Breeding Mollies

[silentwhispers]

Hi everyone,

how are you all? I am new to this community and I apologise for not posting an introduction but I do promise to post once asap. Today's been busy and I am afraid I don't have much time

I have a question, well several about breeding mollies. Here are my aquarium specks:

Size: 20 gal.
Fish : 1 blue female gourami, 2 swordtails (1 male and 1 female), 1 platie ( I've had bad luck with platies, it seems that every new platie I add except for one, ends up dying somehow ) and 3 mollie (1 lyretail male and 2 common, 1 male common and one female common)

Ph- 7.0

Ammonia/Nitrites/Nitrates/dh - none/very,very teensy traces but it's been corrected/ in-between ( the reason I don't post numbers is because my charts got water on them but I am going by memory by colors compared to the tests and my memory of the charts and their numbers and such and the net )

Filtration: carbon filter

Decorations: 2 castles, a lighthouse,gravel, plastic plants,a plastic rock

Someone told me my aquarium is already a bit overstocked, is this true?

Sorry for going off-topic but my molly questions are, what are the right conditions for mollies to breed successfully under? Do I need to have more males or females to even the chances of successful breeding? And how would you be able to tell if a a molly is pregnant if there is a way to tell? I'm sorry if this post seems rude in the slightest I don't mean for it to be. I forgot to also ask, can you crossbreed a lyretail and a common molly?

Thanks for reading my post. I regrettably must go but when I come back I will introduce myself I'm sorry everyone. Thanks

 

[Robert]

you're not overstocked at all!!!!!

as for those mollies, you should always have about 2 or 3 females to 1 male

all mollies are the same species, for example, dogs are all the same species but there are different types ie. dalmation, boxer, lab.....and so on, what i'm trying to get at is that all mollies can breed with each other.

you'll know when you have a pregnant female becase there will be a dark spot called a gravid spot right in front and a little above of the anal fin. A day or 2 before she gives birth, you should see her puff up like a balloon and look like she will burst, then the babies should be there soon!!

hope this helps B)

 

[balloon molly]

with black mollies they dont have a black gravid spot but they have a white spot

 

[silentwhispers]

Thanks Robert Maybe I was overstocked because previously, well a few days ago, I had my other lyretail mollie and a new platie die on me I called the petstore to ask them about my aquarium being overstocked and then, before the deaths, he told me it was a bit overstocked as it was ( I had about 10-11 fish in there then, including my male betta but he's back in his bowl) and no to add anymore because of aggression and ammonia. I wanted to add at least 2 more lyretail mollies but then that dashed my hopes but whatever is best for my aquarium I'm satisfied with Do you think I could add a few more mollies, say 2-4 possibly? I'm becoming such a mollie addict lately *hehe* Actually a made a mistake in identifying the sexes of my mollies. I have 2 females to one male actually.

I like the lyres best because of their personalities but I like mollies, different breeds of mollies, not particularly just one breed. These are my first mollies. This is my first time with the aquarium. I added the fish last month probably about the middle of last month. Then I added the gourami, the 2 platies, 2 lyretails, swordtail and my betta Blue. I had to remove him yesterday because he began chasing the other fish. Everything was going so well in there and he was very nice to the other fish before. Not to mention he added a nice touch to it as well but it looks like no more aquarium for him.

Well I really should go ahead and post an introduction before I get waay ahead of myself here Thanks everyone for the advice

 

[Robert]

No problem, i like helping , so tell me how many fish (by species) you have in there right now, and i can tell you how many more i would recomend

 

[silentwhispers]

I have:

3 mollies (1 lyretail,2 common)
1 blue gourami
1 platie
2 swordtails

About how many more do you think I could add? I would like to add at least 2 more swords,2 more platies, and maybe 1 or 2 more mollies.

 

[Robert]

I would suggest maybe turning your blue gourami in for some store credit so you can get 2 wag platies, 2 swordtails, 1 molie, all females. That's just what i suggest, i hope that helps if you have any more questions, just post them in the here and i'll do the best i can to help!! B)