What Do You Do With Your Baby Mollies?

[dfield]

Hi There

What does everyone do with their molly fry??? We started off with just 2 and 48 hours after we got them, there were about 60 babies, about 20 of those survived and then they had another batch, and one of my original ones looks fit to burst again..

We tried advertising them and did get some calls, but because its collect only, I think people cant be bothered.. I was wondering about ebay on a collect only or finally the LFS has said they'd swap them for a pot of food! which hardly seems a fair trade.

Has anyone found a good way to sell their babies??? What experiences have you had?

Thanks

Denise

 

[Cazgar]

Some Lfs will take them, but I doubt you will get money for them for them as they're so plentiful.
You could try a free ad on Gumtree or the like.if you haven't got room for lots of babies, the best thing is to separate the males from the females

 

[CezzaXV]

I'd be grateful for anything the LFS would give me in exchange. Livebearing fry aren't difficult to come by at all. Hell, I'd be grateful for any LFS which was willing to take them off my hands for free!

 

[OldMan47]

Fish club auctions for all of my excess fry. I specialize in livebearers so I always have a few to ell at a club auction. The price is not great but I know the fish are going to people who will care for them properly and I end up with almost enough cash to pay for the tanks and fish food I buy at that auction. This Saturday I will be weeding my tanks and sell some plants off at our club auction as well. Maybe I will even break even for once.

 

[dfield]

thanks for all your advice.. now have some baby kribs in my other tank..

I get what you say about good homes, my fish are really well cared for and when I was thinking about selling some I did worry about them being purchased as live food for bigger fish. I'd want to make sure they were going to good homes.

There is actually (of those that are big enough to sex) 1 black male molly, all the others are female. All the fry I do have are as a result of females who were bought already pregnant from the LFS and have since carried on producing without even a single male present.

 

[fluttermoth]

Mollies (and most other livbearers) can have about six broods after they were last with a male, as they can store the sperm...

 

[the_lock_man]

the LFS has said they'd swap them for a pot of food! which hardly seems a fair trade.

Seems very generous to me, most LFS won't give you anything at all, because, as others have said, they are so easy to obtain and therefore cheap. They are doing you a favour, not the other way round.

The only way you can get proper money for breeding fish is if you have something that is both rare and in demand. Generally, if it's rare, it's not in demand, and if it's in demand, it's not rare.