# Breeding Mollies



## 65galhex (Nov 5, 2008)

I have a 29 gal tank that is currently unoccupied and I have been kicking the idea of breeding fish for my P's. Right now the tank has gravel but I might go with play sand and a few bigger rocks as deco. no plants or anything fancy. I did a bit of research and it looks as if mollies are the way to go. Does anyone have any good suggestions, starting points, hints, etc for me? Any help is greatly appreciated.


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## BRUNER247 (Jun 2, 2010)

Get 2-3 big females & 1 male. Buy a big net & bend the handle to make a breeder net that hangs inside top of tank or a breeder box/net. When they have babies scoop em up & throw em in baby net. I get 250-300 babies every month or so from 2-3 3" mollies. You can tell when they're bout ready to have babies, they get very square looking & if they're lighter colored mollies you can actually see the babies right before she pops em out.


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## 65galhex (Nov 5, 2008)

okay cool. So as long as the net hangs in the water im fine? and what kind of mollies should I get does it matter? Will they just start to breed or do I need to encourage them somehow? How long do I keep them in the net? and what do I feed them. Thanks for the help I really apreciate it.


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## BRUNER247 (Jun 2, 2010)

They make a square breeder net that hangs on inside of tank but you can make one from a regular net. Just bend the handle so it hangs with the top of net out of water to prevent escapes. They make plastic ones also but they suk imo. Too small, pita to clean. I have blk sailfin, dalmation, & creame sicle mollies. Dalmations are the biggest I have, bout 3", others lil smaller. They'll breed on their own & can have babies a few times from one breeding. Crushed up flakes for babies, although mine usually get some leftover bbs also.baby bites ect will work also


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## 65galhex (Nov 5, 2008)

Okay, I am going to try and get something like this going this weekend. Thanks for the help. I will post updates.


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## BRUNER247 (Jun 2, 2010)

No worries. GL.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

The type doesn`t really matter but just get healthy ones and a bunch of large females. One male will gladly spawn with multiple females and like bruner said the females can store sperm so they can have a few batches of fry per spawn so a ratio of more females to males to start would help you to produce the most fry initially. In the future you will probably want to bring in some fresh fish (especially males as the females can all be siblings but a new male will prevent inbreeding and it would be easier to replace a few males then a bunch of females) so there is not continuous inbreeding. Once you get a group you could probably sell some cheaply or trade with others looking to diversify their stock so you get some fresh genetics in your group assuming you start with farily nice fish.

I would just look for some big and plump females and males since they will eventually be food. I also agree with the mesh breeder net over the plastic ones. The plastic ones look good but their circulation sucks unless you want to have to mod it with alot of tiny holes. They also usually float around while most mesh nets I bleeive have bracketes to hook to the tank rim. They should start breeding by themselves with little stimulation. It may take abit at first to start but then you should get a farily constant supply. You may also want to go bare bottom (BB is the easiest if you want just a feeder tank/breeding tank and don`t want this as a show/display tank) for easier cleaning though you may still want some easy to clean decor for the small ones to hide in.


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## 65galhex (Nov 5, 2008)

Going with the net idea sounds like it will be the best option for me to go. That is a good call on looking at changing out the males every so often in order to switch up genetics. Would the hastle of taking all the gravel and what not out of the tank be worth the effort vs just keeping it in there? If having a bb tank will give better results then count me in, if not, I would prefer to leavie it as is.

How long do the fry have to stay in the net? I have not had specific breeder fish so I am still relatively new to this.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

BB just makes cleaning easier as pretty much all debris would be sucked up by the filter. It doesn't look as good but it is alot easier to keep a BB tank clean with a good filter. You can keep gravel but like other tanks you will just have to clean the gravel periodically. The net just keeps them safer to grow so the adults don't eat them. TH longer in the net the better. If you add some decor for the babies you could see if they last in the big tank. You bay also want somethign over your fitler intake so you don't suck up fry. You could do something like a couple smaller breeder nets for the prego females then mayby divide the tank to keep the fry and small fish safe away from the adults in their own portion of the tank then just move then to the adult section when they are large enough. You can leave the fry in with the adults if they can hide though they could potentially get eaten by other adults.


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## 65galhex (Nov 5, 2008)

Sounds good to me, I have a few old nets with holes in them from my reds when I moved so I can use those to cover the intake of the filter. There are a few spots in the tank for the tinier fish to kiind of hide out.


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## BRUNER247 (Jun 2, 2010)

Floating plants like sprite works awesome for babies to up on top of. Some dense floating plastic would work also.


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## 65galhex (Nov 5, 2008)

Good call I would not have thought of that. What kind of plastic do you mean?


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## BRUNER247 (Jun 2, 2010)

Plastic plants. Or live floating ones. Gives babies cover to hide in from adults fish. Hobby lobby has all kinds & cheap too. Can get a 6'long bushy plant for like 10$


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