Pregnant Molly & Weird Male

[moimoi]

Ok, I'm new to this. I'm pretty sure my black molly is pregnant. A silver male molly was put into the tank about 5 days ago. About 2 days ago the silver male molly started swimming all around the black pregnant molly. It is weird, it is almost as if the male is trying to smell the underside of the female or eat from her. This male molly is not the father because like I said he is way too new to the tank given that she is pretty fat. The funny thing is that I think the father is a swordtail that has since died.

Anyway, does this behavior of the male molly mean the black molly is close to giving birth? I've been watching the female molly and am not sure when to move her to a 10gallon breeding tank. I don't want to stress her out.

Please help!

 

[paul-discus]

Yes pretty sure that indeed is the case and if theter's plants and rocks in the tank for fry to hide then some should survive, if not don't worry it won't be long before she's ready again.

 

[moimoi]

Yes pretty sure that indeed is the case and if theter's plants and rocks in the tank for fry to hide then some should survive, if not don't worry it won't be long before she's ready again.

Thanks for the response. Has anyone noticed this weird behavior from a male with a prenant female? She does like to hang by the heater and the filter.

 

[Dercola]

Ya, i have noticed it in my tank aswell actually. I always thought that it was the male trying to make more babies with the female (didn't know how else to phrase it) but my black mollie is pretty far along now and should be giving birth within the next couple of weeks and the male is still at her so i don't know what to make of it.

 

[WILDER]

Sounds like to me she ready to give birth and he's after a snack.

 

[madmom]

I agree with Wilder. I saw the same behavior in my swordtail and a few days later there were fry in the tank. If you want to keep the fry provide hiding places for them or watch the tank and move the fry to a nursery tank.

 

[moimoi]

Thanks so much for the info. I appreciate it since this is my first experience. The male has been acting like this for 4 days now so she must be close. She doesn't look like she is ready to explode but maybe it is time to mover her to her own tank!

 

[moimoi]

We had FRY! We woke up to about 20 fry in our tank. I moved the female last night into a 10gallon breeding tank after observing her odd swimming behavior. She started to swim vertically almost like she was looking up. Thanks to all who replied!