Question about Dalmatian Molly's

[stephcrago]

Hi! I am new to the forums so I wasn't exactly sure where to post this, so I hope this is fine! I recently (maybe 10 days ago) purchased two Dalmatian Molly's and just noticed last night two babies in the tank. I'm almost positive they came from our white one as it seems to have a nice rounded belly on it. How many babies do they usually have? I found 2 alive and the remains of another. I also would like to know the sex of the other we have. Sorry for the quality of the photos, the black one likes to hide lol. I did purchase a floating hatchery which is where I have the babies so they don't get eaten. Sorry for the copious questions!

 

[stephcrago]

Here is the black one.

 

[Baker]

It's hard to sex the, with these pics because the anal fin is clamped down. You should notice when they are swimming around with the bottom anal fin spread out that the males fins are more of a needle or cone shape while the females are broad and wide like a hand fan. They can have a dozen or so babies. Mine used to have just a few or handful per birth but they breed pretty much every month and the females can store sperm for years

 

[Byron]

I agree, difficult to tell though I would suggest the white fish is female; the black I'm not sure. And the point about regular batches of fry is very important...not all will get eaten, and this can soon lead to problems. Having only males in a tank avoids this, obviously. Females can be impregnated once (and this can occur even before the sex is noticeable in groups of fry) and produce many batches of fry for months.

Byron.