Good golly , Miss Mollie !!!

just thought i'd throw this up to see wot ppl think ..... i picked up this female mollie yesterday in an lfs purely because A. she looked pregnant .... and B. because she is the biggest mollie i have ever seen

i also picked up a very nice sized male sailfin mollie who since introduction to my tank has stayed glued to the female constantly displaying to her and chancin his arm

the photo was taken in one of those floating hatcheries ( the double sided one , so you can judge yourself how big she is )

hi again ladies and gents .... i'm lookin for any help possible from anyone who knows a few things about live bearers . ... attached is a video i took earlier this evening of a female sailfin molly i recently bought ..... she's kinda big and i have a feeling she may be pregnant too .

the problem lies in her size ! she is almost three quarters the length of my floating hatchery , and as a result i feel almost cruel in leaving her in it .

i also have a net hatchery , which although it would provides her with alot more space to swim around ..... it doesn't provide a means of seperating any fry from the mother ( if and when they do arrive i mean )

so the questions i have are

a:- is she pregnant

b:- if i move her to the net hatchery .... am i right in assuming she will eat any fry she may produce as they will be swimming right beside her

any help would be greatfully appreciated

Duzzy,
Nice fish you have there, however if you leave her in that hatchery box she will either abort the fry or else get so stressed from it she could die herself. The box is simply too small,while a small guppy may be able to survive in it, its far from ideal for the molly to left in there. Firstly what other fish do you have in the tank ? Many of the molly fry will survive if there are places for them to hide,if you have an internal filter check that the fry havent been sucked up into it, I always find them in my filter,and yes they are alive too when they are found!

The net option is the better of the two options,however of course you run the risk of the female eating some of the fry,I doubt she would eat them all however if its possible at all that you could put something in the net also that the fry could hide in such some plants or perhaps a cave / pot etc..

The female molly should only be put in the hatchery when she is v close to laying the eggs. If she doesnt lay them after about 6 or 7 hours Id put her back in the tank for a little spell so she can chill out abit again. The last thing you want is to be moving her back and forth the whole time also as they do get v stressed also while having the baby fry.
If its at all possible after,she would benefit from a day or two's rest without the male molly haressing her. From my experience with molly's the male molly will be trying it on as soon as the last fry leaves the female,they are pure horn dogs!!

From the look of the gravid spot and her tail dipping,I would say she is close to giving birth but think it could be another few days before you will your fry. The female will be breathing quite heavily when she is about to lay the fry. Also have some liquid fry ready for the babies when they are born.

Best of luck with it.

Gavin

cheers gavin .... i have moved her into the net hatchery as i reckon her tankmates would probably desimate any fry ..... she's in a community tank with assorted tetra's and a few keyhole cichlids to mention a few ...

she doesn't seem too stressed out and is feeding away in there .... i guess all i can do is keep an eye on her and watch out for the signs you described

thanx again

Martin

hey guys ..... just thought i'd put on an update ..... literally just ten minutes ago i got my hands on a new digital camera so went downstairs to my tank to take a few pics ...... i turned on the light and was just getting some nice shots lined up when i noticed the same molly as i have at the start of this thread , with what can only be described as red poo , hanging from her belly

watched her for a minute or two and the red poo started swimmin around the tank ..... i have now seperated her and have turned off the light again in the tank so she doesn't get too stressed out ...

while seperating her from the rest of the tank .... i managed to net out 15 - 20 fry that she had already had ...

so i'm a daddy ..... at last .. after 8 years of keepin fish i finally have something to show for it .

just as well i picked up the brine shrimp hatchery last weekend in dublin

well done Daddy, have a spare 16l if you need it to raise them on

cheers buddy ... gonna wait and see how many are there in the morning ... and i'll take it from there

Thats great Martin best of luck with them

LB

Well done, I wasnt far off with my prediction that it would be a few days!
Congrats,now that she has started she will breed regularly and will give birth to fry even if there is no male present for the next few months as they can store sperm for a while in their bodies. Make sure you check the filter also as there may well be a few of those fry in there that have swam into it, they do survive in their.
Feed them some liquid fry also, they will love it. Best of luck with it, its always great to get fry for the first time.

Congrats again.
Gavin