I would like to get some opinions on whether this plan of mine is feasable, or just hopeful thinking.

I'm setting up a 30 gallon hex tank as a molly species tank. My plan is to decorate it quite heavily with wood, some rock, and an abundance of plastic plants of all sizes, including covering most of the bottom with short (fake) breeding grass.

Essentially I would like them to breed and have a healthy portion of the fry grow up without having to separate them. I would like them to breed at a rate that allows me to use them as food for my Jaguar Cichlid. They will only be a side dish to his staple diet of pellets, and not the main course.

It will be filtered by a sponge filter.

Do you think this will work? Any changes you might make to make it work better? Am I out of my mind? Any questions?

Thanks for your help!

getting them to breed should be no problem. like all livebearers, they breed like rabbits. sounds like a good setup. fry can survive without being separated (and i have ten that i didn't separate who have grown faster than the ones put in a different tank to prove it), provided they have plenty of place to hide. lots of plants and wood or rocks is a great idea. they also hide well in teh gravel, you just have to be careful when you do a gravel vacuum (though in my fry tank, which is just for fry, i don't use gravel, easier to clean up after the multi feedings). feed them crushed up flakes a couple of times a day. sponge filter sounds good.
do mollies really make good feeders?

Thanks for the response

OK, I came up with a few more questions

-do you think they can breed at a rate enough to feed the fish?
-I'm thinking of going with 3 males and 6 females, is this too many for that tank?
-how do you feel about adding salt? If they need it I don't mind adding it, but I try to mess with water parameters whenever possible.

I've decided on mollies for feeders because they grow larger then guppies, and the.y look nice - I want this tank to look good as it will be in plain view near the other Jaguar tank.

This post has been edited by thecichlidaddict: Nov 21 2003, 07:06 PM

okay, they breed fairly quickly. it may take a month or two initially, but if you buy a prego one that will start you off nicely. they usually will drop fry about every 60 days or so (the usual pregnancy lasts aroudn 30 days (4 weeks), but can last a little longer). the ratio shoudl be at least two females to every one male, more are fine too (will increase your rate of fry taht way), so you've decided right. mollies, i assume these are the regular and not lyretail, get arun 1.5 to 2 inches, so 9 fish times 2 equal 18 inches, in a 30 gal. fine. saving room for fry. keep in mind they can drop as many as 30-40 fry ina batch (though sometimes in the first batch they may only have 10 or so), so make sure you have heavy filtration to keep up with the load, and keep the tank clean. mollies are heavy poopers, so keep that in mind. i use a turkey baster and every day or so i go in and suck up visible poo in addition to a weekly gravel vacuum. you'll find that they are actually pretty good little algae eaters (when tehre are small amounts), that they love flakes with spirulina in them (mollies like greens), and that they will actually go down to the gravel and clean up some of the flakes they missed (though they don't always get it all.....). mine also love shrimp pellets.
about the salt. most mollies these days are kept freshwater. some places do still sell them as brackish. you'll need to find out how the lfs keeps them. if they keep them fw, you need to, if they keep 'em brackish, you'll need to do that. they won't acclimate well from one to the other and you may end up losing them months down the road if you switch. i don't use salt as mine were bought fw and they are doing swimmingly

I tiny bit of salt never hurts
I add just a bit every water change and I havent lost a tropical yet! (knock on wood)

Wise observations! It is true ,In my case they grow faster without being separated from their mothers