Molly Breeding Intervals

[John]

Hi. My friend and I are enjoying keeping a few 10 gallon tanks at our middle school in our science class. One of our tanks has:

1 (female) Dalmation Molly
1 (male) Sailfin White Molly
1 (female) Gold w/ Black Spots Molly
1 (male) Gold Molly

It also has:

3 Kissing Gouramis
1 Plecostomus (Regular Breed)
1 Khuli Loach
1 Corydora Catfish (Not Sure Which Species)

We have been watching the mollies closely every day because both the female dalmation and female gold are pregnant. Just recently, we had our first sure birth. The problem is, since we only can be in the classroom around two hours a day, we aren't quite sure if this is the first birth and we doubt it is.

With this birth, which we discovered this morning, it most likely happened over the weekend, but we aren't too sure. We are almost totally sure the mother is the Dalmation Molly and the father is the White Sailfin Molly. We first noticed the baby while we were watching a video on "The Miracle of Life" (lol - ironic!) and we quickly found the baby again hidden in a plant (anacharis) and moved it to a bucket which we were forced to put some tap water into since it was only half filled with declorinated water. We found no other fry and deduced that they did not have the chance to get into a cave or the filter before they were gobbled up. We also saw the father (white sailfin) nip at it right when I first discovered it and were very sad as we thought maybe it had just eaten the last survivor.

I have a few questions:

Since we are pretty sure we don't see the molly's gravid spot right now, does that mean that she had this baby a while ago? Like before the weekend? The other thing is, is it possible that she is still delivering as we speak? We don't want to put here in the bucket as she will probably eat the other fry and we don't currently have either of the quarantine tanks in the classroom, so that's out; we don't have a breeding trap either. The weird thing is that the fry seems rather developed, as it has all its fins and color and can swim and see; however, I don't have any experience breeding livebearers and I can't remember what I read about fry development. So is it possible that the fry is already a few weeks old and was able to survive in the other tank? Also, I'm wondering how long of a period of time it takes between births for a molly to begin birthing again. I'm very sure that the mollies have been pregnant since we got them, and both the males seem very ready to keep their supply of sperm in surplus. Lastly, since we have the baby molly in a bucket with only an air line in it, will it die over night? I didn't have a spare heater handy, and would have been hesitant to use one in the bucket anyway since I don't know if it can melt the bucket if it comes in contact with it. I understand that if this fry is very young, and this is the only survivor, there is a good chance it might live with proper care since it may have survived for a while now in the community tank, although if I was just lucky I found this one in time I bet it might have little chance of living.

Please try to answer some of these questions!

[Damon]

Mollies can give birth for up to approx 3 days, depending on security and the amount of fry. They can give birth once every 4-6 weeks also for up to 3 months.

[John]

Thanks very much! I'll look for more fry when I get to schoo in half an hour.