Breeding Mollies

[jrp1588]

I've had mollies for a while now and I finally decided to try breeding them and saving the babies. (They breed themselves for a while, but of course the babies got eaten pretty quickly) I've read plenty about how to do it, and it sounds pretty simple. What I was really wondering was, is there a way to sell the babies once they are grown? I don't want to have a million babies swimming around, but I'd like to kill off as few as possible. I am by no means an accredited fish breeder, so would a petstore even take me seriously if I tried to sell them fish? Most of the pet stores in my area are just local operations, so you probably can't even tell me. The only nationwide chain we have is petsmart, and somehow I doubt they'd accept home grown fish. I suppose it is also important for them to be pure breed fish also, which I can't really guarantee them.
I have 2 female silver lyretails, 2 female dalmation lyretails, 1 male dalmation lyretail, and 1 male golden lyretail molly.

[sonoma2nv]

The best thing to do is call your [acronym:4843157555="Local Fish Store"]lfs[/acronym:4843157555] up and ask them.But mollies are very easy to breed and to get.So i dont think you will get much if any money for them.If you breed the harder to get fish then you will get more for them.

[jrp1588]

It's less about the money, and more about having an outlet for all the babies. While I'm at it, does anyone have some really good advice on molly breeding?

[Toirtis]

Not much advice to give....they do it all pretty well on their own.

Basically, just know when your females are about to drop so you can seperate them and save the fry (breeding boxes with fry traps or lots of floating plants, like najas grass, work well for this), and always keep up with your water changes....both gravid mothers and fry really appreciate nice, fresh water.

[jrp1588]

So just keep doin what I'm doin. How do I tell when a mother is just about to drop? I've had a molly that has looked ready to burst now for about 2 weeks. (and I can't put her in my breeding trap because I already have babies in there!) I'm just going to go to petsmart today and stock up on plants, hopefully they can keep themselves alive for a while.

[Puriti]

If you have gravel in the bottom, the babies will dig themselves in there. But I haven't yet seen any of my females drop the babies, but you can tell when they're about a week off when the belly stops looking round and they look more square like