I have had my pregnet molly for a couple months. Its looked pregnet for about two months. I have it in a floating breeding tank. I read you could make the molly give birth by doing certain things like feeding it brine shrimp. Is this true? If so what else could I do?
I wouldn’t leave her in the breeding net/tank until she’s ready to give birth. That’s just going to stress her out, and she may end up losing the fry. Brine shrimp sometimes works, doing a water change may help, but when she’s ready, she’ll drop them.
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A floating breeding tank is extremely stressful for the mother fish, hence you are more likely to get miscarriage than delivery. Maybe if you set up another small tank, say a 5gal bare bottom tank, select 3 females and 2 males for breeding, after a couple of weeks, take out all the males and just let the females deliver their babies. Less stressful this way, and worked every time for me.
Diet wise, you can try to feed more protein rich food, live food is even better. Try to rise water temperature for a couple of degrees may incourage delivery.
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I would have to agree with the initial post, having your female living in a breeding trap is unhealthy for it. Mollies will be pregnant most of their lives, starting in their juvenile days. This is due to the fact the molly fish can hold and store semenal fluids of the male Molly fish. This is done within the oviduct walls.
Aside from this it is imperative that you understand the manner of which the female body develops its embryos. At any point in a female molly fishes lifespan, it may be manufacturing (as a relative term) up to 3 batches of babies at once. They can and usually are and will be within different stages of development, and understanding when your molly has become gravid is also important.
As a rule of thumb, I do not enjoy keeping molly fish due to their proficient breeding habbits, i find that aquariums quickly become grossly overpopulated, even in instances where females were brought home, pregnant from living in a community tank at the pet shoppe.
The average drop I have had from molly fish was about 30-50, this in mind it was an average number and it was rather rare she would drop less than 30, though it was not uncommon to drop more than 50. There was an instance I counted 92 fry from a single drop, however a number this high is difficult to count exactly in a body of water. Also on top of this the molly will drop if kept well, once every 6-8 weeks, giving you a tonne of fish very quickly.
Aside, I also made a point to keep white molly females, as it was easier to identify gravidity in her. You can usually identify the fry’s eyeballs showing through her belly approximately 3-5 days before she would drop her brood.
As I’m aware many molly fish are black, or even just a “Dark” colouration, this may be more difficult for you to notice, because of this i would discourage the breeding trap entirely until after the brood has been dropped if possible. Also as the second post mentions, the confines of the breeding trap are extremely stressful for the fish, and miscarriages are not only sad to see, but can often take the mother along with the unborn fry. Stillborns are also a concern if your mother is stressed.
A great misunderstanding about molly fish is that they are not carnivorous, they do not eat their young, they may simple just harass them to death. The mother would do well in the breeding trap after she gives birth or during birth *but I would never move her while giving birth*. She will be going through an extraordinary feat dropping her young and will be in need of 48 hours of alone time to recover, just like any animal giving birth.
I’ve found that if you can obtain plants, synthetic or real for your aquarium and pack them in so that you could consider it “Heavily planted” the fry will retreat to the plants, while the adults will simply leave them be since it would be too much work to harass the young, and will simply harass each other. I use the term harass for the mollies bumpy behavior against its own kind, owners of a molly fish will understand the term I’m sure.
Hopefully your molly fish will drop many babies and they’ll all grow up healthy, but be prepared for a large amount of fry, and hopefully arrange a home for them before they come to needing one.
personal hands on experience
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it’s best if you don’t rush her. let time do its work…
you do want perfect healthy fries, right?
personal hands on experience
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Change water daily and feed her very good and try to watch her if it has any stress like other fish
personal hands on experience
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