Mollies
| Scientific Name | English Common Name | French Common Name |
|---|---|---|
| Poeciliidae latipinna | Balloon Molly | Molly ballon |
Poecilia sphenops
Poecilia velifera
Mollies are an important part of the livebearers, fish that give birth to swimming fry. In general, a molly will prefer harder and more brackish water than most of the others in its category.
Many have been successfully used as the first fish when starting out a new marine aquarium. They do prefer a bit of salt in their water, and do much better when it is present.
The molly, like the rest of the livebearers, such as guppies, platies and swordtails often do best when kept in trios. There should be at least two females for every male. Adult males are always ready to spawn, and their constant attention, if directed only at a single female can often wear her out.
When there are more than one female in the aquarium, the male's attention is usually split and both get more time to rest and recover from his attentions.
Sexing a molly is quite easy since, like other livebearers, the male has developed a specialized fin termed the gonopodium, which is used to pass sperm packets to the female.
This is a long thin fin carried about midsection of the fish and will swing out and over toward the female during courtship and spawning.
The female has a triangular fin that is noticeably different from the male and is easy to see. Also, in the majority of cases, the female will be much less colourful and usually smaller than the male as well.
As a pregnancy progresses, the female will form an obvious extended belly and will give birth to fry about three eighths of an inch in smaller varieties. These are dropped as a ball and rapidly stretch out and look for cover immediately.
There should be plenty of floating and densely leaved plants in the place of birth so the fry can find a place to hide as quickly as possible. They are ready to eat immediately.
In most community aquariums, it is best to separate the mother just before giving birth to allow the fish to have a chance to grow and evade capture by other tank-mates.
The very best place is a small separate aquarium filled with lots of leafy plants. If a second fish tank is not available, there are a number of breeder traps that will allow the newly hatched fry to fall though to a false bottom and be protected from any predation.
In fish that grow this large, however, a separate breeding and fry tank is highly recommended to reduce as much stress for both the mother and the newborn fry.
There are quite a number of colour variations, golds, whites, blacks and most of the rainbow can be seen in the assorted types of sold here at the six locations of Centre d'Animaux NATURE Pet stores.
Other differences have also been obtained though careful breeding. We offer the popular standard finned fish along with lyretails, balloon and sailfin mollies for your aquarium.
Mollies have so many colours and shapes, if you are keeping a community aquarium, there should be one that will suit your preferences.
