my sailfin mollies

4 posts

Discuss all topics related to freshwater and planted tanks.


jliddiard09
 
Posts: 14
Joined: Thu May 21, 2009 2:34 am

my sailfin mollies

by jliddiard09

My mollies have been doing some crazy dancing lately. I wanted to know if it was a mating thing. The white mollie sits still and its verticle, while the yellow mollie with its top fin all the way swims around the white mollie really fast. Does anyone know what this is about? It would be a big help

Thanks
jliddiard09


yasherkoach
 
Posts: 1306
Joined: Sat Jul 26, 2008 1:24 pm

by yasherkoach

sounds like mating...platies are very similar to mollies. I have a slew of platies.

Platies will find one female platy it likes, and court her. He will follow her around the tank. She may play coy as he spins about her.

Mollies are livebearers which mean, their fry are born live. You will eventually have baby fry, and most will probably be eaten by the parents - this is normal unless you separate the female in time in a breeder tank - but some will survive, and in time, you will have many mollies.

Suggesstion, Mollies like aquarium salt, about 1 teaspoon of aquarium salt per gallon for best health. Be sure it is aquarium salt it can't be table salt that humans like.

Anyway, enjoy the dance of courtship


jliddiard09
 
Posts: 14
Joined: Thu May 21, 2009 2:34 am

by jliddiard09

ok my mollies have been doing this for like three weeks now....and i have a breeder tank....so what should i do?


yasherkoach
 
Posts: 1306
Joined: Sat Jul 26, 2008 1:24 pm

by yasherkoach

The pointed anal fin and much larger dorsal fin on the male, and the rounded anal fin and pregnancy spot on the female differentiate the two

The Black Sailfin Molly is a livebearer that requires a spawning box in a large 25 gallon, or larger breeding tank

Female mollies get very fat when they have babies inside. You can tell when she's ready to deliver the babies when she hides more than usual, and her belly develops a "boxy" look to it. The botton of the largest part of her belly and the sides become flattish.

If you want the babies to survive you could either separate the mother ahead of time or just add lots of bunches of live plants to the tank for the babies to hide in. If you decide to separate the mother, move her out of the baby tank once she has had them.

After dropping the fry the mother can be removed so the fry are separated from the rest of the tank by the breeding net. Along the same lines the mother and fry can be placed in a separate aquarium so the mother can be separated from the fry when they are born. Breeding traps are also utilized which keep the mother confined with a grating that the fry can pass through.

The fry can be fed baby brine shrimp.

The red platies I have, which are also livebearers, I always let the fry be born in the main tank. So it is your choice.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask. Hope this helps

my sailfin mollies

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