Pregnant molly?

[midwestsmoke74]

Hi im not sure but i think my Cremsicle Molly is pregant. I have a 10 gallon and i've never dealt with a pregnant fish before. My molly is well, getting fat, also i can see black spots through her white stomach. Lastly, she seems to be pooping more than usual. Does this sound like she is pregnant? If so should i just seperate the molly from my other fish and see what happens? I have a spare 4 gallon tank i can put her in for a while. Thanks for any help.

[Zagz]

Sounds like she is pregnant. Whether you separate her or not depends on a few things. First do you want to keep the fry? Second, do you have enough filter media to seed the 4 gal tank for her? Otherwise you will have to do probably daily water changes on the tank. You will still have to monitor the parameters even with seeded media mind you. Do you have a heater for the tank? What arethe other tank mates and are they places for the fry to hide?

Mollies will eat their own fry so if you do separate her you will have to remove her once she finishes giving birth. Also do the move sooner rather than later as moving a very pregnant molly can cause stress and sometimes health problems as a result.

[midwestsmoke74]

Thanks for all the advice and help. Well, since i didnt think about the heater which im sure i need for another tank, what if i put a tank divider and just seperate them? I mean how fast will the other fish try to eat the fry, immediately? Also, can you tell when they are about to give birth? Lastly, how many fry is average for a molly? The other fish in the tank are 3 neon tetras, 2 glo lite tetras, 2 "dyed" tetras(first fish i bought, i really didnt know they were dyed and i think that is cruel), 1 male molly, and 1 corydoras.

[Zagz]

Yes you can put a tank divider in. The mollies can eat the fry quite quickly. If you have places for them to hide, plants, ornaments, they stand a better chance.

When they are closer to giving birth, their backsides square off and they look quite huge. Don't know about tetras and fry to be honest with you. I can't imagine they would go after the fry any more than the mollies themselves.

[studmaster]

The tetras I had LOVED to eat molly fry, they would swim right behind the molly waiting when she was giving birth. I had to move the tetras out of the tank permanently. In my case they ate more fry then the mollies did....and quicker.

[studmaster]

Well I just once again confirmed that some mollies eat their fry. I have a 30gal tank with about 4 mollies big enough to eat fry, and the female black molly just had them this morning, and I saved 3......when I went home at lunch there were none left in the 30 gal.