This page contains information about how to get started breeding tropical fish and raising the baby fish. In particular this page discusses breeding Mollies and then links to other web pages that discuss how to breed Convict Cichlids and an interesting little African Mouth Brooding Cichlid.

All Mollies are the same species, so all the various colors and shapes of Mollies are the same species, and any female can breed with any male. For example a Gold Sail Fin Male Molly can breed with a Dalmatian Pot Belly Female Molly, even though their shapes and colors are very different.

Almost all female Mollies are pregnant. The females are usually plumper than males, and you can determine the gender of Mollies by the shape of their anal fins. Click here for more information about how to determine the gender of Mollies.

Mollies are livebearers, which means the female Mollies do not lay eggs, like most female fish, but release live baby fish.

Here is a list of conditions that will help your female Molly produce babies.

1.  Mollies do not do well in fish bowls and small aquariums. They need an aquarium with at least 15 gallons of water and 29 gallons is much better. Be sure the aquarium has good water. Click here for more about good aquarium water.

2.  Mollies like warm water at about 78 to 82 degrees F. So your aquarium should have an Aquarium Heater. Click here for more about Aquarium Heaters and Thermometers.

3.  Add one Tablespoon of Aquarium Salt per each five gallons of aquarium water. So for example, add 3 Tablespoons of Aquarium Salt to a 15-gallon aquarium and 6 Tablespoons to a 29-gallon aquarium. Click here for more information about Aquarium Salt.

4.  Feed your female Molly lots of good food including floating flake food and freeze dried blood worms. If you can obtain live or frozen brine shrimp, feed her a few of them each day. If you can get live Black Worms, feed her about three live Black Worms each day. Click here for more about live Black Worms. Click here for more about Feeding Fish.

5.  Change 20% of the water in her aquarium each day. Click here for more about changing water in aquariums.

6.  Be sure your female Mollie is not being stressed by other fish, such as being chased and annoyed by a male or several male Mollies. Remove the males or be sure there are lots of female Mollies and just a few male Mollies.

With all of these conditions most female Mollies will release babies about once a month. Female Mollies can deliver several batches of babies without a male in the aquarium. So once your female Molly is pregnant, you don't really need a male Molly for several months, and male Mollies will often annoy female Mollies. Click here to see the types of Mollies for sale at this web site.

If you want to have a few baby Mollies, get two or three plump female Mollies. If you want to have lots of baby Mollies, get at least three male Mollies and about twice as many female Mollies. Each adult Molly will need about 3 to 5 gallons of water. So 8 adult Mollies will need an aquarium with about 24 to 40 gallons of water.

How can you tell when your female will release babies? That is very difficult to describe, but you can learn by watching your females, and after they have released babies a few times, you will be able to recognize the change in a female's appearance a few days before she releases babies. 

When your female Molly is big and looks like she’s about to release babies, gently move her to another aquarium or put her in a contraption to protect her babies, so they will not be eaten by larger fish.

Click here to see a picture of two Aquarium Net Breeders that have been assembled and attached to an aquarium.

The second type of contraption is made of solid plastic and has an upper space for the female. There is a second space below and a slotted divider between the upper space and the lower space. The slots are small enough to keep the female out of the lower space, but big enough to allow the babies to fall through to the lower space, after the female releases them.

3. She won't Release her Babies?
Here are three things you can do to gently encourage her to release them.

(1)  Change 20% of the water in her aquarium each day. Click here for more about changing water in aquariums.

(2)  Increase the temperature of the water by 2 degrees F. So for example, if the temperature is 78, increase it to 80 degrees. This requires only a very slight turn of the dial on the aquarium heater. Do not increase the temperature above 82 degrees F. Click here for more information about how to adjust an aquarium heater.

(3)  Feed your Molly female more good food. Feed her floating flake food and freeze dried blood worms. If you can obtain live or frozen brine shrimp feed her a few of them each day. If you can get live Black Worms, feed her about 3 live Black Worms each day. Click here for more about live Black Worms. Click here for more about Feeding Fish.

These changes will also encourage other types of livebearer females, such as Guppies, Platies, and Swordtails, to release their babies too.

How many Babies will She Release?
The number of babies varies. The first time a female releases babies, she will usually have only 12 to 30. It may take her a few hours to release the entire batch of babies, and some of these babies may still be eggs or even stillborn.

Often a Female Molly will still look very round, after she has released her entire batch of babies, because she may still be full of fertilized eggs, that will soon begin to develop into more babies.

About a month later she should release another batch with about 50% more babies, even if there is no male Molly in the aquarium, because a female Molly can retain many fertilized eggs in her body for several months.

So a female Molly can release babies each month for about five or six months. Then she may be depleted of fertilized eggs. At which time you could put her back in an aquarium with a male Molly. Very large older female Mollies can release hundreds of babies at one time.

After she releases her babies, remove the female Molly from the contraption. Leave the baby Mollies in the contraption and feed them powdered flake food. There is an explanation below about how to make powdered food for baby Mollies.

We are often asked how soon can the baby Mollies be released from the protective contraption, but the rate of growth of baby Mollies and most other types of fish depends on the water quality, the water temperature, the amount of food, the quality of the food, and many other factors. So it is not possible to say how many days the babies should stay in the contraption.

But we can say that generally it is safe to release the baby Mollies, after they have doubled in length. So take note of the length of the baby Mollies, when they are a day or two days old, and later you can safely release them from the contraption after they have doubled in length. At that length they will be able to swim fast and avoid being eaten by most of the large fish.

Click here to see the list of currently available Mollies in our facilities.

4. How to Make Powdered Food
for Baby Mollies and some other types of baby fish. Put 1 or 2 tablespoons of flake food in a plastic bag. Make sure the bag doesn't have too much air inside, then tightly seal the bag with a rubber band. Squeeze the bag between your fingers to mash the flakes inside the bag into a powder. It may take you 10 or 15 minutes to mash all the flakes into powder.

It's difficult to get a small amount of the powdered food out of the bag and into the aquarium. Here's another hint. Use a toothpick. Dip just the tip of the toothpick into the water. Then wipe the tip off with your finger, so it's just moist. Dip the moist toothpick into the powdered food in the plastic bag. A very small amount of the powder will stick to the end of the toothpick.

Just touch the tip of the toothpick to the surface of the water above the baby fish and watch them eat. They'll need several feedings each day. When your baby fish have grown to double their original length, they can usually be released from the breeding contraption into the aquarium with the other fish.

This method of preparing food for baby fish will produce a fine powder, that many baby fish can eat. But some baby fish are too small to eat this powder. For example, baby Angel Fish are too small to eat this powder.
 
Many newly hatched baby fish, like Angel Fish, are too small to eat this sort of powdered food and need to eat newly hatched baby brine shrimp for a few days, before they can start eating powdered food. Click here to learn more about baby brine shrimp.

Some other baby fish, like Baby Bettas, are even smaller. In fact they are too small to eat the newly hatched baby brine shrimp. So Baby Bettas must eat infusoria, which is the name for the very small life forms that live in pond water. After a week or ten days baby Bettas can start eating the powdered food, and then they will begin to grow much faster.

5. When do you release the babies?
from the baby-saver contraption? The rate of growth of baby fish varies. Warmer water, more food, higher quality food, less stress, and many other factors can increase the rate of growth of baby fish, and so the rate of growth will vary. But you can usually release baby fish after they have doubled in length from the time they were born.

So look carefully at your baby fish, when they are born. After they have doubled in length, they will usually be able to swim fast enough to avoid being eaten by other fish, and so they can safely be released into the aquarium.

Raise another kind of fish?
You could raise another kind of livebearer, such as Swordtails, Guppies, or Platies. They are fun and interesting, and slightly different from Mollies, so you'd learn a few new things about breeding and raising fish. But you'll learn a lot more about breeding fish by trying a completely different kind of fish. We recommend you try to breed Convict Cichlids.