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1. How to Breed Mollies.
Mollies are a good fish to start learning about breeding fish. You can raise a few baby fish in your aquarium. Mollies are the easiest fish to breed, and you can quickly learn a lot about breeding fish by breeding Mollies.
All Mollies are the same species, so all the various colors and shapes of Mollies are the same species, and any female can breed with any male. For example a Gold Sail Fin Male Molly can breed with a Dalmatian Pot Belly Female Molly, even though their shapes and colors are very different.
Almost all female Mollies are pregnant. The females are usually plumper than males, and you can determine the gender of Mollies by the shape of their anal fins.
Mollies are livebearers, which means the female Mollies do not lay eggs, like most female fish, but release live baby fish.
Here is a list of conditions that will help your female Molly produce babies.
1. Mollies do not do well in fish bowls and small aquariums. They need an aquarium with at least 15 gallons of water and 29 gallons is much better. Be sure the aquarium has good water.
2. Mollies like warm water at about 78 to 82 degrees F. So your aquarium should have an Aquarium Heater.
3. Add one Tablespoon of Aquarium Salt per each five gallons of aquarium water. So for example, add 3 Tablespoons of Aquarium Salt to a 15-gallon aquarium and 6 Tablespoons to a 29-gallon aquarium.
4. Feed your female Molly lots of good food including floating flake food and freeze dried blood worms. If you can obtain live or frozen brine shrimp, feed her a few of them each day. If you can get live Black Worms, feed her about three live Black Worms each day.
5. Change 20% of the water in her aquarium each day.
6. Be sure your female Mollie is not being stressed by other fish, such as being chased and annoyed by a male or several male Mollies. Remove the males or be sure there are lots of female Mollies and just a few male Mollies.
With all of these conditions most female Mollies will release babies about once a month. Female Mollies can deliver several batches of babies without a male in the aquarium. So once your female Molly is pregnant, you don't really need a male Molly for several months, and male Mollies will often annoy female Mollies.
If you want to have a few baby Mollies, get two or three plump female Mollies. If you want to have lots of baby Mollies, get at least three male Mollies and about twice as many female Mollies. Each adult Molly will need about 3 to 5 gallons of water. So 8 adult Mollies will need an aquarium with about 24 to 40 gallons of water.
How can you tell when your female will release babies? That is very difficult to describe, but you can learn by watching your females, and after they have released babies a few times, you will be able to recognize the change in a female's appearance a few days before she releases babies.
When your female Molly is big and looks like she’s about to release babies, gently move her to another aquarium or put her in a contraption to protect her babies, so they will not be eaten by larger fish.
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