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Date Posted: 15:32:29 01/02/02 Wed
Author: To mom from mindy
Subject: dalmation mollie babies
In reply to: James 's message, "Re: dalmation mollie babies" on 22:50:43 06/30/01 Sat

>I am not usually a poster here; stumbled in by
>accident, but glad I did. I am no way a "pro", but
>having kept several varieties of Mollies for 4 years
>and other livebearers for twice as long (plus I stayed
>in a Holiday Inn Express last night), I think I can
>answer your question.
>
>The easiest way to tell male from female is simple:
>males will have a "gonopodium" on their underside,
>where as females will have 2 fins. A strange thing
>about female Mollies... they can store a males sperm
>and give birth to several batches of fry (fish babies)
>at any given time, so they only really need to mate
>once.
>
>You probubly purchased a female that was already
>pregnant, as the gestation period is much longer than
>the short time that you had your fish. I can't recall
>the gestation period off the top of my head, but I
>know it is in excess of 3 weeks.
>
>If you plan on keeping all of the Mollies in one tank
>(the 2 you initially purchased and the 2 survivors), I
>hate to break it to you, but you are going to need a
>much larger tank. My rule of thumb is 1 gallon of
>water per inch of fish. If you have the "Sailfin"
>variety of Mollies, males can grow bigger than 4
>inches and females can get 3 inches. The other
>varieties of Mollies are much smaller, about 2-3
>inches for males. If your female is about to have fry
>again, they will be canibalized as they will not have
>a lot of room to hide. Plus, after she drops the fry,
>all males will persue her in attempt to mate, and she
>will exhaust herself trying to stay away from them.
>
>Although I wouldn't recommend it, you can keep them in
>the tank they are currently in, if it has good
>filtration. Albeit, it would be like a family of 5
>living in a 1 bedroom apartment. My first pair of
>Mollies, which were my first fish, were Sailfins that
>I kept in a 29 gallon tank, but all of their fry
>didn't have the room to grow, and didn't quite get the
>same body size as their parents. I then purchased a
>55 gallon tank that I kept my pair of Sailfin Mollies
>in. I had an undergravel filter with 2 powerheads. I
>sold the 55 and now have a 90 gallon which houses
>Platys and Guppies, with the same set up plus 2
>Whisper 5 filters and 2 submergable heaters. I
>normally change 1/4 of the tank water each month, and
>check the pH level and try to keep it at Neutral.
>
>Of course, all of my experience with Livebearers
>occured over a 12 year period of time, and it appears
>that you have just started your journey into fish
>keeping.
>
>After a long hard day at work, watching fish swim
>about their tank effortlessly is the best stress
>reliever I have ever known.

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