My Sailfin molly gave birth to 14 fry a week or so ago. Since then I have only lost 2 fry which I thought wasn't too bad and this was within the fist night. I have kept the other 12 in a fry net in the main tank. How long should I keep then isolated from the other fish? They are pretty small but I dont think any other of the fish are bigh enough to eat them?? Could be wrong though. Also caught the adult pair "At It" last night which was something I have never seen before. I take it I will have another lot of fry in about a months time. Do they just breed and breed over and over?

What should I do with all of these fry? Sell them on, give them away, take back to shop or let nature take its course with the next lot and leave as live food for the others? I am going to end up overstocked on them.

Also does incest affect the fish over time if they are constantly breeding with brother and sister?? I dont want weak of mutant fish.

Thanks.
Mark.

Having fry for the fist time is amazing and fun, however yes you will become overstocked quite quickly if you try to keep all the fry.

Usually after the first few batches some fry just get left in the tank to fend for themselves. This helps control the amount of babies you have to get rid of. Also the fish get free treats and food. Your mollies will breed over and over and it's pretty much a never ending cycle with livebearers.

Try selling them in the buy, sell, swap section of this forum if you can, or put an ad in your newspaper. See if friends want them as pets or if you have other people with tanks and they may be looking for fish. Try checking with your LFS to see if they will adopt them or buy them off you, it's rare that they will buy them off you.

Your best bet is if you don't want to become overstocked so quickly allow the babies to stay in the tank and the ones that live, live and the ones that don't make it will be fine.

Breeding Livebearers

Even if you take the male away, you will still have more babies. The cycle is more like, mate, store sperm, have babies, have babies, have babies, have babies...

Female livebearers store sperm inside them. One mating can result in up to seven pregnancies.