I would like to breed my dalmation mollies.

[Smidget121]

Have a 14 gallon tank which is still pretty new and a 4 gallon tank that maybe I could use for the fry?

Does anyone know the mating rituals for the Molly?
How long is Molly gestation?
Any idea on how many fry?

What process would I have to follow? I am new to the idea of breeding.

I have a male Molly and a female molly
I also have one marigold platy, 4 neon tetras, and 2 long finned tetras.

I have a filter and a heater.

What else would I need? I have plants, is it essential to remove the fry?

Thanks for any help!

Smidgen.

 

[Mrfishfrenzee]

get a breeder net to put fry in.

 

[cheeky_monkey]

There's nothing special you need to do. As long as you have a male and a female they will mate. My girls are pregnant for 30days, New babies every 30 days.

 

[Smidget121]

Well I am aware that the real trick would be to get them to STOP breeding. But there is controversy between letting natural selection take its course or coming up with a completely separate tank for the fry...which do you do, and why?

 

[Aron]

I go with natural selection but only for two reasons. One, I would be over ran completely within a few month thus affecting my bioload negatively. Secondly, I have a big enough and well planted enough tank for a small percentage to actually survive.

If you leave them together, fry, adults and other fish, then a high percentage will get eaten. You may get one or two survive.

 

[Womble1234]

Nothing special at all.. Just let them breed in your tank.. Mollies are probably the best livebearer for breeding in a community tank because they don't tend to eat their fry.. Put a male and a few females together, soon you will have babies! You can seperare them if you want.. The parents won't mind because they will just make some more! glad to help.. Plus get some more females so she doesn't get harrassed to much

 

[Sonic67]

i started with 3 mollies and 6 months later i had about 65 of them, they love to have babies, my experience personally I put the first litter in a breeder net but after that i just let them go and they all did just fine, I had the 1st momma die after birth and then the 2nd momma lived to give 3 litters before she died shortly after birth, so yes you have a great fish for breeding just have patience and you will have a tank full of them..

 

[Smidget121]

Well...I was going to hold off on breeding, it was an outlook sort of idea. And the fact that my whole tank is infected (and being treated) for ich. BUT now I have an issue.

I have one Marigold Variatus Platy and I am pretty sure I am looking at a gravid spot, which would mean I bought her pregnant, I have no other platies. The spot is the about the size of a pencil eraser. Is she going to have her babies before I can treat the ich? What do I do?

 

[Bubbles0oO]

Post a picture, when a female has a gravid spot ( which one may for her whole life) it means the baby fry are growing inside of her. Wait untill she is square if you going to do anythign with her. as for the Ick sometimes treatment can kill of fry, but if they are born into it i guess it would all depend on how strong the fry itself is. Your platy was probibly bought preggo, but your male Mollie might have something to do with it , as most livebearers can interbreed ( my fav is the mollie guppie)

 

[HeatherW]

i do natural selection. I know al lot of people don't like it, but you get a good selection of healthy babies this way.
mollies tend to have 30-40 fry at a time I believe. gestation can be 28-30 days. they can save sperm from one encounter and have up to 3-4 batches from this one encounter.
my female molly arrived pregnant, and has had 2 batches of fry (I have no male molly). the first batch I had about 15-17 survive and they are now almost 2 months old. the second batch was smaller and few survived but i just saw one today and thought i had none surviving in there. also found me a platy fry that must be a month old now too.
I would suggest you get some hiding spots for them and then let them do their thing. if you find that none survive then you can either add more hiding spots or use a breeder net if you want. I bought some fake plastic plants and have some in the gravel and some upside down floating in the corner.

good luck!

 

[Smidget121]

Thanks for all of the different tips guys. I woke up today to find my female Molly struggling to stay upright. All 4 of my neon tetras were on their way out. My tank was a nightmare to wake up to. =[

I brought them all to my LFS, they told me that my fish were ill because of my tank and that I did everything wrong. Luckily I had my water, so I had them test it - my water is perfect. Every test came back normal, so I walked them to each fish tank that I got my fish from and EVERY FISH in their tanks had ich. I left my fishies in their hands. I am going to treat the rest of the ich cycle in my tank before bringing new guys home.

Who uses online fish stores? What stores do you use? I am not going back to my LFS.

Thanks guys!