Fish Zone: February 2011

Molly fish breeding at home

Molly fish breeding is very simple task. You will need one male and few females with good water conditions. The number of females should be more than the males because males like to chase female, this makes female more stressed. The gestation period of females is of about 30-40 days. Females will start becoming more rounder as the time passes. When the female is about to give birth, her stomach shape will be like \___/ . Then females will give birth to fries. Remember they are live bearers. They will give birth to 30-40 fries at once in time period of 1-2 hrs. Remember to shift the mother or any other fish away from babies otherwise they will eat the babies. You can use breeding nest. Feed crushed flake food to babies and take necessary precautions.

After the birth, separate the mother from any other fish because after birth the molly looses its most of its strength and become easy target to other tank mates. So keep her separated until she gets her strength back. After 1 week of time you can put back her again in main fish tank.

Difference between male and female molly fish

It is very easy to distinguish between male and female mollies. Female's body are more round while the male's are slender in shape. Also females have fan shape anal fin while the males have more developed fin known as gonapodium.This is key feature to distinguish between them. The above image is of male while female molly have fan like fin which you can look in lower image. Molly' fishes are available in wide varieties and every species shares same body characteristics.

Tip of the day

Tips for purchasing fish tank air pumps

Larger fish tank air pump will generate more heat, it's not always that the larger is better. Go according to need. Also fish tank pumps produces lot of sound so test them before hand. The heat production by larger air pump will be more.

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molly fish care

molly spawning

Molly Fish care

Molly Fish is one of the popular choice of aquarium fish for beginners. These are tropical fishes and requires some temperature in water. If you want to carry out breeding of any fish then molly is one of the best choice. These are prolific breeder, soon they will get babies and you will be in trouble because of their breeding. Soon you will need more space to keep babies. Most of time they already pregnant before you you buy them from aquarium shop. Female molly may give birth to babies 3-4 times even in absence of male because of their tendency of holding sperms.

They are live bearers which means they does not lay eggs, they directly give birth to young fry. They can do well in small aquariums. Give them food rich in protein to encourage them to breed. Also maintain the good water circulation in the fish tank by using suitable fish tank air pumps.