Molly fishes in Buddha aquarium.
Photo provided by Flickr
Gestation varies somewhat, but is typicallyaround a month. Litter size also varies, and in some cases over ahundred fry have been reported, with bigger females usually producinglarger broods. The reason so few big broods get reported byinexperienced aquarists is that other fish hunt down and eat livebearerfry with remarkable enthusiasm. Sometimes, even the mothers will eattheir own fry. In the wild, the fry would move into very shallow waterwhere the adult mollies (and any predatory fishes) cannot go, so thefemales have never evolved any 'maternal behaviour' towardstheir offspring; as far as the female mollies are concerned, a babymolly is just a meal. The easiest solution is to install masses offloating plants: , , hornwort, orwhatever's handy. The baby fish will hide among the plants, and theaquarist can easily find and remove them to another aquarium where theycan be reared safely. Molly fry grow quickly, but do need plenty offood. Algae-based flake food six times a day is ideal, and there shouldcertainly be some algae-covered stones in the aquarium to let them gosnacking in between their proper meals. Throw in some floating plantstoo, as baby fish generally enjoy a bit of shade and appreciate thesense of security that the availability of hiding places givesthem.
Photo provided by Flickr The base of a Black Mollies diet should be a high-quality flake food, such as the . You should supplement the flake foods with live, or frozen foods such as bloodworms, blackworms, daphnia and brine shrimp. As with most fish, the Black Mollies prefer their foods live, but we know how difficult it can be to find them sometimes, so frozen is definitely the next best thing.
Photo provided by Flickr
Photo provided by Flickr
Photo provided by Flickr
Most fish are going to want to eat these small little babies! To do this we watch closely for the pregnant Molly female to get super close to dropping her young. It is said that there will be a "V" shape at the bottom of her stomach right before laying.I wanted to create this help guide on different aspects Molly fish owners can take on their fish being pregnant. There are a couple different paths you can choose to go down. I like to give two routes in this situation. You can choose to not care for the babies on their way or you can choose to keep some of the baby fry and watch them grow into adults.Mollies are peaceful fish and can be kept in a community tank. You should provide plants intheir aquarium. It is also beneficial to add some aquarium salt to your molly tank. Becausemollies like salt in their water don't keep them with other species that can't tolerate theextra salt. I usually use about 1 tablespoon of aquarium salt for every 5 gallons of water. Keep inmind that if you have a 10 gallon tank that your rocks, heater, and other items in your tanktake up some space and so you may not actually have 10 gallons of water. Also, salt doesn'tevaporate and so when you replace water in your tank don't add more salt to it. You can, however,add more salt when making water changes (as long as it doesn't exceed the recommended salt level).Some people recommend adding less salt than this for their mollies, but this works for me. Whateveryou do, don't use iodized salt in your tank or it will kill your fish!I feed my Mollies brine shrimp. They absolutely love it. Actually came here looking for a good resource or article on how to feed new baby or fried juvenile fish. I do understand that they are brand-new to this world and they are babies in they need a lot of protein so what is a good source or good food to feed them?Mollies are livebearing fish. As mentioned earlier, it is easy to sex mollies because the malesand females look differently. It is best to keep at least 2 females per each male because livebearingmales often harass the females. Plants are also good so that the female has plenty of hidingspaces. Despite their familiarity, mollies are muchmisunderstood fishes. They may be cheap, and they are certainly hardyand easy to breed when kept correctly, but in many ways they are notideal fish for the community aquarium. Even defining 'a molly'is difficult, and things become even more complicated when trying todetermine the ideal water conditions for these fish. One of the mostcommon statements made about these fish is that they need to be kept inbrackish water to do well; yet in the wild they are largely found infreshwater streams. So what is the truth about mollies?