Is My Molly Pregnant ?

[djultimate]

Am pritty new to tropical fish , am not to clever when it comes to things like this.

The Molly in question is a female and seems rather large. Pic below (not the best quality)

Tonight i have noticed the male following here around ,and what looks like to be sniffing her back end (kinda dog behaviour) , she also seems to be swimming upright in the tank and holding that postiion briefly before swimming off , if you know what i mean

Is this normal behaviour for what i think is a pregnant molly ?

 

[lilfishie]

i'm not really experienced in mollies, but i think she may be pregnant, but best see what the more experienced molly keepers say

 

[DeepSeaFishin]

In the pic (if this picture isnt recently after feeding) yes, she looks preggo. If she is hiding among plants that is another key observation that will tell you if shes going to give birth soon. Don't worry, even if she is not the male will fertilize her no problem. Not to mention livebearer-females can store sperm for several broods.

Since you mentioned your new to tropical fish I must recommend that you have 3 females to one male, 2 females to 1 male minimum. If you have three its less stress for each female and that means better health and more fry.

I would also like to ask what size tank you have, mollys should have a 10-15 gallon tank minimum. Also factor in all your other fish and that could be the difference between a 10-15 or a 20-29 gallon. A Rought estimate to tell how much fish you can keep is around one inch per gallon. That doesnt mean you can put a 10 inch oscar in there either (if your tank is 10 gallons).

Keep her fed well, and youll have lots of fry in no time.

 

[fishlette]

Am pritty new to tropical fish , am not to clever when it comes to things like this.

The Molly in question is a female and seems rather large. Pic below (not the best quality)

Tonight i have noticed the male following here around ,and what looks like to be sniffing her back end (kinda dog behaviour) , she also seems to be swimming upright in the tank and holding that postiion briefly before swimming off , if you know what i mean

Is this normal behaviour for what i think is a pregnant molly ?

going on the pic i would say she is having babies. she'll square off when shes really close

as far as the other part goes im not sure. if shes still eating and active and shows no signs of being sick she should be ok. just keep a close eye on her sometimes mollies do silly things

 

[Jozlyn]

Whoa! She's very pregnant! My dalmation molly gave birth not quite 2 weeks ago now. She didn't "square off" at all, in fact I wasn't even completly convinced she was preganat, as she was only fat, not HUGE like yours. Her behaviour did change a bit a few days before she gave birth tho, she'd hang out on top of the filter or with her nose pressed against the heater in the corner for a while, which she isn't doing now and she got a little more aggressive toward the other fish in the tank but that was about it. Your girl looks so big, I'll bet she'll have way more than the 33 my girl had. The first I knew was when I spotted little fish swimming around the bottom of the tank, what a blast that was, I was so excited, a bit like a little kid on Christmas morning.

Have you got a fry tank ready or are you going to let them take their chances in the main tank? What are you going to do with them, give/sell them to your employer? My LFS will take mine once they're around 5cm and they're going to give me store credit of $1 per fish, which I didn't ask for, I was just going to give them to them, so that was a bit of a bonus.

Edit> I've also read on other threads that other fish may hang around her back end just before she's due to give birth, I think they're looking for a free feed of fresh fry. How the other fish know they're due to birth get's me, they must give off a pheramone or something that alerts the other fishes that dinner is about to be served!

 

[AndreaC]

Definatly looks pregnant to me. My black molly has just had fry yesturday, she was as big as yours for along time though lol. Also she didnt sqaure either or act any different and I had begin to wonder if she was just fat as she is a greedy madam lol. Next day i spotted fry so definatly was pregnant.

I added more females to my one male to give my black mollie a break but he dont pay them any attention at all, I think he has an obsession with my black mollie and only has eyes for her lol.