New to Breeding Mollies

[CatcherQueen]

Hello. I am very new to mollies, since the I purchased my first few today. I had tried breeding guppies and even though I had bought pregnant ones, they all died before they dropped fry. Anyways, today I purchased 1 female silver molly, 1 male black molly, 1 pregnant balloon molly, and 1 male balloon molly. The pregnant balloon molly is huge, but I don't know when she'll drop the fry. I have noticed her isolating herself in some parts of the tank, but I'm afraid of putting her in my breeder net. (I had put a pregnant guppy in it for 1 night and she died the next day.)

Any advice on what to do will be greatly appreciated! Hopefully I can get a picture of her posted sometime soon for anyone to see.

In my community tank I have: the 4 mollies, 1 pregnant guppy, a frog, and 3 cleaner fish.

Thanks!!

 

[henningc]

First, what size tank? Regardless of size the decor will either allow the fry to hide or provide an early lunch for your other fish. For a quick, cheap and easy temp way to help the fry survive, just tie a few placstic plants together and float them pointing straight down. The tiny plastic forest will give them some cover. If you want to get really tricky, put some on the bottom like normal and attach the floaters to the tops of the floor plants. Use can use fishing line.

 

[Coursair]

With Livebearers you typically want several females and only one or two males. Otherwise the males may harass the females to death.

Or set up a holding tank to pull the males, to give the females a break.

 

[CatcherQueen]

The community tank that they are in is a 20 gal. I have some plants floating on the surface facing down and I have plants on the bottom of my tank. I know that the female:male ratio should be different, but when the guy at the pet store got the male balloon molly out, I think he just grabbed that one instead of the female. I didn't question it, because I had only seen one balloon molly with stripes on the body, and it was a female. I'm going back to the pet store tomorrow because I had a pleco die and the pet store gives 14 day warranties on all the fish. So I'm planning on getting more female mollies.

 

[aquandrew]

do you have another tank for raising the fry? 20 gallons isn't going to be near enough for all those mollies. I've bred mollies and they create tons of waste the fry will need at least a 20 for themselves and bi weekly water changes.

 

[CatcherQueen]

Well at the current moment I don't, but I've been looking for another aquarium. Since you've been breeding them and you said my tank ain't big enough, would you suggest another breed of fish that is easy for beginners and breeds easily?

Here are some pictures of my pregnant balloon molly.

 

[aquandrew]

Well at the current moment I don't, but I've been looking for another aquarium. Since you've been breeding them and you said my tank ain't big enough, would you suggest another breed of fish that is easy for beginners and breeds easily?

Here are some pictures of my pregnant balloon molly.

i have also bred guppies and they have a MUCH smaller bioload. a 10 g with a sponge filter is enough for a guppy grow out tank. if you stick to the mollies, all you need to raise the fry is another 20 gallon, a heater and a sponge filter. no plants or substrate needed as long as the sponge filter has been seeded. post an ad on craigslist in the wanted for a 20 gallon aquarium. heck you can even go to target and get a 20-30 gallon clear storage bin for 17 dollars if you don't care what the fry tank looks like

 

[AngelFishGirl]

May I ask what your water parameters are? You seem to be having a lot of fish dying on you...

 

[CatcherQueen]

I've had them checked twice within 4 days and everything has been fine except my pH had dropped significantly within a 3 days time.