure it is not submerged, and that there is air below the lid. If there is no air for the fish, the fry will all have swim bladder problems and most likely die. (They won't be able to float.) A fish can live like that for quite a while, and I have had fry almost make it to adulthood, but they always die. As long as there is air below the lid, it is fine. The fry can live off of crushed flake food.
Yes it is true, breeders traps are far to small for fry to live in! Just go to the pet store and get lots of fake DENSE plants. These will float unless you bury the fake roots into the ground. To stop them from breeding you should separate the males on one side of the tank and females on the other, separate them with a divider. once the babies are big enough,you can sell them to a pet store if you don't have room to keep them.
The only way to stop them from breeding is to separate them. I think you should put the fry in another tank if possible. I dont know why it would be hazardous!? I doubt they will al be eatin, but if you dont have cover for them or places for them to hide then they might be. They mean by the top water cover or however they said it was that you can get plants that float. They want you to get some of those plants that float instead of putting them in a fry trap.