Four lots of Molly babies within a month!

Viviparous or Live bearing fish - Mollies, Platties, Guppies
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Nettes
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The first thing I should say is that I love my mollies and they are in no way a problem. But goodness gracious they are keeping me on my toes! Four lots of babies within a month: 3 lots from one female and just 1 lot from the other (she doesn't put up with his nonsense). I should add that three of those 'batches' have been within the last week and I still haven't managed to catch them all. This post isn't to ask for advice or anything like that. They have their own filtered/heated fry tank and I have a LFS who is happy to take them when they're big enough. It just gets me thinking. I adore my fish and make sure that the fry are comfortable and go to somewhere fish savvy when they're big enough. Just reflecting on how other people deal with it when they're not necessarily 'in the hobby'. I know that livebearer is in the name, but I'm starting to wonder whether the needs of livebearers in general are perhaps underestimated by the wider fishkeeping public. They get promoted as hardy, beginner fish and I'm wondering whether that can be to their detriment...
Anyway, coming back off my little tangent there, here are some of the Molly babies:
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60L - 3 adult gold mollies, 2 juvenile gold mollies, 5 bronze Corydoras

All fish being upgraded to a much bigger tank in early 2020  :shy:
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Gingerlove05
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If you’ve had 4 lots of babies in a month it will be from different females, the gestation/pregnancy period is a bit over 4 weeks ;)
I think your right in thinking that livebearers are great first fish but if your unaware of the fact they breed readily (even with other livebearers, i’ll get to that ;) )with even just one male and female or that females are generally pregnant when bought because they are kept in mixed tanks.
Like you as well we did our best to take care of the fry, which resulted in us having 350+ fry born and rehomed in just under 3 years, which was a lot of work but fun none the less :D
Here’s some pics of the platys and plattails, as we discovered platys and swordtails can cross breed (both xiphophorus species) as can molly,guppy and endler (poecilia spcies). This can have all kinds of issues of its own which again is something people aren’t normally aware of :)

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plankton
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They can release fry over a couple of days, but they are the same "batch".
Mollies are usually 6-8 weeks between fry drops. How (relatively) skinny are the females now?
The fry can start dropping after about 2 months as well as the adults, although they're normally a bit older.

With my guppies, I've just left them to balance themselves out. There's normally about 50-70 of varying sizes at any one time.
If at first you don't succeed....
...get someone else to do it! :D

Enjoy your fish, shrimps and snails!
Ian
Nettes
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Ahhh right. Plankton that makes a lot of sense and would fit in with what you and Gingerlove said about gestation times. The first lot was definitely the younger of the females. She got skinny very quickly and it was immediately noticeable. She hasn't grown much since. Based on what you said, the last '3' as I called them are likely different drops of the same lot from the other female. She was extremely large and is looking thinner, although is permanently rotund!
60L - 3 adult gold mollies, 2 juvenile gold mollies, 5 bronze Corydoras

All fish being upgraded to a much bigger tank in early 2020  :shy:
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