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Are either of my mollies pregnant?!

2K views 7 replies 2 participants last post by  Pisces47 
#1 ·
I just bought them today (specifically asking for two females) and at first I thought that only one was pregnant, she is fat and lazy and sits about the bottom of the tank and is about half the size of my other creamcicle but the other has the dark spot!
 
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#2 ·
Good photo, however it is hard to tell if either of them is pregnant. If you only got them today, then give them a chance to settle in, the "fat lazy one" may be struggling to adjust to its new home (water, temperature, surroundings, etc). Perhaps in a couple of days it will show more life. They are definitely both females and if they have come from a tank which had males in it, then they are both probably pregnant, mollies don't need much in the way of encouragement to become pregnant. Make sure you give them good quality flake food and maybe once or twice a week, treat them to a green pea, variety in their food will keep them happy and healthy.
 
#4 ·
It takes around 4 weeks for them to give birth and you can't always rely on looking for the black spot to determine if they are pregnant. You mention that one looks very fat so keep a good watch on her, as she gets bigger and fatter around the tummy you may notice that she will start to hide amongst the plants and she will position herself in the water so that her head is raised and tail is lowered, this is a good sign although you have to be there to notice.
I suggest you buy a net breeder, it is a square plastic frame over which is stretched a fine netting, it comes with 4 suction caps and is placed inside the main tank, I don't know where you live, but here in Australia the net breeder is only about 5 bucks. Keep the mother in the main tank until you think she is acting strangely (see above) then place her in it. She will have the babies in there and they will be safe from all the other fish but you will have to remove her as soon as you can, otherwise she will eat a few herself, you can leave the babies in the breeder for a couple of weeks but it depends on how many there are, you could have 10 or you could have 40. In the couple of weeks that they are in the breeder, set up another tank and have it running so that the water is aged in preparation for them.
Murphys Law says that you won't be around when the action takes place so don't be too eager to put her in the breeder beforehand, she may become stressed. You've just bought her so give her 2 weeks in the main tank, if she is fat already she may be 2 weeks pregnant, it's all guesswork. However, if she is still in the main tank and suddenly you notice that she is un-fat (haha), then you've missed it, but don't worry, still put the breeder in the tank and spend some time looking for the babies, they will be there somewhere, so catch them and put them in the breeder.
Good luck, keep me up to date on your progress and of course ask me anytrhing you are not sure about.
 
#8 ·
Saving 18 is a good effort, you forgot to say if you caught and separated them or left them in with the others.

I've just had a bit of a disaster myself, last week one of my red and black lyretail mollies gave birth to 21 babies which I managed to save and put in a tank on their own and I've been so pre-occupied with them that I failed to notice another lyretail give birth yesterday, by the time I realized last night, I only managed to find 1 although there may be a couple more still hiding, I could have kicked myself.
 
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