Trying to breed mollies

[kgrehm]

I have been trying to breed my mollies for the longest time. I had 1 male and 3-4 mollies in a tank. Why arent they doing anything? Everyone that i hear say they have them all over the place. Need advice on what i need my tank to look like and number of fish. I put them in my community tank. I did that to put a betta in my 10 gal. Would they still breed in the community tank? I hope they will because they have more room and they can really pick who they want.

Please help.

Thanks

 

[EX-AmP]

fry is probably being eaten

 

[Inchworm]

Hi kgrehm

I think you might need to find out how to recognize the signs that your female is ready to have her fry so you can put her into a breeding net and save the fry.

I'll move your thread to the Livebearers forum so that it will be read by people who know about that kind of thing.

Good luck with them!

 

[kgrehm]

I dount that they are being eaten because i am constantly watching them and they just swim around and nothing. What can i Do?

 

[Ben]

well chek if the females are fat and squarish and chek for gravid spots.

 

[maskedrainbow]

normally the first sign that a female is pregnant is that she appears alot fatter than maybe her other female tank mates...
another good way, is if you do watch your fish quite often watch your male, you will no doubt catch him in the act sooner or later...he will basically sneakly go right up to the female from behind mollies are such crafty little buggers!

 

[kgrehm]

Thanks although they just basically ignore each other, so what i think I am going to do is get another male and see what he can do and maybe it will help the other one out. That an ok idea?

 

[Becca]

From what I know about breeding - and I'm just a beginner, still working on getting my Mollies to have some babies (and I think I might have hit the jackpot, more to come on that later...)

Anyway, from what I know - as long as you keep your school to 2f per 1m - you should be good to add another male.

Edit: Forgot to mention - when I first introduced my male to my tank - he took extreme interest in my orange sailfin (which will be great - he's black with a hint of blue, she's orange and white, can't wait to see what the babies will look like). Anyway - yes, some Mollies will mate in the community tank. At least, they did in mine!

 

[kgrehm]

thanks. I am going to buy some good plants so hopefully they will spawn in some nice greens.

 

[jams.alaskan]

Well they won't "spawn" in the greens but the plants may provide good cover for the live fry that they will have. I'd just get another male and try him out - the one you have may just be too immature or a very fancy female...
Best of luck!

ALASKA

 

[maskedrainbow]

the plantation will definitly help any fry hide, molly babies are masters at hiding...
my most recent lot of fry i discovered when i took my filter out for cleaning, the little ones where hiding in the filter case and also in the sponges! i rescued 6 that way!

 

[kgrehm]

sounds like a good plan. I bought some frill and that seems to be some pretty good cover if anything happens, although nothing. Still going to wait for tomorrow and maybe purchase a few more to get them more interested.