Breeding Mollies...Please help!

[Eric35]

Hi everyone. I posted this at another forum, and decided to post it here for another opinion

I just got back from the pet store, and while there, decided to try and breed some fish at home. So after getting help from the pet store person, I got what I believe is one male and one female orange molly. I also asked for a pregnant female if possible, so she gave me one she thought was pregnant.

So I'm just hoping I could get some help on how to breed these

First, can anyone confirm from these pictures that I got a male and female?


That is my male. He's male, right? lol


That is my female. She's female, right?

Secondly, the lady said she thought the female was pregnant. Judging by the pictures, can anyone tell if she looks pregnant?

Here are some more pics..







Hopefully by seeing those pics, someone can tell me if the female is pregnant. To me, she looks totally bloated compared to the male, but I don't know if that means she's pregnant yet. If so, does anyone know how far into the pregnancy she is? I have a breeding net to put her in so she can have her babies, but I'm not sure how I should know that she's about to have them. How much longer until I should put her in it?

Thanks so much in advance!

[fish_doc]

From those pictures I would say you have a pair.

[Eric35]

Oooh cool. Judging by the pics, when do you guys think I should move the female into her breeding box? I don't want to move her too early and stress her out...but then again, I don't want her to have them early and have my fry get eaten

Thanks!


PS: Those pictures are actually from yesterday. Since then, the male seems to be giving her more space. He's swimming around more, while she's just sitting at the top floating around.

[fish_doc]

Her gravid spot is a little dark but I would guess you need to wait a bit longer before she is ready to drop any fry.

[ronnfive]

Signs when my molly is ready to drop in about 3-4 days:

1. Boxy shape of her belly
2. Less active
3. Always hide at the planted area (mostly at the top)
4. More clamping of her anal fins
5. Goes up and down in the corner of the tank

6. Optional, if her belly is translucent, the gravid spot or eye of the fry
is getting darker and darker.

Note: if you miss her first drop, mark your calendar that day coz she will be dropping again around that time next month. She will drop every 28 – 32 days providing good food and good water condition, feed her live food occasionally for faster development of her fry. You don’t have to put her in a breeder net coz that would stress her and may cause of dropping undeveloped fry, just throw lots of floating plants for the fry to hide in.

Hope that helped!
Ronn

[Betta5]

The top 1 is the male and the bottom molly. So you were correct. Its hard to tell by a pic but maby very lightly (just got) pregnant. If you look at the pic you can see a tad of a grivid spot.

[Zoe]

From my experience, I'm not a fan of breeding nets. Catching the female and keeping her in there is pretty stressful, particularly if you misjudge and put her in there way too early.
When my mollies / swords had babies, I would just catch the fry with a net and move them to a fry rearing tank. You don't end up with as many babies because some do get eaten, but I would typically pull 15-25 babies out (they are much easier to catch than the female!).

But yes, that does look like a pair and she does look pregnant. Any female livebearer who has a male in her tank is probably pregnant