molly breeding

[SicklySweet]

Last night before i went to bed, my two pregnant silver mollies were huge. This morning I woke up and they are much slimmer, back to normal size. It still almost looks like I can see a dark spot behind their gills (sign of a pregnant molly), but I could just be seeing things. I was eagerly awaiting this day, and I have some floating plants that the fry could hide in, as well as a rooted plant that extends up to the floating plant. I don't see any fry though! Can you normally not see them at one day old or should I be able to see something? Where are my babies?

 

[William]

They could have eaten them.

I had a batch of 30some odd fry, and by the next day [ when I took them out ] I was down to 9, and now I'm down to 6 in the fry tank alone [ donno where they went, just vanished! 8O ]


she gave a second birth about a week ago, that I did not notice.. and all thats left in the tank with her right now is 5 fry.

 

[TankGirl]

For me they left the first batch alone and one day I had 4 adults, the next morning I had an additional 12 babies. This time after the female had her sudden slimming I find only 4 babies, but there are lots of rocks and crevices so they might be hiding. I am pretty certain they got eaten though, but somehow they always seem to keep making babies, and I will be overstocked in no time!

 

[SicklySweet]

Hmm looking at them again, it looks like they still are pregnant, but at least one has slimmed significantly. Maybe they're giving birth very slowly? I thought I saw one coming out before, but I think he was just pooping.

 

[myriam]

Sometimes the tiny fry hide so well you just never see them, and a couple of weeks later...surprise! And you'll see one or two "survivors."

But they do eat them pretty quickly, too. Not to worry, though--these livebearers give birth pretty regularly.