ok what? really confused about male fish which was apparently female.

[Britt20]

So that male molly that I said I had has turned into a girl and is dead With 2 babies maybe more swimming in my tank. I am really confused. He was bigger in size longer than the other female was... so I figured that he was a male, but apparently I was wrong and now I have a dead fish and and only baby fish in my tank. So how long does it take to determine the sex for baby fish? I got home from work just now and went and saw my fish dead. Looked closer and saw a couple of babies swimming and living.

 

[Ulan]

With livebearers, it's usually the females that are much bigger than the males, sometimes double the size. I don't know about how long it takes till you can sex mollies, but I suppose it takes a few weeks until you'll be able to see a gonopodium.

 

[webcricket]

You should be able to start to sex them when they reach 3/4" to 1" in size. How long it takes them to get to that size depends on your tanks conditions. The best conditions for growing fry fast are in a tank set at 80-82 degrees temperature, fry fed 4 to 5 times daily, and large water changes several times a week to keep water quality optimal. That said, they will also grow more slowly in a regular community tank.

With my platies (another liverbearer), I have had fish take as long as 8 to 12 months to develop a gonopodium and become sexually mature males - prior to that, they looked just like the females.

 

[Britt20]

well the only fish in this tank now are are approximately 10 babies if not more then what I have noticed so far. The mother died after having them. This fish was pregnant longer then the other female that had the one baby. I also noticed that they range in size from being tiny to a bit bigger why is that? and what do you mean by large water changes? how much more then the usual 10 to 20% water change?

 

[Britt20]

Whats a decent amount of water to remove when doing a water change with fry in tank? Are they going to get freaked out if I take out too much or will they be fine

 

[webcricket]

A large water change would be in the 40-50% range. This is what I do on all my tanks weekly. I'd say on a fry tank you should be aiming for at least 30% weekly or more. This is assuming your tap water pH does not differ drastically from your tank water pH, and that you don't get a huge temperature fluctuation when adding new water. If the pH and temp are too different, yes, the fish may become stressed. In that case you would be better off with several small changes during the week.