Molly gestation how long?

[Eileen]

I have a female Blk. Molly that I raised from a baby She is old enough to breed now. I bought a Blk. balloon male molly around Dec. 18th. I was wondering how long the gestation period was? Is it 28 days. I was gone on vacation for a week and came back and my female molly is now larger in size then the balloon molly. They were the same size when I left. I think she is pregnate. I want to put her in a breeder box so the babies won't get hurt.

[gm72]

Roughly 4 weeks, maybe a little more. She can have more than one batch of fry.

[JoJo99]

Breeder boxes can stress them out if you put them in too soon. Her belly will start to look square on the bottom and there may be a see-through area near the gravid spot. She'll probably have 30-40 babies so you could just float some plants and just scoop the hiding fry when you notice them. Even if you lose some, 40 fry is a lot! Especially when she'll probably have more babies in another 35 days....and another 35 days...etc. good luck!

[Eileen]

Thanks for the information. I will just float the plants on top and get the fry later. I was going to set up a 2 1/2 gal for the babies. I will keep a few babies and give the others away on craigs list for free when they are old enough.

[CAX474]

you will know when it is about to happen as they usualy stop eating just before they are about to give birth, this the time to gently coax her into a Hatchery.
They stop eating for about 3 days, so dont worry its a built in natue thing so they dont eat the fry.
You can also put a small couple of plants into the Hatchery with her if you would like to use one, as this will help her not to get to stressed while she is in there.