Mollie Pregnancy Cycle...a few other things

[inspiringmind]

You all know I have half a million questions.

I have a female mollie (well I figured out she was female) that suddenly got pretty fat. nice huge round tummy..and when she is in a certain position I can see inside her a dark mass. She is mostly whitish. How long does pregnancy last till she has the fry? I have been noticing that last few days that she has two black spots on her where she didn't have them before. Is she getting close? How many fry do mollies have at a time? What are the chances of a certain number of them surviving if I just let them do thier natural thing? ( I heard they eat their young.) No clue what to expect except that I have read a little that they usualy come home from the lfs pregnant and can have fry for another 2 or 3 months. I also wasn't quite expecting this so soon.

[Toirtis]

Gestation is 3-4 weeks, variable somewhat on water temperature.

Sounds like yours is close to birthing...if you have a breeding trap or net, you will probably want to transfer her into it now....otherwise just keep checking every few hours.

[inspiringmind]

Well I was peering into the tank and it seriously looks like she is panting. Yeah, I didn't know fish could pant, but she is breathing faster then the other small mollie in the tank. And it looks like a little bit of whitish stringy stuff is coming out of her. I'll keep checking every so often. And update you all when she gives birth.

[Tiffi]

Well, sounds as if she's giving birth right now. Tell us later. You have to sit in front of your aquarium right now and watch it happen!

[inspiringmind]

Well after endless hours of peering into the tank my eyes got crossed so I stopped. No fry yet! She is hanging out at the bottom of the tank way more though...Coming up for only a gulp of air and then back down to the bottom, in the back behind a nice big fake plant. Will update again tomorrow if anythign new developes!

[FawnN]

It's been awhile since I saw a birth of my livebearers, but if I recall correctly, mine used to hide at the top or bottom of the tank, towards the back.

Depending on what color your molly is, when she gets closer to delivering you will see the gravid spot get closer to her opening. The black dot will look bigger on one side then the other. That's just from my personal experience.

If you plan on putting her in the breeder net, I would do it at least a couple days before she delivers, so you can give her some time to adjust to the net.

The stress of the move, and the stress of being confined could result in a premature delivery (still birth). And unfortunately, I've also experienced that too.

[msmonih]

Personally I am against separating the female from the rest of the tank. I would (and its just me) float some plastic or real plants at the top of the water. The fry will naturally hang out there. We've successfully had over 4 batches of Molly & Guppy fry in a 29 g community tank. Nobody gets eaten. Females are fine and the tank isn't disrupted. Our tank is well planted though. Good luck.

[Acer]

i have a black female who is ready to pop too, when she got really big i put her in a breeding net but after 3-5 days in their i ended up feeling sorry for her and let her free. she still is huge and her gravid? spot is getting a little bigger. her's is silver?