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We have had our aquarium (10gal) going for 2 weeks now. We added 2 ballooned bellied mollies and a dwarf guarami on Friday. We now have 5 fish including our bottom feeder. They seemed to all be happy until yesterday.
Yesterday I came home from work and saw 2 mini fish swimming around our tank. We had been suspicious of the size of one of our female molly after finding out we had one male and one female but it is awefully hard to tell if a balloon bellied molly is pregnant. I immediatly ran out to the closest pet store and purchased a breeding net to put the babies in.
My questions are as follows:
1.How many fry should she have had? Is it possible they had all been eaten by the time I got home from work? Is it possible she could still be pregnant?
2.How should I take care of these mini fish? One of them seems to be healthier than the other.
3. My male molly seemed very aggressive yesterday. He has had some bully tendancies but he was being mean to all the other fish. Darting around like a psycho fish. Is this behavior because of the birthing or did he maybe just wake up and decide to pick on everybody?

If the male molly is darting around you need to post test results in ammonia,nitrite,nitrate,and ph,don't no how many babies the molly would of had, but she will have babies every month from now if you keep her with the male, as for the babies feed on crushed flakes and baby brime strimp.

Last edited by kitty163 at 20-Oct-2004 13:00

Hi RB and welcome to FishProfiles !! Congratulations on the new "family" as well.

There is no way of telling how many babies your Molly may have had. My Molly had only 6 the first time then over 50 the second time. Many of the fry probably became snacks while you were out but fry are also excellent at hiding in the gravel and among plants. Check around and you may find a few more.

You can feed the babies crushed flakes (crushed to a fine powder) or you can purchase Fry Food. You can also feed them baby brine shrimp. You can hatch your own or purchase frozen (which is what I do). They will need to remain separated from the parents until they are no longer small enough to fit into anyone's mouth.

You said your tank is only 2 weeks old so it is probably still cycling which may explain your male molly's behaviour. I would test your water to make sure your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels are not out of control.

Keep us posted !!

Thanks for your help. I had posted my qestion at another site before yours and wow everyone suddenly began accusing me of not cyling my tank and having to many of the wrong kind of fish. I have been learning a lot about tank cycling and such. Unfortuneately I knew nothing about it when I got my fish. I am a chemist you would think I would have figured it out. They should sit you down and explain all this too you when you buy the fish.

I have been testing my water a lot. My ammonia has gone up to about 1ppm it may be a little higher than that as the color is slightly darker than the card. The PH = 7.6, Nitrite = .25ppm and the Nitrate is still reading 0. Although the last time I checked it there was a slight change in color so I may have had a little. I am hoping it will cycle soon.

I have been doing frequent 10-20% water changes every couple of days and adding stress coat as needed. Except for that nasty male molly the fish seem happy. There are a lot of places to hide if the other fish get fed up with him. I didn't realize the ammonia could cause behavioral problems. I thought maybe the problem was caused by the fact that there is only one female in the tank. He seems to only bother the female molly and the male Platy. My dward gourarmi is the biggest wuss you could imagine. He sticks to himself and the male molly seems to pretend he doesn't even see the gourarmi. Fish are funny.

I found another fry this morning. The little guy couldn't have been hiding in there all this time as I have done water changes. All three seem healthy and are growing. I have no idea what I will do with them if they survive. I really didn't realize Mollies were as prolific as guppies. We shouldn't have gotten a pair ( of course at that time we couldn't even tell the difference between male and female) When can I put these little guys up for adoption?

hmmm you should probably lay off the water changes unless the ammonia really gets to be dangerous because I think frequent water changes can slow the cycle.

good luck

Still no cycle. One of the babies isn't doing so well so we are now down to 2 healthy fry. They are growing though. My ammonia is up to 2 ppm. It doesn't change with water changes. (which doesn't make sense at all to me) The fish still seem to be doing ok. Those mollies are a bit pushy even to the gourarmi. Every one think good cycle thoughts