Several Pregnant Fish

[silverdollar10]

Hi im quite new to the world of tropical fish and inherited most of my current one's. Since we got the red platty (2 female 1 male) the 2 females have be growing quite a bit both bumps are squared off and have been for around a month, not quite sure weather they are pregnant or just on the large size not quite sure on wat the gravid spot is meant to look like or anything. Also i recently bought 2 silver mollies (1m 1f) i female dalmation and 1 male black molly, the 2 silvers have been goin at it quite regular over the last 2-3 weeks and the female has grew slightly is it possible that the male is not fertile and the eggs arent being fertilised, Im aware to look for a white spot around her anal fin but dont know weather it will show up very well due to her colouring, trying to get pics but she's still quite active, how long before she is due to drop should she be moved into the breeeding net? pretty sure 1 of my red platty who is in a breeding net is ready to go as she has stopped moving around as much and is hiding insde the plants quite a lot.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forums SilverDollar.
Platies and mollies both take about 4 weeks to have their fry ready to drop from the time the pregnancy starts. Reduced activity and hiding a lot often indicates that a delivery is near. The general advice on using breeding nets and traps is to limit the time in one to about 48 hours. I don't use them but instead use a separate breeding tank where the female can be comfortable for a week if need be.

No matter what your approach, the female needs to be prevented from easily eating her fry. In a trap, the mechanical layout will do that. In a net or a separate breeding tank, the plants, both fake and real, serve that purpose.

There is a thread on this forum that you can reach by using the link in my signature called "ready to pop" that describes how to judge whether your fish is almost ready. There are lots of pictures of late stage females there to help you understand what we mean by terms like squaring off.

 

[silverdollar10]

thanks for the reply she was hiding away quite a bit so she went into the breeding net yesterday afternoon but still nothing will let her out of it again tomorrow if there is still nothing. The link was very helpful cheers for that.