argh - mollie fry!

[ajhainey]

I came home three days ago and I have mollie fry in my 180l tank..argh! I don't even know which one was pregnant but I guess thats beside the point now...Most of them seemed to have succumed to 'natural selection' already but there seem to be 4 or 5 5-8mm fry still about (I have a _very_ heavily planted tank in one corner so could well be more) and I'm wondering if I need to do anything special for them? Feeding springs to mind as they are smaller than a flake and certainly aren't going to fight it out at the top of the tank with their parents at feeding time

My second problem is the tank currently has ich I'm assuming I can't treat this while the fry are so small without killling them? I have a choice of formaldyhyde+mild methylene blue, malachite green or salt based treatment if that makes any difference...

Thirdly do I have to split the fish (from same shop) up to avoid horrendous inbreeding? How do you normally avoid this in a standard one tank set-up?

Any tips appreciated - I'd love to see at least a couple of the little guys make it as they are so cute!

Thanks in advance,

aj xx

 

[SLuRpIe!]

im guessing you could crush the flakes into little flakes in yourh ands, thats what they do for feeding baby guppy... i dunno if that helps but you could try that =/

 

[canarsie11]

Sounds like you do not want the fry, so just let nature take its course, survival of the fittest!

 

[gto_cowgirl]

Well i have never had molly's but i do have guppies and guppy fry in a 5 gallon. I would think that it would be the same with mollys as guppies so i'll give you tips about what i do.

I also have a well planted tank but my guppies are slowly starting to get use to my fry because they don't chase them anymore and my fry are getting more brave to swim out.

I feed my guppies a variety of foods for the parents but with the flake i do crush it a little. Whatever the parents start chomping on will create little bits of food for the babies which the fry will eat it at the bottom of the tank or within your plant leaves. I know theres lots of little barely seeable food pieces in the plants that get caught. So if your going to leave the adults with the fry i think its fine to just feed whatever you have been feeding your adults and the babies will get their fill also.

Water changes may need to be a little different. I use a bucket so if i accidently suck up any of the fry i can get a turkey baster and squirt the fry back into the tank.

I don't know about molly fry but i do know my guppy fry have been through alot of medications including Quick Cure (Good ick medication), Melafix (finrot), coppersafe (Ick and other parasite medication) and high dosage of salt (1 tablespoon per 2.5 gallons).

A natural way to help your fish with ick is to turn off the lights for a couple of days, add 1 tablespoon of salt per 5 gallons or 10 gallons, whichever you feel more comfortable, and turning the temp up to 86. This works like a charm for my angelfish tank because i can turn the temp up to 90 but for my guppies, it doesn't because i'm to scared to turn the temp up. So for my guppies tank i use a medication called Quick Cure that you buy at Walmart. It is suppose to clear up Ick in 2 days.

 

[fruity]

One of my mollies gave birth whilst I was mid treatment for ich . I had added salt the day before and I suspect that actually gave her the boost to birth. I managed to save 4 of the babies and they are growing rapidly..... so yes, you can continue to treat for ich (I use Prozatin and salt) - however, I have now lost a guppy and two tetra through this most recent outbreak of ich (hence why I want to save the molly babies - saves buying some more fish!)