Molly and platy are they pregnant?
 

Hi all

I have breed guppies before but I have noticed that my silver molly looks slightly bigger.

3days ago I put her in a marina and she has 2 still born fry. However she still has a very dark gravid spot that seems to be getting darker and bigger, but she is not getting fatter could she be pregnant?

I also have 2 platy that also seem to be a little rounder but dont exactly look rounded like guppies when they are pregnant, should I be expecing fry from them?

Any help would be great.

Hello and Welcome to TFK :-D More than likely the fish are pregnant. Most livebearer females that are bought will be pregnant if there was a male in the tank with them. Also the females are able to hold the sperm of a male for 6 months which can result in multiple batches of fry with no male present. For the Molly that you moved is she still as big as she was before you moved her? Stress can cause a fish to abort or to even reasorb their fry. With all livebearers just like guppys they will get rounder and bigger eventually squaring off. On the molly and platy you may or may not notice a gravid spot, depending on what the coloring of the fish is. If you are planning on placing the fish into a net breeder for giving birth than I would recommend waiting until just before you think the fish will do so. Watch to see if the fish is not as active as it had been, starts to not eat, and also there will be darkening around the vent. You want to try to create the least amount of stress possible for the fish. If you are able to you may want to consider setting up a small tank like a 5 gallon to place the fish into for dropping fry in. This will allow the fish more room to swim and will be less stressful than being in a breeder. The set up can be done very simply with a bare bottom, a simple sponge filter, and a few fake plants to allow the fry to hide amongst when born until you are able to remove the female. Also with a small tank set up like that you can move the female earlier and not have to worry about stressing her right before she is ready to drop her fry.

Thanks for your help, my molly doesn't look as plump as she did but still has a very dark gravid spot. I am looking into getting a second smaller tank, does the tank have to have a light, as my goldfish died the other day and i was thinking of converting that tank for the pregnant fish and fry.

Thanks for the advise.

You could go without a light on the small tank, if you are able I would place it in an area will it will get light during the day from a window. Does not need to be in front of the window but somewhere, where it will get some indirect light. Also some people will use a desk lamp to provide some light for the tank. For the filter you can set it up very simply. In my smaller tanks I am using a elite sponge filter, looks like this
http://www.petdiscounters.com/assets...age/d_7076.jpg


There are also other sponge filters by elite that are a little bit bigger. The are especially good for fry because the fry will not get sucked up into the filter intake. Also with my fry tanks I change the water every day to 2 days at about 10 to 20 percent to clean up the mulm that builds up at the bottom. So mechanical filtration is not a big deal, biological filtration is what is really needed. Also think I mentioned this but on my fry tanks I keep the bottom bare, it makes it easier for being able to clean and to get all the gunk up from the bottom.

is molly pregnant?
 

Hi all I have a silver molly.

You can very easily see her gravid spot that is very dark black.

As with guppies I know this means they are pregnant. However, is this the same for Mollys.

She is not plump at all and looks just like the other mollies I have and none of them have changed since I got them 3 months ago so I know they are not pregnant.

As she has a dark gravid does that mean she is even though she is has not got any bigger. help!!!

Thanks

Angel2711