Birth of Molly Fish Babies????

Question

Pregnant Molly   Hi!!  This is my first time here.  I have a beautiful Tuxedo Gold Nugget molly, I am pretty sure she is pregnant as her belly is pretty big.  Anyhow I wondered if there where any obvious signs of her about to have her babies that I can look out for.  It is her first batch of babies, I always find it hard to predict the first batch. My other fish I just use my calendar and put them in the baby tank every 4 weeks.  Right now she spends a lot of time hiding in the plants, sometimes I can't find her she hides so well.  I also noticed she has this white tube like thing that pokes out just a little bit from the anal area.  I have read somewhere that is the tube the babies go down when they are being born, but I am not 100% sure about that.  Any advice would be appreciated.  Thank you in advance Jacquie

Answer
Hi Jacquie,
Indeed!  What a pretty little girl! :-)

She is definitely close to having her babies. If the baby tank is roomy enough I would try to put her in now. It can be very hard to predict when a molly is going to give birth. Sometimes they don't show very obvious signs/symptoms. The little white tube is most definitely her 'birthing' tube. Since that is showing, I can bet she is extremely close!

Sometimes pregnant mollies who are about to have their fry will get a semi square shape to their belly when viewed from above. And most females will isolate themselves from the others just before giving birth.

Good luck with your molly! And I hope this helps!!
Susan~