Is My Molly Pregnant?

Hi all just wondering if any of you can offer help.

I have a dalmation molly that we think is pregnant, although she has been like this now for 4-5 weeks which seems a very long time so we was wondering if maybe she isn't pregnant and maybe the large size could be something else? I am attatching a few pics for you to see but any help would be appreciated as i am starting to worry about her. She is very happy and very active still and seems her normal self.

thanks Carla

carla85uk said:

Hi all just wondering if any of you can offer help.

I have a dalmation molly that we think is pregnant, although she has been like this now for 4-5 weeks which seems a very long time so we was wondering if maybe she isn't pregnant and maybe the large size could be something else? I am attatching a few pics for you to see but any help would be appreciated as i am starting to worry about her. She is very happy and very active still and seems her normal self.

thanks Carla

Click to expand...

appologies for the images im not very good at resizing!

Also adding this video of her as i know my pics arent great!

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TcWPF33lZY

thankyou xx

4-5 weeks sounds a little long for a Molly to be pregnant to me but they're not a species that I know a hell of a lot about so I could be wrong.

Hello, from what I see in your photos I would say yes she is pregnant. I use to raise guppies years ago and a few mollies as well. I found that the mollies are more tolerant of their babies being in the same tank with the parents unlike the guppies that will eat their young real fast, but it also depends on your setup too. Mollies grow quite slow as young fry but are neat little fish.

My recommendation to you is, if you have a spare 5 or 10 gal tank, set it up with water from a previous tank and try and use a filter that is also aged so you don't create a cycle. Leave it bare bottom and add some floating plants in there and place the pregnant female alone into this tank to let her have her young.

When she is finished remove her back to the main tank and then you have a tank with just fry that you can feed and take care of without using those birthing traps which are terrible and very stressful on the momma fish. I fed mine very finely crushed flake food almost a powder form when you crush it up. Like I said they grow slow so have patience.

If you don't want to do that then leave them in the main tank, add some plants for the young to hide in and see what you end up with for youngsters as they grow. Depending on what else you have in the main tank you will not end up with as many young as you would if you were to put them into their own tank.

Have fun

The molly is clearly dropped at the front, this is simply cos its just well fed, when she drops that much at the back end of her belly thats when she will be far on pregnant, to me i think she has a week or 2 left going by the video but its just not up close enough and clear enough to decide properly.

Mollies can hold on to fry longer anywhere from 4-6 (maybe even 7-8) weeks. I found over the years mollies are a pain in the back passage for holding on to fry longer than most livebearers.

Also mollies can be very unporedictable and drop fry when they dont even look pregnent enough, but going by my past experience and general knowledge of them, i would still say 1-2 weeks left.

Good luck

thanks for the advice, i have had 2 pregnant mollies in the past two months, I let the mothers have the babies in the tank and then kept the babies seperate in a breeder box afterwards and then re homed most of them. i still have about 6 or 7 fry in the main tank that are just getting big enough to come out of hiding. I dont know what to do now as if they keep having babies my tank is going to quickly become over crowded. It is very well planted. I am running out of people to rehome the fry with as well and our pet shops all seem adamant about not taking in fish.
i do have a seperate tank and filter but no heater, and i cant really afford to buy one till the end of the month.

Cant you adverise free to good home? there is plenty of free advertising sites on the net

Livebearer_Master said:

Cant you adverise free to good home? there is plenty of free advertising sites on the net

Click to expand...

yeah will have to try that. thanks, failing that there must be some pet store somewhere that will take them, will hae to make some calls

Welcome to the forum Carla.
I took a hard look at the video that you linked to. I would expect that female to be about a week from a drop at the time you took the pictures based on what I could see when I paused the video. If you want to preserve fry from that female, I would immediately move her to a location where she can drop her fry in peace. I use a separate 10 gallon tank with a bit of cover for that very purpose. The end result often looks like this on the day the fry are dropped.


Mollies are not very good predators, they like their spirulina flake too much.

i think they fry will be ok in the tank, the first bunch of babies were fine there was nothing in there that posed any threat to them, the 2nd on the other hand the angel fish took a liking too and not all survived. i now have no angel fish left i think they will be ok in the tank. it is very well planted lots and lots of places to hide. i dont want to move her and stress her out even more as i have been having water problems and have been having to do lots of water changes which cant be nice for the fish as it is. I also dont plan on raising all the fry. stil no babies though i am beginning to wonder if she is pregnant at all, she does like her food!

You have a nice tank, how come the fish was stuck in the boat crack? How big is the tank?

still no babies nearly a week on, here are some more pics taken today,
she is currently behaving differently too, hiding herself away and not moving around very much, im thinking if she is pregnant she may be close to having the fry.

any oppinions on wether this is pregnancy or something else would be greatly appreciated as i am getting worried, thanks

if its any help my molly's shape of her stomack looks just like that when shes close to a drop like 4-7 days she looks close though, good luck

I had a dalmasian molly and it was never fat, it is defently pregneat!!!!

good luck with the babies

princesscoral
age 10

thanks i am confused as so many people are telling me she is over fed and so many telling me she is pregnant. i have cut the food back to only a small sprinkle of flakes once a day and i cant feed less then that or they'll all go hungry. so many conflicting oppinions, i know its hard to say though from a photograph