Expert: Chelsey - 3/30/2007

Question
I have 4 male mollies and 6 females. And the promblem is that only one of the males seem interested in the females.
Its a plain black male and it only seems interested in the black females. I have 2 female Dalmation mollies one mixed black and gold female and 3 black females. And he only seems interested in the 3 black ones. The males are a 1 mixed black and gold 2 black males but one has a yellow outline on its tail fin that is just the coloring and 1 plain gold molly.  And the other 3 males dont even seem interested in any of the females but the plain black one. Can you tell me why this is happening and tell me what to do so all of them can breed together.

Answer
((your first question)):
How do I tell if a Black molly is pregnant. I can not see the gravid spot because the fish is dark? What are the signs of when the molly is near to having birth? How long can I keep a molly in a breeding catcher? And can you send me a few pictures of a pregnant molly? If you can please send them.
((answer))
sometimes black females have white gravid spots, but sometimes they won't have any spotting.

otherways to tell are:
1) ((obviously)) a larger size. normally they are fatter in the belly area. sometimes this won't be the case becuase they are going to have a smaller litter, so they won't be as fat and it is harder to tell.
2) they do a funny "dance" where they swim in place and kind of shake. they seem very stressed out, and might swim fast into stuff. this is normal, but too much of this can be dangerous. if she is hurting herself, then take her out of the breeder net. Otherwise, she can stay in the net until she has the babies. She will eat the babies if left in there with them, so take her out once they are born.


here is a link to see a bunch of mollies. the 4th picture has a nice pregnant molly, and i think its the 19th picture that has an Excellent picture of a very pregnant female dalmation molly.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.aqualandpetsplus.com/Livebe55....
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((your second question)):
can I breed different types of mollies whith each other.
 ex.Black male blck or gold molly with female dalmation or male black or gold with female balloon molly?

(answer):

YES!! this is when breeding gets fun!
you can breed ANY type of molly with ANY other type. So a tiny little balloon molly can breed with a big sailfin, and a lyre tail can breed with a regular finned molly or a short finned molly. Any color, size, shape or anything can mix with another type. its very cool to mix different types and see what the out come will be.

Any cool type of coloration came from mixing other colors together. for example, dalmation mollies are black and white mixed.
you can get spotted, striped, faded, or a mixed solid color (for example, an orange molly mixed with a white molly could give you solid peach) by mixing them. its fun to see what you get.
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((question 3)):
I have 4 male mollies and 6 females. And the promblem is that only one of the males seem interested in the females.
Its a plain black male and it only seems interested in the black females. I have 2 female Dalmation mollies one mixed black and gold female and 3 black females. And he only seems interested in the 3 black ones. The males are a 1 mixed black and gold 2 black males but one has a yellow outline on its tail fin that is just the coloring and 1 plain gold molly.  And the other 3 males dont even seem interested in any of the females but the plain black one. Can you tell me why this is happening and tell me what to do so all of them can breed together.

(answer):
Raise your tank temperature to about 80 degrees farenheit. this should help them "get into the mood".

>>also, here's a little trick. Buy brine shrimp and feed it to them. This makes them want to breed more.

you might want to buy a few more females, maybe two. The male that is doing all the breeding might be the dominant male, so maybe adding a few more females would help. This way there would be two females per male, which is a nice balance.
hope fully that helps, they also might be breeding when you aren't looking.
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i hope all of this helps you out!! hopefully you will have some happy and healthy babies soon to come. feel free to ask future questions.

>>i answered all of your questions in one answer, and i said the other questions were repeat questions. This just makes it easier for me to answer and you to read. =]

ps. sorry it took a while to answer, my internet was down for the past few days.

bestwishes, chelsey