Once the female is impregnated, she can give birth to as many as five or more broods of young at intervals of four to six weeks. The number of each brood may vary from 12 to 15 babies from a young Mollie to as many as young from a large swordtail. Why do mother fish eat their babies? In other words, by weeding out offspring that will take a lot of time to mature, the parent guppy can conserve their energy for subsequent, faster-developing fry. Another explanation is that female guppies eat their own babies as a way of replenishing their fat storage.

Some fish species such as angelfish are known to take care of their fry and help them grow. But even these fish that exhibit parental care will at times eat their own fry. A further explanation is that by eating her own fry, the female guppy is replenishing her fat storage. When you want to move the fry into the larger tank, just submerge the breeding trap into the water of the large tank and open the door.

This will allow the fish to swim out into your normal tank. Keep an eye on the newly introduced fry and make sure that the other fish are not harming them or are a threat to their existence. Continue to do this until all your fry have been moved into the large tank. If anyone of the fry seems to be under stress, then move it back into the nursery tank and allow it to adapt before moving it again into the larger tank.

Mollies are fairly easy to breed; so anyone can easily set up the tank and breed mollies. The first thing that you should do is create a beneficial breeding environment for the mollies. The breeding scenario is really affected by the male to female ratio of your fish tank. Mollies are actually hierarchical fish, so the male with the biggest fins and the brightest colors is in charge.

For successful breeding, it is important to keep one male with multiple females. When the male goes under the female, they begin to copulate. If the whole mating process is successful, you will have baby mollies in about 60 days. Once you are sure that your molly is pregnant, transfer her into a separate tank. Male mollies chase the female in order to copulate more and this puts unnecessary stress on the female molly.

Be sure not to wait very close to the birth date; remove the female molly from her aquarium as soon as possible. Once the fry is born you should place the mother molly back into the main aquarium as there is a chance that the molly might eat its own babies.

Mollies are actually omnivorous fish so they can eat all kinds of food including live, artificial and frozen food. A thing that should be kept in mind is that mollies need a diet that is high in fiber; so vegetables and algae should be dominant components of their daily meals. Wild mollies are known to eat lots of algae and you can even observe this in your aquarium as it is quite common for the molly fish to eat scraps of algae present on the decorations and glass of the tank.

You can give your molly fish flakes, boiled pieces of lettuce leaves, squash, and cucumbers in order to meet its vegetable requirements. Live food such as brine shrimp, tubifex and bloodworm are also good additions to their meal plan. Feeding mollies is not the most difficult thing out there but you really need to ensure that the vegetables are a large portion of their diet. Always feed your molly with high-quality food as poor-quality food weakens their immune system and makes them more susceptible to fatal diseases.

Mollies are known to be moderately aggressive, very active, and rather peaceful creatures. The behavior of the molly fish changes if it is kept in a small overcrowded tank. They become more aggressive, and the small space puts stress on their health.

The best way to keep mollies is in a group as they are very social. And remember to keep one male with at least two females. If the number of males surpasses the females, the environment of the tank will be anything but healthy.

The constant haunting by the males stresses out the female mollies. Males also do not get along with each other; so it is best to have a very spacious tank. The molly fish gets on very well with other tank mates and it is better to keep them with mates of the same size. Mollies are known to stay civil with other fish. For a small group of molly fish, the ideal tank should be able to hold at least 50 liters of water, but as they are very active fish, so a liter tank should be bought to be on the safe side.

Mollies grow to be up to 10 cm long; so it helps to have a large tank, as otherwise, it will be difficult for them to move around. Mollies are more comfortable in water that is a little warm.

The temperature of your tank should be around 25 to 27 degrees Celsius degrees Fahrenheit. The fish also do not like drastic changes in the temperature of the tank. When you buy a heater, keep in mind that you need 5 watts per gallon of water in your fish tank.

The pH of the tank should be around 7 to 8 pH, while the hardness should be kept between 20 to 30 dGH. The molly fish cannot live in brackish water, so it is best to put some salt into the water of your fish tank. Water changes are also an important part of keeping healthy mollies. You should do a 20 percent water change every week in order to ensure the failure of ammonia and nitrates build up in the tank water. Aeration and filtration are also vital. Make sure that you have a decent filter.

Mollies are actually very messy and they are constantly moving around and eating. You can Go for Artificial plants if you can not afford live plants. Talking about the balloon molly fish compatibility, these are the fish of peaceful temperament so they prefer living with fishes of the same nature.

They can comfortably live with livebearer fishes. Thanks to their small size which makes them compatible with other mollies. A question may have popped up in your mind that is, are these balloon molly fish aggressive in nature? Well, the answer is No. Males sometimes become aggressive in the presence of other male mollies in the tank. Balloon mollies are livebearer, which means they do not lay eggs. Female mollies after breeding give birth to over one hundred small mollies or babies or you can even call them to fry babies.

If you want to increase the population of balloon molly fish in your tank then get your mollies and tank ready for the breeding session. First of all, separate male and female molly in another tank with at least 30 gallons of water in it.

Maintain all the required water, temperature and pH condition. You can keep two females along with one male molly at a time. Mollies often use their extravagant colors or their fin to attract the other mate.

Once you keep them in your tank, they will start attracting each other and after a while, you will see male molly fish is chasing a female molly fish. Their breeding is just a few minutes away. The male will use his gonopodium or the pointed fin to breed. Now once this has been done, you are ready to start looking for pregnancy symptoms in pregnant molly.

These symptoms will include lethargy, loss of appetite, and of course a protruding belly. You can find this spot under her belly. Moreover, there will be a drastic change in the behavior of pregnant molly, like she will become an introvert fish. After spending a gestational period of weeks, mommy molly gives birth to some young fry, which is about half an inch long and is born alive.

However, the process of breeding takes about 28 days in warmer temperatures while more time would be required if the temperature is cooler. As discussed earlier mommy molly gives birth to about fry babies but unfortunately, only a few of them reach their adulthood because the rest of them will become the food of other adult fish.

Once mommy molly gives birth to fry babies, immediately separate them in another small tank. Otherwise, adult mollies or adult fishes will eat them and you will nothing in hand. Let me tell you the major difference between male and female balloon mollies. The male mollies have a pointed and larger dorsal fin and the female mollies are smaller in size and have a rounded dorsal fin which differentiates both from each other. It is advisable to keep a pair of molly fish together because there will be increased chances of bullying or injuries if all mollies are either female or male.

So try to keep them in pairs. In simple words, you have to maintain Sex or gender ratio within a tank. Balloon Mollies usually live for about 3 to 5 years while all the types of mollies have a different life span. Considering the life span of Balloon Mollies, they have a shorter life span than other kinds of mollies.

If they are kept with proper care, they can live some more years. Like other pet fishes, these mollies also susceptible to certain diseases. The same goes for balloon molly fish. Ok, thanks for correcting me But if someone needs help a old post might be there only solution. Absolutely, however it would be better to direct them to creating a new post so their is only one thread to follow. And then more people can help. And if they come back as a guest or a member then you will have helped teach them about how the rules of this site work.

Just my opinion. Cheers everyone! I've put my ballon molly in the birth tank however she is just lead there and then she will star to move her fins really fast but then stop moving again.

I love my fish very much and I really want to no what's happening. Should I put her back in the main tank with all the others? Or leave her in the breeding tank, help please! I would leave her in the main tank with the others. For more info , click on the link below. I also have a balloon mollies I think May be pregnant but I'm not sure.

She is orange and white, under her belly at the back looks dark black, bless her she looks like a cube with fins. I have 2 balloon mollies I bought about 2 days ago, one looks very pregnant but I cant tell because she's black orange and white, what should I look out for when she gets closer to dropping? I have two molly's also. My female starting to hide behind the plant in the tank, she seemed standoffish.

She started to sway back and forth like struggling and then next thing I knew, she was giving birth. It took her about 3 hours to finish, and i took the male molly out of the tank during her birth because I didn't want them to get eaten. I read she usually gives birth at night. Mine had her fry around am-4am this morning.

M y A quarium C lub. How can you tell when a balloon mollys about to give birth? By Joanne, 10 years ago on Tropical Fish. To keep the fry from being eaten, provide a large raft of bushy, floating plants like hornwort. Mollies give birth every weeks - depending on the temperature and the individual female.