Black Balloon Fat Molly pregnant?

[mansiz]

How to see if a black balloon fat molly is pregnant?I read a topic by Bondstreet, he said that his black balloon fat molly is pregnant, I do have one, but how to see if its pregnant? Its belly is always fat, and there is no black spot like guppies. Btw how do we see whether its a male or female?

 

[zephyr]

I spose that a male would have a gonopodium and the female would have a normal anal fin. The only advice I can give you on to see if it is pregnant is to see if it has babys! Then you'll know that it must have been pregnant.

 

[Zic]

I have two regular black mollies in my community tank. One day as I was feeding them, I saw little fishies swimming around. I grabbed my net and saved one from being eaten, but the rest were too quick to catch. I put it in a fish breeder to seperate it from the adults and it grew. Last night, I decided it was big enough to survive outside the breeder and let it free. It is a happy fish

I had no idea that it was pregnant. It's belly is always big and it gets bigger when it eats, so I really can't give you advice on how to tell if it's pregnant or not. I guess just watch for little fishies! 8O

 

[mansiz]

Hmm, I know that by watching the fries is a good idea, but every time I look at the tank, those fries had already being eaten by the adult fishes, just for instant my platies, it was pregnant yesterday, but I don't know when the due date is, so I did'nt place them in the breeding net, but so lucky, it gave birth just that day, but all fries was being eaten. Btw how many times you look at your tank per day? During what time you found the fries? ( morning, afternoon....? ) Is balloon molly's fries bigger than guppies/swordtails?

 

[mansiz]

Why the balloon molly suddenly swimming restlessly? It was alright this morning, and it kept chasing other fishes like usual, but after I fed them, I left the lights on for around 2 hours, the balloon molly suddenly swim restlessly, the food did not rot, other fishes was fine as usual, only the molly. Was it because of some other reasons like she is about to give birth ( but I also don't know if she is pregnant ).....

 

[Vicshaw]

I think 2 of my balloon mollies are pregnant, but theyve been so fat for ages and it seems like their never going to give birth. It frustrates me!

 

[yv1]

they could be just chubby!

i agree with what was said, just watch for babies. i never knew my guppies AND mollies were preggo until one day there were like 30 fry! and then i couldnt tell what was what so i let them grow a bit and suprisingly none of my other fishes gobbled them up, even my bumblebee goby didnt get his mouth on any its good to have plenty of hiding places for the fry. i let nature take its course and i got me some hardcore survivors.

 

[mansiz]

Since you have lots of hiding places for the fries, then how do you look for them? I wanted to dense the plantation, but i'm afraid that I can't see whats going on, for eg: fish died and the body was behind a plant, or fries hiding in the plants, etc. Did you move the plants every day in order to search for the fries?

 

[yv1]

During the day my fry like to hang out near the submersible light tube, at night i see them scatter amongst the plants. They also swim into the current for fun. I also noticed that they like to nip at my hand and fingers and dont seem to be afraid of me at all! I usually just observe intently to find anything out of place. Also I look into the tank from above, that way you can see if anything is dead amonst the plants.

The vegetation will give them planty of places to hide, dont worry if you see them one day and not the next. The little guys are sneaky. They'll grow at a pretty quick rate so the survivors will be more than visible to the eye and much more active.

 

[mansiz]

Wow, you are pretty good at handling fries, hope that they will hide among the plants, btw, if I had a 50 Litres tank, I calculated in gallon should be around 10 gallon ( i'm not sure at gallon though ), how many plants is advised to place in?

 

[yv1]

10 gallons is not much room for them fellas! what other fish do you have?? 10 gallons is a small space for fry and other fish, they wont be able to run away and hide as well....

if youre REALLY concerned about them then get a simple breeder trap (I use Lee's Guppy Breeder Trap) or net at any fish store, itll run you about 3-5 bucks...and keep them in there until they are large enough to survive and swim away from the other larger fish...

or you can always let nature take its course and give them a upper hand by putting a bunch of plants in and floating plants...

its up to yoU!

 

[mansiz]

How does floating plants help the fries? How about netting the pregnant adults into another tank? I still prefer this way, as one adult could'nt ate all fries at one go.

 

[yv1]

floating plants can be just another hiding space fr them you can move the pregnant adult also if you wish, just make sure to use the same water it came from in the new tank, and once babies appear then remove the momma. just keep an eye out for the fry so you can save them in time!

good luck!