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Gravid spot reliability. Can you see a gravid spot on this female? No? She dropped her fry the next day. I strongly suggest that you use shape instead.

In general mollies, guppies and platies will do fine together. Once in a while we find an aggressive molly, but that can happen in an all-molly tank just as easily. All 3 fish will also appreciate much the same water conditions of fairly hard water at around 72 to 75F, 22 to 24C.

Lock man, some particular livebearers like Heterandria formosa do drop fry a bit at a time, others, like mollies, platies, guppies and swordtails drop fry all at once. It does not vary within a species. The variation is between different species. There is no variation in mollies, they drop all...

It is really simple. Most lyretail and even hifin swordtails have a gonopodium so long that it does not work well for breeding. It is not that the male is infertile but instead that he cannot use the gonopodium effectively. What is done in commercial situations is that a female showing the trait...

TTA where do you find scientific evidence of a sex change in Xiphophorus? It is never seen, as far as I know, because it is determined by x and y chromosomes in much the same way as in most mammals. We do see male sex characteristics not being shown in some males of X. helleri when they are...

PrairieSunFlower has given us another period a bit shorter than I experienced at 33 to 35 days compared to my 42 days. Regardless of each of our experiences, each female is her own rule. If you see fry at 5 weeks, then that is the interval for your particular female. Any particular female may be...

Kjl, the female that dropped that first fry will be ready to drop again in 4 to 6 weeks. As I said earlier, expect her next drop no sooner than August 5. Platies cannot drop fry over a long period of time. They drop them all at once. The next drop should be expected at 4 to 6 weeks after the...

Shepp41, mollies do not really need salt. What they do need, along with many other typical livebearers, is water with plenty of minerals in it. My tap water gives me readings of over 12 german degrees of hardness and all common livebearers do just fine in it. If you have relatively soft water...

Any platy will constantly search for food. It does not mean that she is hungry. What you need to realize is that in the wild almost any platy will be on a constant search for food because they will always be a bit hungry. When we bring them into our tanks they are well fed but their instincts to...

If you found a fry around July 7, expect to see the next batch no sooner than around August 5.

The last image in your list is almost definitely a male. I don't see him as swollen the way you might with the group of symptoms that we call dropsy. LittleEmma16, we do not use tail shape to determine the gender of any livebearer. In the case of a guppy, we look for a gonopodium to indicate a...

Welcome to the forum Cindaaayyy. A gestation for a guppy is about 28 days but it need not start as soon as the last drop has happened. In my case, I actually timed only one molly, which has the same gestation period. She was at exactly 42 days every time.I think you will find that your female...

That fish is not carrying any fry unless she is in her first week. Stop trying to use gravid spot color to figure out a guppy. Shape is far more likely to give a correct estimate. LittleEmma16, pictures are easy. You take the picture then go to your photobucket account and upload the picture...

1 day old.

The cichlid pellets look like a good alternative for mollies. The betta food was probably too high in animal protein for them but as long as they get other food it will be OK.

That is not stress, it is disease. Please get a half decent picture and post your question in the Tropical emergencies section where people are more familiar with disease treatment.

The typical gestation period is 4 weeks but it can vary a bit with water temperatures.

14 german degrees or 250 ppm, is fairly hard water. I would avoid "soft water" loving fish. The guppies should be just great in that water. Platies will also do well in that water.

What kind of filters are involved?

Almost anything that gives your fish a place to hide works fine. My best example is a heavily planted tank that I have. If you look closely at this picture you will see lots of fish right up front but the tank is 16 inches, about 40cm, from front to back. You can see almost every fish in the...

Either of those approaches will work just fine. I am always short some water in my tanks so I use RO for makeup between water changes. That way I don't add the minerals that come in tap water.

The only ads I saw before I blocked them were ones from places I had already visited using Google searches. If I must see ads, at least they were going to try to lead me back where I had already been. Too bad I hadn't been doing searches for fish and fish products before the ads kicked in...

I would use only pure water to make ice for the fish. We don't want to add to the temperature issues that the fish are dealing with.

High temperatures like that are hard on your fish. Is the tank in a location that makes it warmer than it needs to be?

Try adding more hiding places in your tank. I know that sounds backward but a fish that can quickly hide is often visible more of the time because the ability to hide easily gives them some confidence.

Mollies will not breed successfully with platies. It is not one of the possible crosses.

Hey. Knock it off. Stop buying fish every time you wander into a shop. Was that strong enough Livewire88?

Babsie, forget housing your male with your sorority. It might work out for a few hours but unless the male went right into mating behavior the result will be difficult to deal with. Either the male or the females will not survive very long.

Nope. They are just fine in most community settings.

One of my pet peaves. These fish are not the first generation being tried out by the public like a beta of software. The double t in the species name exists for a reason. The two ts means that the vowel that precedes it is a short vowel not a long vowel. Betta just like better but without the r...

It is really easy ryno. There are lots of species of fish within the Betta genus. The most common one at any fish shop is Betta splendens but the other 20+ species are also kept by specialists. Some of the more common other species are Betta imbellis, Betta simplex, Betta pugnax and Betta...

If your male is catching eggs and dealing with them, it will work out as well as it could. A male is far better at defining what his potential fry need than we are. I know that sounds backward since we are the ones with the big brains and the historical information but trust that male to know...

I find that Betta splendens are tough as nails fish. Ich is a parasitic disease that happens whenever the parasites are present. Stay on top of your ich treatment. The survivors in your tank need to be protected from the parasites until all signs of the disease have been gone from all fish for...

I had to say other on the survey. I feed my nice male whatever the endlers and bristlenose plecos that he lives with gets. He also gets all the endler fry he can eat. He seems to do quite well with me never ever buying any specialty betta food. I personally think that "betta food" is a giant rip...

Your picture cupcake.

Well done. Now, can you do it for another week?

Betta imbellis are best kept in small breeding groups, not as individuals as we do with splendens. They are not splendens and anything you have learned about splendens is basically going to be wrong for any of the wild type bettas.

Betta imbellis do not require soft water. Find out what kind of water they have been reared in and try to duplicate it fairly closely from day 1. If you suddenly put hard water fish in soft water or vice versa, you are making it harder for them to survive and thrive. All changes in the water's...

Fishmania06, last week she looked about 2 weeks from a drop. The new picture does not show her well enough to tell. Have you taken the time to read through the thread that I called My Molly's Progress in my signature area? That thread will do more to make you an expert on judging your own fish...

Other fish are more aware of your female's state than we are. As she gets close to a drop the other males will give her lots of attention. The whole driving force of sex, in any animal including man, is to try to ensure survival of the genes of the parents. In livebearers, the male who first...