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I wonder if what I am seeing is molly mating rituals....
My female sometimes chases the male gently, also she pirouettes and rubs against the cave....
The male runs a little when chased and then kinda drifts back...
Also if my female gets prego, can ya see it?
I am cycling a small tank to be ready for the fry.

Usually they chase each other & the Molly will have a big belly when pregnant. Prepare to have lots of fry & they will be breeding every month or so.



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“Mating rituals”

When the male follows the female from side to side using his dorsal fin just like dancing, he tries to attract the female. When the male drifts down to the belly of the female, and used his “gonopodium” which is what we called the modified anal fin, he is finally mating to the female. Note that the female has the ability to hold sperms to keep her eggs fertile and will continue to drop up to 7th batches of fry even without a male for seven months. And when the female gets older the number of the fry increase.

“Also if my female gets prego, can ya see it?”

You can only notice that the females belly gets bigger and bigger as MOST of their scales are thicker than the other livebearers. And when she is about to drop a batch, her belly will look like a bit of square. Is your tank heavily planted? If not you will need lots and lots of plants to provide hiding places for the fry as the mother will hunt her fry and so with the other mollies.

Edit: I’d recommend anacharis and hornwort plants for your tank from bottom to top (planted and floating).

Good luck and welcome to FP!

Last edited by ronnfive at 29-Jun-2005 03:24

Thanks all for the info! Mollies are so cute!

Hmm, my platys did something like that also

10gallon: 8neons 5gallon: 1betta
1oto
2platys