You must be knowing that all molly fishes are same species so you can breed any one of them with any other Molly fish. Breeding is very simple task. You need one male dalmation molly and few females with good water conditions. The number of females should be more then the males because males like to chase female dalmation molly, this makes females more stressed. She can even give birth to several batches of babies over a year even in absence of males because of their sperm holding capacity. Before hand you should also arrange home for new babies else avoid their breeding. If female dalmation are stressed then they may give birth to unhealthy babies or immature babies. So try to put lots of hiding places for females.
The gestation period of females is of about 30 -40 days. Females will start becoming more rounder as the time pass. When the female will about to give birth her stomach shape will be like \___/. Then females will give birth directly to fries. Remember they are live bearers. Dalmation molly will give birth about 30-40 fries at a time in time of about 1-2 hrs. In my case they give to birth to 30 babies in 1 go and on the next day she again give birth to 10 babies.
Remember to shift the mother or any other fish away from babies in separate fish tank otherwise dalmation molly will eat the babies. However mother dalmation will not react to babies while she is delivering the babies but after process is complete then she may try to eat them.
You can use breeding nest if you are not having any separate fish tank for babies development. Breeding nest is made of separate net fitted on plastic structure and you can attach it in main fish tank. You can also go for breeding box which have separate chamber for fish on the top from fish fries may pass to bottom chamber where no other adult fish can access. You can put babies in it till they grow enough that is about for 1 month.In these you should have proper water circulation and steady temperature.
If you are putting them in separate fish tank then remove gravels from the tank else fries will be crushed under them and use sponge filter so fry may no got suck in any other filter. Feed the babies crushed flake food and try to avoid disturbance to them. Then 25 % of water in a week.Don't over feed them. If you are having live plants in tank of babies it will benefit them.
Difference between male and female dalmation molly
It is very easy to distinguish between male and female dalmation molly. Female bodies are more round while the male are slender in shape. The most common and easy method to distinguish is that female have fan shape anal fin while the male have more developed fin known as gonapodium. Which is used to pass sperms in female body. Also males are more aggressive and like to chase females. So it important that number of females should be more as compared to males and their should be lots of hiding places in fish tank. The above one is male and below one is female. Look at the anal fin to distinguish them. The male's have thin stick shape fin while female's fin is broad and fan shape. These body features can be easily observed in other mollies and many live bearers species.
