Idiots Guide To Sexing Molly Fry

[M_J]

help, I know folks said it was obvious but I can't see any difference, how old are they when you can tell the sex, the odd one now has started to develop black spots so their colours are coming through but I can't see any bits to speak of?

are they a few months old before you can sex them or can a few week old fry be sexed?

sorry...never bred before, don't intend to again neither!

oh the other question is the molly is getting really fat again, I've been told they can birth up to 100 and she's had 18 so far, we've not lost any as yet neither, is that usual, I was told we'd be lucky to rear any in the tank but they're thriving? is she brewing a second batch in there and how long will it be before she's definitely had them all if she is?

thanks for any help!

 

[This Old Spouse]

Mollies are similar to guppies, and can have more fry about every 28 days or so without being bred again. And as for sexing them, it's usually a couple months before you can sex them accurately.

If the fry are thriving, good for you! That is unusual that they'd all survive.

 

[lilfishie]

Mollies generally take a little longer before you can sex them, with platies/guppies its around 2 months, mollies anywhere between 6 months and a year i have found.


The female can have 7 lots of fry from a single mating, so even though you not intending to breed them again she will have more

 

[M_J]

oh nuts lol! thanks....I think!

yeah, it's quite funny seeing them all swimming around, that's what we got told, not to worry, we'd be lucky if a few made it past a week and nature would take it's course to reduce the numbers, we let them in the tank after a few days because they were miserable in the little pen bought and kept swimming at the side to get out! it's quite funny to watch them swimming around like a mini school, all together...following 'big g' (that's our one remaining dwarf gourami) I keep counting expecting one less at least but no, still 18 of them, they're easy to count, soon as stick some food in they're there stuck to it til it's gone!

oh no....how long!!! maybe should rehome the molly instead, pretend she's fat not preggers, only joking, little madam!

I'm going to keep my big mouth shut when next time I tell Ed that fish are a relaxing hobby to have....I'll never live this down!

we've already bought another tank for the room...at this rate we may as well convert the living room into a huge aquarium!

will they all be the same colour as their mum then, she's a dalmation molly, white with black spots, some of them have got spots already but some haven't, I've no idea what the dad was and no way of finding out as got her from Pets At Home (never again! lol)

 

[Baccus]

If the female was with any males other than another dalmation molly then she will pretty much have a mixed bag of babies.

I know how you feel with heaps of babies we have guppies and their number is ever expanding, even the group of females in the tank where all the babies are born are not really helping in the number of baby reduction. If you do really want the baby numbers to remain more manageable then just leave the preggers female in with the rest of the fish, I always find that pretty much only the newborn and a couple of day old babies get eaten by the adults and other fish. Once any babies are over a week of age they seem smart enough to avoid a determined snacker, or too large for the other adults to worry about trying to eat. And if you really don't want to accidentally breed any more as soon as you can sex any male fry whip them out into a male only tank, eventually the females should run out of their sperm stores and you will be baby free.

Fish are a relaxing hobby, when your not testing water, dropping and topping tanks, cleaning filters, vacuming the gravel , yes very relaxing when you can sit back after taking all of that care and feed the fish and watch them go mental over the food . Only having one tank is probably more relaxing than having a half dozen or so, but who wants to stop at only one tank?

 

[M_J]

I like your thinking baccus, I just said to ed maybe we should have half a dozen tanks, he sprayed tea across the room about 5ft I think!

that's what we've said we'll do, leave her to birth in the tank and see what happens in due course, they were fast at birth avoiding, 'big g' did try to eat one when they were born but spat it back out and swam off to hide in the big ship in there....big brave boy he is!

I'll try and get some piccies of them!