The Never Ending Pregnancy

I thought I would join the club of never ending fish pregnancy! I have 3 mollies that are pregnant and all three are showing signs of squaring off.. However no babies yet.. I am assuming they are into thier 4th week of pregnancy so we shall see when it happens!

Hopefully I can post some pics of them.. I just need them to be apart from eachother so I can get a clear shot. its like a convoy with these girls! They all travel as a group around the tank.. Very odd behaviour!

another pic



sorry about all the posts but I couldnt add all of them to my original post.. Anyway not the best pics but enough to show they are big girls!

they'll pop soon, don't worry.

In the first picture, the white / silver one looks to be a week away or more. In that same picture, the black one in the center is looking fairly close like within a few days. I can't see the third fish clearly enough to tell where she might be.
This is my female about 10 days before giving birth.



This is the same one 15 days before giving birth. It is the same pregnancy.



As you can tell, the size is not the thing to look at. She was bigger when further from giving birth but her shape was less squared off. I must have just fed her in the 15 day picture, and took the picture before feeding in the other.

My girls are huge (fat) looking.. But the top of thier belly compared to the back isnt quite even yet! It is starting to look like this \_/ but not quite.. So perhaps you are right and I just need to have patience and wait.. I am trying to keep a close eye on the silver molly as she is my favourite girl and the daddy is a silver sailfin.. I am hoping that I get at least one sailfin baby out of this batch!

The one further back that is blurry isnt close at all from comparing her to the other 3 I have. The black one is identical to another black one I have who is just as big! I think they were pregnant when I bought them 3 weeks ago.. I swear they are twins.. The markings on both are identical!

By the way Oldman your fish is a thing of beauty.. I am facinated with her colouring and keep searching the lfs to see if I can find one like her! No such luck so far!

Thanks for your replies!

In your first pic the black molly is huge. Expect her any day now. The white molly could have a few days to go and the other black molly could be a week or so.

more babie s

good luck!

i have 2 balloon mollies looking like they are gona pop soon lol not sure when though...

balloons are really hard to tell because of their shape. Just watch for signs of labor

I have been keeping a very close eye on all of them.. Molly's are my favorite fish! I have 2 black mollies that are huge like the one in the pic.. I couldnt get a pic of both black ones because they are camera shy.. I had to sneak up on them.. hehe..

I have over 30 baby platies right now as my 2 platy's gave birth 2 weeks ago. They are adorable and already have homes to go to once they are big enough.. I dont know how I am going to part with my molly babies though.. that will be a tough one!

Thanks for the heads up on how long they have left before they have the babies.. I am getting all panicked that I will miss it and the other fish will eat the babies.. I might catch the black ones at night and release them in the mornings so I know for sure that they will have a fighting chance!

Take care

At birth, the baby mollies will be as big as your platies are now. They are far from the biggest livebearer fry but are much bigger than a newborn platy.

If you want some sailfin fry, you'll need to give them some space because if they are cramped the sail doesn't actually grow, the fin stunts even though the rest of the fish looks normal. Also even in fry that are raised with enough room it doesn't develop for several months, so you probably will get some sailfin fry, it will just take a while before they LOOK like sailfins.

Gorgeous girls - i want them!

LauraFrog said:

If you want some sailfin fry, you'll need to give them some space because if they are cramped the sail doesn't actually grow, the fin stunts even though the rest of the fish looks normal. Also even in fry that are raised with enough room it doesn't develop for several months, so you probably will get some sailfin fry, it will just take a while before they LOOK like sailfins.

Gorgeous girls - i want them!

Click to expand...

Ohh thanks for the heads up! I have one baby from a previous batch and she is in a 10 gallon.. Hopefully it is big enough. I have named her Tink. I dont know if she will be a sailfin or not but all in all she is a little beautie!

My silver girl is the one who's pregnant by the sailfin! Its actually quite funny because before I came to this forum I just thought all males were like him with the huge back fin. Whats really cool about my male is that the tip of his tail fin is blue and the tip of his back fin is orange! The rest of him is silver/white! My lfs told me they dont sell sailfins nor have they ever... BUT that is where I bought him..LOL.. the other stores around dont come by them often and when they do have them they sell anywhere between $6.95 and 14.95.. I paid $3.00 for my guy!!!

My other black mollies are going to have surprise babies because I bought them and they were already pregnant! I am looking forward to thier babies as well to see any colour differences.. They are all soo darn cute!!

Hopefully.. *fingers crossed* I will be home to witness them having the babies!

Thanks for the info.. I might look into buying a 20 gallon for the babies.. My hubby said I could use his 55 gallon because it was empty but he bought his evil fish and they will eat my babies.. so thats out of the question now!

Thanks again..

OldMan47 said:

At birth, the baby mollies will be as big as your platies are now. They are far from the biggest livebearer fry but are much bigger than a newborn platy.

Click to expand...

Ahh okay.. Thanks.. the lfs gave me some babies and I cant figure out what kind of fish the one baby is.. perhaps if I can get a shot of him/her someone will be able to help identify the little cutie!

Any more fry yet?

Nope not yet.. All the girls are still eating and playing about normally.. The silver one was hanging out near the heater this morning when I went to feed them but she came right over to eat and starting playing with the other girls.. So we wait.. and wait.. and wait.. LOL

Here;s a new pic of my silver molly..

heres my other girls

heres daddy.. lol