When working out if your Molly fish is pregnant, it can become Stressful and worrying. This quick guide should ease these feelings, explaining the first signs of pregnancy and what you need to do. Also helping you make those important decisions which need are made along the way. Many people panic and think their fish are dying as they are unsure with what’s going on but you won’t be this person no more. Once you've worked out the early signs and things to be done, it should become an enjoyable experience.

There are a few common things which you need to keep an eye out for:

• Swelling of the belly
• Shyness
• Over eating

These 3 things together will tell you that your fish is pregnant. With Mollies being live bearers there'll give birth to live young. Deciding if you’re going to create a breeding tank or using a breeding net is an essential decision. This need to be thought about when you discover your molly is pregnant.

You can keep your Molly in the main aquarium and leave nature to take place but you will lose at least half of your fry. To increase their chances you can place extra plants, rocks or even bogwood inside. This will give them places to hide away to stop being eaten.

Breeding tank

If you choose a breeding tank, this needs to be set up ready to go. Just like another aquarium, you will only need the essentials inside such as:

• A heater
• Sponge Filter even biological if you can
• A small bit of decor

You can add extra decor giving more places for the mother and eventually baby fry to hide. Remember the fry will grow up in this tank. It could be a couple of months before there ready to move into the main aquarium. You want to transfer your mother molly over as soon as you realise her becoming pregnant, too much stress can cause her to abort. So be careful, I normally catch her in a beaker rather than using a net. This will decrease the stress involved with transferring fish. As soon as she's given birth you want to remove her back to the community as she will eat her fry.

Breeding net

Having a breeding net can save setting up another tank but you could lose fry. With breeding nets they often don't get enough water flow through, which can cause death. So you will need to place it close to your inlet achieving a nice steady flow. Adding in a moss ball will give the fry places to hide also something to eat in those first few days. When your fry start to grow they need somewhere to go and my opinion placing them in the main tank from a breeding net is too soon.

Of course, this is just a brief insight into pregnant molly fish. There is plenty more information to help you along the way. Breeding mollies is fun and rewarding but remember that they breed quickly so before long you may find that you're over run with them.