Molly Fish - Beginner Care Guide – breeding & feeding

Molly fish, or just mollies, are freshwater fish from the genus Poecilia, in the Poeciliidae family. These fish are native to the Americas, but their habitat can vary significantly. They are a very popular group of fish. Most species are hardy and easy to care for, making them great for beginners. They work well in peaceful community aquariums. If kept in a healthy environment, a group of mollies will thrive and can live up to 5 years. They are a peaceful bunch most of the time but can show signs of aggression when crowded or surrounded by aggressive tank mates. Therefore, it’s important that their tank is big enough, and that they have suitable tank mates. There are lots of molly fish varieties. The main differences are colors and patterns, and sizes and shapes can differ too.
1. Short-finned molly or common molly
2. Black molly
3. Black molly
4. White molly
5. Golden molly
6. Balloon molly
7. Lyre tail
8. Dalmatian molly
sexual maturity and male-female difference
an interesting experience to know the molly fish gender. Firstly, make sure that mollies are mature enough in order to identify their gender because mollies usually don’t display gender at an early age. Let the molly fish fry grown up to mature fish for at least a few months. After when they reached the age of maturity you can identify their gender on the base of 5 signs.
1. Color
2. Size & Shape
3. Dorsal Fin
4. Anal Fin
5. Behavior

tank requirements
A molly fish needs at least a 10-gallon aquarium. This size would be depending on the species – larger mollies like the Sailfin will need a 30-gallon tank. Each additional molly will need around 3 gallons to live comfortably. A tropical fish like this needs a heater in the tank to maintain temperatures of 72-78°F. Keep pH between 6.7 and 8.5, and hardness between 20-30 KH.
tank mates
As peaceful fish, they don’t cause many problems, so they go great with other peaceful species in a community aquarium.
Some good choices include Cherry Barbs, Corydoras Catfish, Danios, Dwarf Gourami, Harlequin Rasbora, Platies, Rosy Barbs, Tetras, Yo-yo Loaches, and Zebra Loaches.
There are lots more to choose from, most small peaceful community fish will be fine.

Fish to avoid are large or aggressive. Large fish will try to eat your mollies, aggressive ones may attack and stress them out to the point of death. As an example Cichlids. Some cichlids aren’t a problem though, like Angelfish.
food
As omnivores, there are lots of different food types that you can feed them. In the wild, they’d eat small invertebrates, but mainly plants and algae. There are many similar foods to give them in an aquarium.

Algae is a big part of their diet, they use their lips to scrape it from surfaces. Vegetation is important too, you can use small pieces of green vegetables from your kitchen. Lettuce, spinach, and zucchini are all good options to drop into your aquarium. You can even use them to make your own homemade fish foods.

Artificial foods like flakes and pellets are an easy option. Try to supplement these with other foods to provide a wide range of nutrients.

Live and frozen foods are excellent sources of protein. Bloodworms and brine shrimp will be happily accepted, but most other options work well too. Live foods are more interesting for the fish come feeding time too.

Feed them small amounts twice a day. This gives their digestive system a chance to process the food. Give them as much as they can finish in two minutes.
breeding of molly fish
Mollies are livebearers, which means their eggs develop inside their body so that live fry can be released. They are one of the easiest fish groups to breed in captivity and will mate regularly.

Raising the temperature slightly could help to initiate mating, but don’t go higher than 78°F. Males perform a courting display for the females when the female is ready to mate she will allow the male to fertilize her eggs. Sometimes the male tries to “sneak-copulate” where he approaches an unaware female from behind.

Females often choose to mate with the largest males. and guppies and mollies can also breed with each other.
After fertilization, it will take 35-45 days before the young are released. Larger females could release up to 100 juveniles.

The young need to be separated from the adults or they will get eaten. One option is to put pregnant mollies in a breeders box before they give birth, the young are free to leave the box through small holes but the adults stay trapped.

You can feed them foods like broken flakes or live feed until they’re big enough to eat the same foods as the adults. At this point, they can be mixed back in with them.

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