Help me breed my fish !!!

Question

i have a black mollie and a dalmation mollie. i want to breed them but im a fist time fish keeper. they are in a 25 lt tank along with 5 tetras about 2 cm long each and 2 platies same size as mollies. what could i do to enhance the chances of them breeding all sesible answers will help thank you

Answer 1

Mollies will breed with no help from you, it is what they do.  Do you know if you have a male and a female?

Really mollies prefer water temps 77 and over especially for breeding, but you also have tetras which are a cooler water species.  Salt as well is a plus (marine salt not aquarium or table or rock salt) however again tetra's no good in light salt water.

You can honestly let them go and they will breed with or without your help or any fancy gadgets, nets or special temperatures.

Platies won't inter breed with mollies nor will other live bearers.  These produce Mules incapable of living let alone reproducing, so don't worry about that.

Answer 2

I have bred a lot of tropical fish over the last 5 years, and my favourite being livebearers (guppies, platies, mollies, and swordtails). I actually just bred a new type of platy I call "Neon Blue Mickey Mouse Mosiac". It looks just like the platy on the bottom on the cover of this book, but with the "Mickey Mouse" pattern on the caudal penduncle (tail). I'm going to try and sell these fish, as they are a new pattern and I think they are rare, but I'm not too sure. Here's the site to see the one on the cover:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51...

Now, about breeding mollies. Mollies are perhaps the hardest livebearers to breed because they require a small amount of salt in the aquaruim to be able to be healthy enough to breed. Raise the temp. to about 80-82 farenheit. Now you might run into a problem here. Platies and mollies are related and will sometime interbreed, but not as often as swordtails and platies do. Since to temp. has risen, other fish in the aquarium might try and breed as well, like your tetras, but they are hard to breed, especially for a first timer, so you should have no worries. It doesn't really matter if platies and mollies crossbreed, as many livebearers in the pet trade have some traces of other breeds in them, and really only wild fish are truly purebred.

Now that you've added salt and raised the temp., your mollies should breed naturally and on their own, without any help from you. If they don't, you may have to set up another tank just for breeding, but only if you absolutely need to, as the move from tank to tank causes stress and that results in lower fertility, or none at all. Keep the parents in good weight and health before, during and after the breeding process, which means feeding them high protein foods like brine shrimp and live foods like mosquito larva, found in ditches and stagnant waters. Wash these off before feeding to your fish, though.

For a greater chance of a brood of mollies, buy 2 or 3 females for every male fish. You know he is ready to breed if he blows bubbles at the surface and near the females. (not all fish do this, though.) Watch them and see if he swims beside them and tries to put his gonopodium near the females anal fin. I'm not sure if you know the difference between males and females, and if you do, don't think of me as being stupid, but after all, you said it was your first tank. So I've given you some sites. This one is of a male (look for his gonopodium, or pointed anal fin)http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...

And one of a female:   http://www.bbayaquariums.com/black-molly...

You will know that the female is pregnant when you can see a dark spot near her anal fin. When it gets really large and dark, put her in a breeder basket (here's a pic)http://www.callypets.co.uk/pictures/1735...

The babies, when born, will fall through the bottom and out of the mothers hungry mouth. Keep the babies in there and feed them Nutrafin dry baby Fry Food  until they can eat crumbled adult food. Put them in the big tank when they are big enough not to be sucked up the filter or eaten by other fish.

Well, sorry for the long letter, but I thought I'd give you everything you need to know about breeding mollies for the first time. And sorry if the links don't work, but my computer is kinda messed up today. Good luck, have fun, and enjoy breeding your mollies!!!

Answer 3

Mollies are live bearers and they will breed on their own. What you will need is to have male and female in the tank (preferably 1 male for evry 2-3 females), keep them warm around 78F and well fed. They will soon do their thing, as soon as you notice the female(s) getting large, move them to a separate breeding tank, equiped with aerator and sponge filter, with plenty of plants to prevent the female(s) from getting stresse and to provdie hiding for the fry when them come,

Once born the fry will be large enough to be fed crushed flakes, or better yer newly hatched baby brine shrimp.

Answer 4

Which one is female? the black or the dalmation? well, whichever one is female, I would get 2 or 3 of to start. You could try adding aquarium salt to your tank; it reduces stress. Don't add instant ocean to make it brackish, because most of those fish wont live in that high of an alkilinity. Another thing you could try is raising the temperature of the water. GOOD LUCK!

Answer 5

Well, first make sure you have one female one male.

Second, put them in a different tank. When the female lays the eggs, remove the female and male and put them back in the original. keep the eggs in the second tank so they don't get eaten.

Third, enjoy your baby mollies!

( Theres a high chance all might not survive. )

Answer 6

I've never done it before, but it sounds like a lot of work.

here are two links to help you out:

http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/bree...

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?...

Answer 7

First off your tank is totally overstocked.  Fish will not breed well when they are stressed and if you fish did have fry the other fish will eat them before they are barely born.  Your tank is only large enough to house the 2 mollies without having any other fish in it.

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Answer 8

Mollies are live-bearers, so there are no eggs.  You need to make sure you have a male and female.  It is usually better to have 2 females per male, so the female doesn't get harassed too badly.  Then just maintain good water conditions.  Keep the temp around 77f/25c.  The male will chase the female and you will see the male's gonopodium (pointy anal fin) try to "tag" the underside of the female.  Males are basically in constant pursuit, so after 24 hrs. it's pretty much guaranteed she's prego.