Mollie Breeding Tips

[Saz7]

Does anyone have tips to encourage mollies to breed i mean there mating but the female dosent look pregnant HELP PLEASE

 

[Larry_the_lobster]

Just give it time these fish really dont need much help to reproduce! just be a little more patient

 

[Annastasia]

Other then just keeping them healthy, they'll do it by themselves. Make sure you have 2-3 females per male, though, so you have a better chance of fry. Otherwise, if you have one female, she may become stressed by the male's attention, and you could have birthing or fry issues.

 

[PoPoV]

Other then just keeping them healthy, they'll do it by themselves. Make sure you have 2-3 females per male, though, so you have a better chance of fry. Otherwise, if you have one female, she may become stressed by the male's attention, and you could have birthing or fry issues.

Mine always seem to have fry when I Least expect it or when i dont need anymore fry But like everyone said, they really need no insentive to breed. Just keep them healthy and they will do the rest

 

[jakeyman_i_am]

Mine always seem to have fry when I Least expect it or when i dont need anymore fry But like everyone said, they really need no insentive to breed. Just keep them healthy and they will do the rest

When I was at a pet shop near my home town some time ago, the fish pro there said that to get them to breed, make sure you have some salt in the tank. He said that this fools them to think it is spring (when rain is washing salt into the tank) and thus coaxes them to breed. Hope it helps!

 

[Larry_the_lobster]

I dunno about salt I dont have any in my tanks and I havent had any problems with them breeding I just wish I could catch them having fry so that I could remove the fry instead of my greedy guts fish scoffing them

 

[rfisher]

I think that Mollies are brackish fish and so ideally would need some salt in the water for the optimum conditions for them but as Larry said I dont have salt in my tank and mine are breeding all the time.

 

[nmonks]

Salt does help, especially if your local water is soft and acidic. Mollies like it hard and alkaline, ideally around pH 7.5-8, and at the "very hard" level on whatever water hardness system you're using. Marine salt mix raises pH and increases hardness, which is why it helps so much. You don't need to use much. 3-5 grammes per litre will work very well, and at that level you can safely keep any other livebearers plus a goodly number of other salt-tolerant species (kribs, rainbowfish, gobies, glassfish, halfbeaks, flagfish, etc.).

One thing not mentioned so far is the value of floating plants. In a hardwater aquarium, hornwort or Indian fern will both work nicely, but even floating Java fern leaves will work well (and sprout baby Java ferns you can plant elsewhere!). Floating plants are a refuge that the baby fish swim into and hide instinctively. In planted aquaria, baby fish can do quite well, giving you a few days to remove them to a rearing tank. In my opinion, floating plants are a much better solution than a breeding trap, which may preserve more fry, but often stresses the female fish to the point of causing miscarriages.

It is possible to confine baby fish to a largish breeding net for a few weeks, but over the long term a small rearing tank is the single best investment any aquarist into fish breeding can make. An 8-10 gallon tank works very well, and you need only a small heater and very basic filtration (ideally air-powered). Place it somewhere sunny so a bit of algae grows, and keep it cycled using apple snails or simply by putting a few flakes in to rot naturally every few days. Once you move the babies in there, it becomes muchy easier to grow them at their maximum rate. One thing overlooked is that fish have a growth spurt during the first couple of months, after which growth rate slows down. If your baby fish are half-starved during the first stage of their life, they'll never catch up with babies that were fed properly, and will be always below size for their age. Since you will be able to sell fish only at a certain size, it makes sense to have the babies where you can feed them easily without worrying adult fish are stealing the food. Also, feeding 4-6 times a day (as baby fish prefer) tends to promote snails and algae; while that's fine in a rearing tank, it's less good in your community tank.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[jakeyman_i_am]

In my opinion, floating plants are a much better solution than a breeding trap, which may preserve more fry, but often stresses the female fish to the point of causing miscarriages.

I agree with you here. I have had a pregnant molly abort in a trap before. Small breeding tanks in the area of 10 gallons seem to work great, and by far the best choice if you will be selling the fry. Look into an automatic feeder, they are amazing for fry because you do not need to be present to feed them (at least, to feed them flakes or other dry/dried foods) the whole of 6 times a day.

Good Luck

 

[Larry_the_lobster]

what kind of low-maintinace floating plants would be a good idea?. Im getting fed up now with the fish eating their own fry, I have tons of rock in the tank for the fry to hide in but they just wont hide in it.