Breeding Black Mollies

[Poseidonbreeder]

Hey guys I'm trying to breed black mollies for my science expirement and i have had them since 10/14/07 and there was 3 females and 1 male in 2 10 gallon tanks. Now there are 4 females and 1 male in each tank and im getting 2 more tanks. my science rough draft over my info is due this friday. one of the females i thought was pregnant just got smaller and I am not seeing any babies. in the other tank i isolated the female which i beleive is pregant. Need Help PLZ!!! Please email me if you can at randonj@mac.com.
thanks

[CichlidFan]

Re: Breeding Black Mollies

Welcome to the box, Poseidonbreeder. I'm sure someone will be able to give you some tips and help you with your aspirations for your mollies.

Good Luck ...

PS.....your thread here, maybe moved due to it being posted in the wrong forum, but still you will get plenty of help.

CF

[islander]

Re: Breeding Black Mollies

Howdy Pocelia,

It is GREAT to see students use fish in their Science Fair (SF) projects!  One of my sons did two different SF projects using fish.  One was breeding hifin mollies (Pocelia) to lyretail mollies to creata a hifin lyretail molly.  It took about a year for Mark to complete this SF project and 3 generations of mollies to get a nice hifin lyretail molly.  Another SF project was feeding new born platty fry 4 different types of fish foods and over a 3 month period and see which fish food produced the largest and healthest fish.  Last year marke used moina, daphnia, scuds & glass shrimp to see which one cleans up a gallon of green water the fastest.  This year Mark is feeding daphnia several types of food to see which food makes the daphnia reproduce the fastest.

Sorry, I got side tracked...I will email you directly to help you out with your SF project.  Later, ken

[Poseidonbreeder]

Re: Breeding Black Mollies

oh thanks guys... um what forum should i of put it in?

[Spot86t]

Re: Breeding Black Mollies

It's been moved to "Fish Breeding".  Not an uncommon mistake  :)  Good luck with your project.

[Poseidonbreeder]

Re: Breeding Black Mollies

Yes I'm having babies! what should i feed them

[Brownsnoutuk]

Re: Breeding Black Mollies

Finely crushed flake food or baby brine shrimp.

[Poseidonbreeder]

Re: Breeding Black Mollies

okay the mom is still having the babies how long does it take for her to have the babies each. Intervals?

[Brownsnoutuk]

Re: Breeding Black Mollies

Probably could take a couple of hours. Do you have any moss in the tank for the babies to hide? Id turn the lights off and make it really dark in the tank, wait till morning then pull the big fish out and transfer them to the other 10 gallon.

[Spot86t]

Re: Breeding Black Mollies

Something handy to have to help fry save themselves is a piece of that plastic canvas.  If you can find the kind with larger holes get it.  I've had good success taking a piece of that and rolling it up so that you have a tube about 3/4 the height of the tank.  I used some thin fishing line to fasten it, but some plain thread will work in a pinch.  I just place it in the tank so it's upright - with the open ends on the top and bottom.  A bit of moss or some kinda plant inside makes ti more welcoming to fry.  One way to make sure it stays upright is to take a stainless steel fork (clean of course) and poke it thru the bottom end so that when the fork lays on the floor of the tank, the tube stays upright.  It doesnt have to fit perfectly on the floor of the tank, it's just to hlep keep it vertical.  The holes in the canvas are large enough for the fry to go through, but too small for other predators.  Some fry don't catch on, and end up being snacks, but there's not much you can do for fish that just don't have that natural "hide" instinct.

I've used these tubes to isolate mean fish too by adding a top and bottom to the tube.  The tops and bottoms can be held on with coffee stirrers or thin straws so they can be taken off easily.  You could also use that to stitch the canvas when making the initial tube shape, but I stitch it more permantly since I know I use the tube often.

My green sailfin took from 9am to 4pm monday to have 140 or so babies.  She had been (and still was) sick and had a hard time.  She died shortly after  :(.  Hopefully some of these babies will be as beautiful as she was.  I bet if she'd been feeling better, she would have had them a bit quicker.  Many were premature, and were still curled up as she had them.   Most of those actually made it, straightening out and swimming around within a few hours.  Some were nothing but eggs with eyespots and had no chance.  These things happen though I'm told.  My other mollies have had no problems and pop babies out like it's what they were born to do.

Congratulations and keep us posted!  :)