[dancelady]

This adult female has been with me for 6 months (not my own creation) and finally decided to have those babies that I have been waiting for. She spent time with a male iridescent Green Sailfin, so I hope some of her babies are from him. The other possibility is from a Gold Dust Sailfin male, I will be happy with either Dad.

Could she have been impregnated before I got her and still just sit there, without fry, for 6 months? I have no idea on the timing for this...?

I hope all her babies are not just silver alone, would like to see more variety from the two possible Dads. She is one of my largest Mollies, and I was quite surprised when I came home from the store and saw the 43 new babies. I figured she was just giving me a hard time, and no fry would result. She has been fat for a long time, and no other babies have resulted. But she is not balloon belly -- just a large, plump lady.

 

[Sylverclaws]

When you purchase mollies over the age of four months or so, they're likely pregnant as most places don't separate them. Most in shops are 6-8 months or older.

Mollies can store sperm for up to a year, so yeah, it's possible. I've found that when a molly is moved to a new home, some will start fertilizing eggs within a month or less, others can wait for very long periods which is more rare.

Regardless of her storing sperm for a long time, it is possible she also mated with some of your males. They can have more than one father, and so babies often come out mixed.

As for it being a first time, it can be hard to tell. Sometimes first time mothers get a little more...chunky towards the front instead of the back. It makes them look funny, but it's very obvious. Usually that doesn't happen after the first brood or two. It's like their body is stretching and preparing for better...aim I guess, for later ones. lol

 

[henningc]

Wow, your fish are breeding like crazy as of late. Congrats and Syliverclaws is correct about the females being hit when you get them. The best way to know what you're crossing is to isolate a group of young fry and ruthlessly cull out all the males starting at 3 weeks. Once you have a small group of females that are virgins, let them grow until 4 months are longer and then introduce the male you want. I've split off three different color varieties of Endlers this way.

 

[Sylverclaws]

It took me forever to get the stomach to "Cull" them...and when I finally did and tried to feed them to my crayfish, he wouldn't have any of that. LOL If I don't keep them elsewhere, I take them to a pet shop or sell them if they're not deformed...better way to cull in my opinion if you can't give them to someone who would benefit food-wise. A lot of people, I've found, buy fry. And unless you have short-finned fish, people likely wont buy them to feed to their critters unless they lack sense or knowledge since fish with longer fins can choke even larger predators and sometimes do damage on the inside.

My Silver Butterfly gave birth too. Most started out white/silver, some are actually gaining colors though, like a tad of orange, some even have black marks. Yay. Those are so neat. :3 I'd like some like my "Short-fin harlequins" as I am calling them, but with the butterfly fins. I have ONE that came out sorta that way, he's awesome.

 

[dancelady]

Good luck with culling the Mollies -- can't tell gender

At 3 weeks of age, all Mollies are females and haven't started to get their male gender yet. I have been watching them, and they don't even change the way they act, which might be a way of telling male from female. I have this Harlequin male (was formerly female), and he definitely acts like a male now, but doesn't have the gonopodium (to my eye) yet. He is large and looks like an adult, how long does it take to actually be able to mate with a female? His dorsal fin is growing, too, so he is even more handsome than before. I am still treating him for the fungal infection, it developed in a new area, so still trying to wipe it out.

The Silver babies are appx. 10 days old now, all look the same so far, can't tell M from F, or any colors yet. I hope some are from the iridescent male (see my avatar), although he was a green one, a normal color, he still looked beautiful. I lost him last week, he just started staying at the top and backing up, then forward, but I couldn't treat him fast enough, so he died all of a sudden. Don't know his age... so sad, I wanted to breed him some more.

 

[Sylverclaws]

It's true, the gender isn't visible on mollies yet at that age. With smaller type livebearers like endlers it can be....with all though, a lot of times you can tell by the rough shape, the males are a tad more torpedo shaped than the ones aiming for female. Often the ones aiming for male, at the time, will often chase the larger "Female" ones. It's one way to tell, but is not a definite since they can still choose to change genders of course...However, always worth a shot. MOST of the ones I've separated for chasing have become male, however some did indeed turn out female. lol But since it's worth a shot, you can always try that. As you said to me, they will play at mating even when very young even if they can't actually breed yet. And though they can choose to change later, some don't.