Molly Had Babies???

My sisters came into town for a week and a half recently and I asked them to pick out some fish to add to my 55 gallon tropical tank! One of them picked out an African dwarf frog and the other picked out three lyretail mollies. I quarantined them for a week and a half and released them in my tank just a week ago.

The newcomers got along great with my previous fish, and they definitely make the tank way more colorful!

But recently I’ve noticed that there was a baby fish swimming around and it shocked me! I looked around and realized that there is at least 5 more too! I think one of the mollies was pregnant and I just had no idea. I’ve never had baby fish. And I’m not sure what to do. Should I put them in a new tank while they grow? What should I do?

Fish in the tank:
1 Gold gourami
1 Pearl gourami
1 Blue gourami
1 Orange & Black Molly
1 White Molly
1 Dalmatian Molly Molly
1 African Dwarf Frog
1 lamp eye-tetra
1 Albino Cory catfish
5 otocinclus

They will be molly babies. Mollies can have a brood of fry every month even without a male present as they can store packets of sperm and use then to fertilise eggs for several months.
Can I ask you to check the gender of the mollies. With 3, and one obviously female, you need either all females or 1 male 2 females. If the other two are both males, they will harass the lone female and stress her.


I do really need to point out that you need more lamp eye tetras and cories are they should both be kept in groups of at least 6. The only exception is when they are old fish and the rest of the shoal has died.

I have loads of fry (babies) guppys in with Corys at the moment, They have not touched any of the fry they are 4 days old. As Essjay pointed out you need more of each species mentioned, Especially the Corys they really do need more friends. Besides the shoaling needs of Corys,They are highly entertaining in a group & much more active.
The lamp eyes that i have seen have always been in groups & im sure most Tetras have shoaling needs

essjay said:

They will be molly babies. Mollies can have a brood of fry every month even without a male present as they can store packets of sperm and use then to fertilise eggs for several months.
Can I ask you to check the gender of the mollies. With 3, and one obviously female, you need either all females or 1 male 2 females. If the other two are both males, they will harass the lone female and stress her.


I do really need to point out that you need more lamp eye tetras and cories are they should both be kept in groups of at least 6. The only exception is when they are old fish and the rest of the shoal has died.

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Oh wow! That’s very interesting thank you so much for the information! I’ll check their gender once I get back home.

And yes! I was also curious about that. I had 3 Cory catfishes and 3 lamp eye tetras. Two of the catfish died and 2 of the lamp eye tetras died so now I’m left with only one of each. Is that okay? They seem to not be bothered by it and the tetra hasn’t been bullying any other fish as I’ve observed.

jonny-5 said:

I have loads of fry (babies) guppys in with Corys at the moment, They have not touched any of the fry they are 4 days old. As Essjay pointed out you need more of each species mentioned, Especially the Corys they really do need more friends. Besides the shoaling needs of Corys,They are highly entertaining in a group & much more active.
The lamp eyes that i have seen have always been in groups & im sure most Tetras have shoaling needs

Click to expand...

essjay said:

They will be molly babies. Mollies can have a brood of fry every month even without a male present as they can store packets of sperm and use then to fertilise eggs for several months.
Can I ask you to check the gender of the mollies. With 3, and one obviously female, you need either all females or 1 male 2 females. If the other two are both males, they will harass the lone female and stress her.


I do really need to point out that you need more lamp eye tetras and cories are they should both be kept in groups of at least 6. The only exception is when they are old fish and the rest of the shoal has died.

Click to expand...

Do you guys think that I should put them in a separate tank while they grow? I’m afraid they’re not getting enough food.

If you crush/grind up some of the adults' food into dust, the baby mollies will find something to eat. The adult fish won't be able to eat all those tiny bits before the babies find some.

My fry are in what i call the "Hungry Tank" & they seem to be surviving. When i feed the adults i crush some flake at the same time,So while the adults are busy eating the smaller pieces drop down & as Essjay said they will find it before the adults

jonny-5 said:

My fry are in what i call the "Hungry Tank" & they seem to be surviving. When i feed the adults i crush some flake at the same time,So while the adults are busy eating the smaller pieces drop down & as Essjay said they will find it before the adults

Click to expand...

essjay said:

If you crush/grind up some of the adults' food into dust, the baby mollies will find something to eat. The adult fish won't be able to eat all those tiny bits before the babies find some.

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Ohh okay awesome! I’ll try that! I hope they venture out of the corner they’ve been hiding in recently!

essjay said:

They will be molly babies. Mollies can have a brood of fry every month even without a male present as they can store packets of sperm and use then to fertilise eggs for several months.
Can I ask you to check the gender of the mollies. With 3, and one obviously female, you need either all females or 1 male 2 females. If the other two are both males, they will harass the lone female and stress her.


I do really need to point out that you need more lamp eye tetras and cories are they should both be kept in groups of at least 6. The only exception is when they are old fish and the rest of the shoal has died.

Click to expand...

I think there is one female and two male mollies? I’m not sure.

The gold and black looks like a male, though it's possible that it is a female with a closed up anal fin so that it looks more like a gonopodium
The white fish is female.
The speckled black and white fish is male.

I know that your sisters picked them out but is there any chance of taking one of the males back and quietly swapping it for a similar coloured female (so as not to upset the sister)?

essjay said:

The gold and black looks like a male, though it's possible that it is a female with a closed up anal fin so that it looks more like a gonopodium
The white fish is female.
The speckled black and white fish is male.

I know that your sisters picked them out but is there any chance of taking one of the males back and quietly swapping it for a similar coloured female (so as not to upset the sister)?

Click to expand...

Yeah I can try! I’ve never seen him pursuing the female, only the speckled one has shown interest in her. But I’ll definitely call and ask them if I can switch them out. Thank you!

You could just add some more females. Say another 2 or 3.

itiwhetu said:

You could just add some more females. Say another 2 or 3.

Click to expand...

Okay! I’ll see what I can do

Hi again! Today I observed that this Molly looks as if he’s pregnant. His belly is bigger that the last picture I took. He mostly hangs around at the top of the tank next to the heater and occasionally he’ll dip down to the bottom of the tank and scrape the bottom of his belly on the rocks. I’m just confused because I thought he was a male? Is this Molly pregnant or is it something else?

This looks like a male. Body shape can vary fish to fish.