Is molly about to give birth

[Davep]

Hi just a quick question, my molly has been sitting around the bottom of the tank the past week or so, her belly is looking quite large is this birthing behaviour?

 

[BBradbury]

Hello Dave...

It's difficult to tell if your Mollie is close to dropping her fry. I'd suggest large, weekly water changes if you're not doing them already. Replacing half the water weekly and making the water a bit warmer than that in the tank will encourage the female to drop the fry. A little standard aquarium salt is also a good idea for livebearing fish. A teaspoon in every 5 gallons of the new, treated tap water is beneficial and won't bother the other fish or plants.

B

 

[Davep]

Hi thanks for the reply, i currently do approx 10-20% weekly water change, i increased to temp by 2 degrees last friday due to the drop in outside temp, i will just keep on monitoring her and keep up with the water changes along with the aquarium salt as you recommended

Thanks again

 

[gd007]

Hi thanks for the reply, i currently do approx 10-20% weekly water change, i increased to temp by 2 degrees last friday due to the drop in outside temp, i will just keep on monitoring her and keep up with the water changes along with the aquarium salt as you recommended

Thanks again

I'll be interested to see/hear what happens as well. I have guppies in the same situation and don't know if I should add salt ( I have a lot of live 'hardy' plants and I'm a newbie).

-GD007 aka.I kill plants..

 

[nickhendrix007]

My mollies have had 3 sets of fry. Not sure how many came out each time but it was at least 10 each. I let the circle of life dictate survivors. The females just swam around like normal while little fry popped out and were quickly eaten by tank mates, including the male. I've had one from each set survive to adulthood. Mine never sat on the bottom though, they continued to act normally.