What To Do With All Those Baby Mollies?

[Lisa67]

I have 4 mollies (2 male and 2 female) in a 16 gal tank with 2 female betta. I had no idea how quickly they would reproduce. I have atleast one pregnant female. From what I've read they can give birth monthly. I have 2 other tanks full of cichlids, so no place really to keep more mollies. How many can I have in the 16 gal tank with the fish I currently have in there?

 

[Dieses Madchen]

If you don't want to keep the babies, try and get a second hand 10g tank with a filter and set up a fry tank. When the fry are big enough, you can maybe donate to the LFS or "To a good home" ad out. That's what I do with my babies. I cannot keep the fish from breeding, so I raise em and give them away for free.

 

[chickennuggets123]

Local pet stores could take them off your hands. But mine will only do it once they're fully grown.
Sell them to people, or give them away.

 

[Lisa67]

I checked into the local petstore (unfortunealy the only ones near me are Petco and Petsmart). They only buy from breeders. I don't know anyone who has a fish tank, so I guess I'll leave the pregnant female in the tank. I'm sure most of the fry will be eaten, but what are the chances of a few surviving? If a few survive each month, I could still end up with an awful lot of mollies. How many could I have in a 16 gal tank?

 

[Dieses Madchen]

I would have more than 5 mollies in 16 gallons. Put an ad on craigslist. That's what I did and the babies were gone that day to a good home. I was able to take them over the the person and see the tank they were going to. The good thing about putting an ad out is you have control over the environment they go to. My babies when to a 125g tank. The one they were in was only 40. I was able to verify water quality, as well as verify the person wasn't A.) A moron and that the babies were going to survive living there and B.) That they weren't going to be used as feeder fish.

 

[OldMan47]

I use my local club auctions as a place to move my surplus livebearers. I know that anyone there knows something about fish care and it helps me pay for fish food. This hobby can get expensive when you have 26 single species tanks running.

 

[creeker]

I use my local club auctions as a place to move my surplus livebearers. I know that anyone there knows something about fish care and it helps me pay for fish food. This hobby can get expensive when you have 26 single species tanks running.

Oldman47 has the best idea there. Plus you will meet in person some other hobbyists, without having to go to strangers homes.

 

[micko]

Its a common issue. I used to swap mine with a good LFS. Most of the LFS's wanted them only as adult, near adult fish. This one would take two week old fry off my hands and give me 25pence each which was very good I found. He would then sell them off for £1 each. Everyone was happy.

 

[OldMan47]

When I was a youngster, that 47 in my logon is my date of birth, my favorite pet shop had a tank of mixed livebearer fry that they sold for almost nothing. They simply netted any fry they saw and put them all in one tank with a very low price sticker on the tank. I would buy fry with pocket change and bring them home to raise and see what I had gotten. The LFS got a small income at no cost to them except the space in a tank and us beginners got fish we could afford even out of our small allowances. It was a win all around. By comparison, that LFS was selling fry for maybe the equivalent of 25p, using today's currency values.

 

[micko]

Sounds like it was a decent shop OldMan

 

[OldMan47]

In those days all pet shops were mom and pop setups. Big box pet shops simply did not exist. The better ones stayed in business and the poorer ones failed rather quickly. These days I still use a locally owned LFS as my main one but I have a chain big box store very near by. The big box store is fine for fish food and hardware spare parts but not much else to my way of thinking. My fish come from club auctions and a locally owned shop only. That shop actually sponsors our club, even though we hold fish auctions twice a year. They give us discount coupons to hand out to our bidders that are good on our sale day only. They figure that fish enthusiasts are their bread and butter and they stock up on hard to find fish for our auction days. It is a win for us and the LFS.

 

[Lisa67]

Wow, it's amazing to me that anyone has 26 tanks! I'm dieing to start up a 4th (discus) and I was thinking I was crazy. That's great.

 

[creeker]

Wow, it's amazing to me that anyone has 26 tanks! I'm dieing to start up a 4th (discus) and I was thinking I was crazy. That's great.

You will know when you have too many. The paint will start peeling off your walls from the humidity.

 

[OldMan47]

The answer to that is good fitting lids creeker. I do have slightly higher humidity in my home than I did without the tanks but many of mine are not heated since I focus on goodeids that require no heater. That means that evaporation is only a real problem in my big community tank that I heat to about 77F / 25C.

 

[creeker]

The answer to that is good fitting lids creeker. I do have slightly higher humidity in my home than I did without the tanks but many of mine are not heated since I focus on goodeids that require no heater. That means that evaporation is only a real problem in my big community tank that I heat to about 77F / 25C.

You're right! Most of mine had no lids. I had so many tanks I also heated the room instead of the individual tanks. Of course I was young and single then.