mollie info

Question
Hi! I need a little help. I have been breeding guppies for almost two years now. about two months ago i put them in a small tank to sex them. sadly, i forget things super easy. so i forgot to put them back in their tank. today, i cleaned out their cage and put them back in. they all died shortly after. i belive it was because of the ammonia levels in the tank. i will NEVER make that mistake again.i've decided to start breeding mollies instead. the thing is that i do not know as much about mollies as i do about guppies, so i would like to know a little about them. such as: How do you breed them, how do you tell if a mollie is pregnant,and how can you sex them. if you have answers and more info please mail me back.
thank you so much!!!:) INSPECTORA

Answer
Hi Inspectora;

Breeding mollies is very much the same as breeding guppies. They just need more room than guppies do. Mollies should be in a tank no smaller than a 20 gallon because of their potential size as adults, about 4 inches. If you are wanting to breed the sailfin variety of mollies, they especially need more room because they get even bigger, over 5 inches.

To sex mollies, look at the bottom rear fin, the "anal fin" near the vent. The male's anal fin is pointed and usually held closer to the body. The female's is usually fanned out but sometimes she will hold it close to the body too so you have to watch for a few minutes to be sure. In babies and juveniles they all look like females until they become sexually mature. It's the same method in platies and swordtails too. Here is a link to a page with a photo of a male and female platy so you can see what I'm talking about;

http://www.fishforever.co.uk/livebearers.html

There's good info on that page about breeding too so you might want to check it over. Good luck, and most of all....Have fun!

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins