I need some information on breeding PLATY and MOLLY fish please, and also how to take care of the babies. ?
by Aquaboy on Friday, March 5th, 2010 | 6 Comments
I just started a aquarium about 5 months ago and i am interested in breeding mollies and platy fish. i have 2 female and 1 male platy fish already, and 2 female and 1 male mollie. i have a 30 gallon tank with 10 fish in them. I need infromation on breeding and telling if the females are pregnant or not. thanks =].
Buy a breeder box.
Mollies and Platy’s are both livebearers, incase you didn’t know. You don’t have to worry about breeding them, they breed on their own. Now when atheir gravid spot is HUGE you can expect fry, or baby fish in a couple of days. And the gravid spot is pretty much the womb. And the gravid spot will be Black. And be careful because the fish will eat their own babies, so I suggest getting Baby Moss, it is a small little fake plant that floats at the top of the tank, and the babies will hide in it.
Oh and the females are Alaways pregnant, they just need males to fertilize them eggs while their growing.
As long as you keep the water clean, and the temperature right, they’ll breed by themselves. Heck, your females may already be pregnant, since they can store sperm up to 6 batches of fry.
That means, even without a male, they can give birth until they run out of sperm.
To check if your platys are pregnant, look to see if they have a gravid spot. If it’s there, she’s pregnant.
http://aqualandpetsplus.com/livebe18.jpg
Mollies are harder to tell. In my experience, most mollies do not have this gravid spot, or at least, you can’t see it becuase of the skin. They don’t have the transparent like skin other livebearers have. You’ll just have to ball park it and look for signs of a bigger stomach.
Average gestation period for both fish is around 28 days. That means, they’ll be pregnant for 28 days before giving birth. This is just an average and they could very likely take up to three months so don’t panick if your fish doesn’t give birth.
Around 4 weeks into pregnancy, the stomach will become huge and seem to burst. It may take on a square shape rather than a round one.
This is a good indication that she may give birth within the week (probably will).
You can either move her to a fry tank or keep her in the main tank.
If you chose to keep her in the main tank, put lots of plants in there. Mollies and platys will eat fry and without hiding places, they won’t survive.
If you chose to take her out, put her in another tank. No filter as they tend to suck in the fry. If you want a filter, get the sponge kind. I’ve never used one but I hear good feedback about them. =]
In the fry tank, use the water from the main aquarium. Don’t use new water.
Put live plants in. The mother will eat the fry as well and the plants accomplish several things.
1. The soon to be mother will feel safer with hiding places and thus reduce stress. Stress could kill her and the babies and you want to avoid as much stress as possible.
2. The babies have hiding places from the mother.
3. They create natural oxygen. You don’t have a filter and those air pumps really don’t do much for oxygen.
When she has given birth, take her out and put her in another tank/container for 24 hours. This will allow her to rest before getting chased by the males in the main tank.
For food, feed the fry crushed flakes. Put the flakes in a ziploc bag and crush them until fine powder. Feed them 3-6 times a day, as much as they can eat in 30 seconds (usually a pinch).
You can put the fry back with the adults at around 1 month and a half. They’re usually big enough by then.
Umm….that’s about it. =]
Also, you can use the breeding traps/nets but I find that they stress out my fish too much. A couple of the females actually try to jump out of it and go berserk.
The breeding NET works good to put the fry in but that’s about it.
You have everything that you need to breed. In about 30-90 days you’ll have more fry than you’ll know what to do with. Platies and mollies deliver about once a month. When they are young they will release 10-30 babies, as they mature they can have 60-80 fry at a time. All endlessly every month. Hope you are ready.
You will need a separate tank for the birthing and raising of the fry. I would recommend a larger tank, maybe 20-30 gallons. Go ahead and start cycling it now to get it ready for the fry. You can use a raw cocktail shrimp for this. Just let it rot in the tank as it runs and it will cycle itself in about 8 weeks. Or, you can use gravel, filter floss and decos from your existing tank and this will almost instantly cycle it. Also, make sure you use either a sponge filter or an undergravel filter for that fry tank.
You will see the mothers start to get large and round. Finally they will square off from the side. This is when they are about to give birth. You need to place them in the fry tank. NEVER ever use a breeder box. They are cruel and cause aborted pregnancies from stress. Once you see that the mother has delivered remove her from the tank immediately because she will eat the fry and place her back into the main tank. You should feed the fry 4-6 times a day. You can use liquid food or I like Hikari’s First Bites. It’s a powdered food that you release in the water that’s easy for little mouths. I would also change 10% of the water each day because that tank will get dirty from the excess feedings and lots of babies.
The next month it will be okay to put the next mother in the fry tank to birth. The fry by then from the previous month will be too big for the birthing mother to eat.
Good luck : )
Because Mollies and Platies are live bearers they will do it all on their own and most people have more of a problem stopping them from breeding.
Mollies- Healthy mollies give birth every 8 weeks. You should try to seperate your expectant mollies about 2 weeks before it gives birth or it may give birth prematurely. In the maternity tank you should add some Java moss(java fern) and/ or Water Sprites. Water Sprites grow lots of tiny rootlets that your little molly fry can hide in. You can also put these plants in your normal 30 gallon if you don’t want to go through the trouble to seperate pregos, or if you’re afraid you might have a molly give birth without you knowing. Molly fry will eat the powdered dry food, (http://www.hikari.info/tropical/t_13.html) newly hatched brine shrimp ( live or frozen) and microworms. Instead of feeding them big helpings once a day with periods of fasting you should feed them small helpings throughout the day. You can also add snails incase you overfeed.
Platies- Mostly everything is the same with Platies as Mollies except that they give birth every 6 weeks. When you see a gravid spot (which is really the fry’s eyes developing) you should seperate your platy to the maternity tank.
What do u think is the best food for fry and how much do they eat!