New Dalmatian Molly

[AmberH]

I just got this girl yesterday from Petsmart. Well, she was actually a gift from a friend.

The more I look at her, the more I think she's pregnant. I don't know anything about mollies. She's my first.

I've been doing a lot of reading and it seems that if she is pregnant, she'll be fertilized for about five pregnancies. Goodness, I hope not! What am I going to do with all those babies?

Miss Molly Moo is currently in with my male betta and a pleco. Will the betta eat the fry? It's kind of mean, but I hope he does. Eeek!!

Are there any links I should read up on? Anything special I need to do?

[trashion]

Doesn't look pregnant to me...

How big is this tank? Just wondering.

[AmberH]

They are in a five gallon tank right now. I have my female betta in a one gallon bowl. After Christmas, I'll be aquiring my mom's 20 gallon. Once I get the 20 gal set up, I want to try putting all four in it. I don't know how that'll be, but we'll see.

So, if she is prego, she is. If she isn't, thank God!

[maykaym4]

She doesn't really look pregnant to me, but mollies are pretty much ALWAYS pregnant when you bring them home from the store, so it could just be really early and she hasn't gotten big yet. They have fry in cycles (I think three), so there's a chance she might have a few batches of fry for the next few months before she's done. Then again, she may not be pregnant at all, which wouldbe rare but possible. If you want the fry to be eaten, just leave them in the tank and don't move her or anything. That will almost always result in them being eaten by tankmates. The mama molly will probably end up eating many of them herself.

[trashion]

Oh, FWIW, do NOT put the male and female betta in the 20 gallon together. They will kill each other. Just a heads up.

[AmberH]

Well, I just got back from holiday. I had the molly, female betta, and pleco in the 5 gallon tank. The male betta was in his one gallon bowl.

My aunt was supposed to take care of the fish and cats while my uncle was taking care of the dogs.

I came home to some nasty water. My female betta was dead and the male lost all of his color; he's gray now... The molly no longer looked like she was pregnant. She was actually really skinny. The pleco went from dark brown to almost yellow. I immediately cleaned the tanks! Everything was fine and dandy.

I aquired three more female mollies a couple days ago. All was well. I got a black, a silver, and another dalmatian. I was watching the girls this morning and I noticed that the two dalmatians were circling each other. I said to myself, either one is a male and they're going to breed or they are fighting. I don't know which but I came home this afternoon and found Miss Molly Moo, my original dalmatian molly dead. Now I'm down to just the three new mollies. I'm actually starting to think that the black one is a male.

Oh, and they were in 20-29 gallon that I got from my mom. I can't tell by just looking at the tank. My mom said it was a 20 gallon and my dad said it was 29.

[StripesAndFins]

What are its dimensions. If i know its length(left to right), width(Back to front), and height(top to bottom) i could tell.

[AmberH]

lenght: 24"
width: 12"
height: about 16"

[StripesAndFins]

Then it is a 20 gallon tank. this site shows an example of a 20 gallon tank that has thos dimensions

http://www.fish.com/itemdy00.asp?T1=710621+BLK

[AmberH]

Thank you!

[OldMan]

Amber, a 29 is 30 inches long and 18 inches tall. I just measured mine. You have a standard 20 as opposed to the 20H that is more commonly sold today.

[AmberH]

This tank is a good 10 or 11 years old so I'd assume it would be an older variety.

[OldMan]

You almost never see a standard 20 in the US any more because the 20H is taller and has a nicer look to it. For a serious breeder, shorter and wider tanks make more sense for the number of fish they can hold but they are not as popular as the taller display tanks.

[FishEyes22]

For future reference the Molliy mother and the other mollies would've eaten the fry it rare that a decent number of the fry lives i had twenty eaten from my last batch of 22 but the other two were killed by a bacteria

[Zakk]

dude.....check the date of the last post before replyin to a thread.