Black Molly birth

[Mollies rock]

Yesterday we got some platies ,graumis and mollies we got at least 1 male and 1 female of each. one of our female mollies is extreamley big and we think she is pregnat and now there is a white tube thing in front of the fin on her stomach. will she drop her fry soon?

[SkipW]

Are you sure it's a female?
When our Molly gave birth, she started hanging out on the bottom more often. And when she actually gave birth, she did a twitching kind of thing. I had no idea of what was going on at the time, but when I sat and watched trying to figure out what was going on, that's when I saw them come out. A week or two later she started doing the same thing. My wife thought I was crazy until she saw the baby fry. We have 8 survivors that are all 6 months old now.

If you do have fry in the tank, look around the edges in the gravel, they like to hide in there. In about a week, if they are still alive, they will start to venture out.

[gadget228]

With mollies and platys you want the females to outnumber the males by at least 3-1. The males chase the females all the time and with a 1-1 ratio the male will chase her to death. The more females you have, the more the others can get some rest.

[RobertM]

I have two male mollies and one constantly chases the other one?? Are they just being playful or is this something I need to be concerned about?

[rich311k]

Male mollies will fight for dominance, if you have enough room and plenty of girls they will probably work it out. How big is the tank?

[RobertM]

Its a 55 gallon, unfortunately I don't have any females. :sconfused:

Its pretty well stocked, we have 19 tetras, 2 guppies, 2 mollies, 1 platy, and 1 rubber lip pleco in a well planted (8 plants of various sizes) aquarium.

He seems to chase him with his mouth near the other males'.... errr... genitalia area....??

[rich311k]

That should be enough room for them to work it out. Just keep an eye on them.

[RobertM]

It's very interesting to watch them. The Orange Creamsicle Lyre tail Molly has clearly establish dominance over the Dalmatian Lyre tail Molly but just continues to chase him through the tank. The Dalmation doesn't seem overly bothered so I don't think its much of a problem. As I am fairly new to having aquariums, I just had no clue if this was going to be a problem. :ssmile: Thanks for the input! Maybe I'll try and post a video of them...