Babies! - Omg! - Where Did They Come From!

[NewDad]

Hi All,

not too sure if I'm posting to the correct section or not, please feel free to move if i am...
I very new to the hobby, I was given a BiOrb for Christmas and it took me at least 3 months to get the water right! Anyhoo, 2 weeks ago I bought 5 Dalmatian Mollies from the fish shop and this morning, I have 5 baby mollies swimming around! So, I'm a bit stuck. what do i do with them? leave them in the tank, take them out, take out the 5 adults..

I know the info is probably in the forum somewhere but I've got a bit of new dad syndrome - PANIC!!!!!!

Any pointers, very happily received.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Paradise3]

Hi and welcome to the forum.
Congrats.
Well, you have a biorb so you can't really use a breeder net or breeder trap so try and find a small tank to separate them. Raise them somewhere separate so the adults don't eat them, even if it's a small tub till you can get a separate tank. Do daily water changes on whatever you raise them in and feed them crushed up flake. When they are big enough to go in with the adults you can put them in the main tank. You will need to sell a couple of the junior fish on when they are bigger unless you get a bigger tank because, i think you might be at your limit or at least pushing your limit with how many you already have.
I hope this made sense.

~AJ~

 

[NewDad]

Hi and welcome to the forum.
Congrats.
Well, you have a biorb so you can't really use a breeder net or breeder trap so try and find a small tank to separate them. Raise them somewhere separate so the adults don't eat them, even if it's a small tub till you can get a separate tank. Do daily water changes on whatever you raise them in and feed them crushed up flake. When they are big enough to go in with the adults you can put them in the main tank. You will need to sell a couple of the junior fish on when they are bigger unless you get a bigger tank because, i think you might be at your limit or at least pushing your limit with how many you already have.
I hope this made sense.

~AJ~

Hi there, many thanks for the advice.

Right, deistic times call fro drastic measures! My friend has a bi orb that is setup and cycled but has nothing in it (he's not got around to buying fish yet). This orb is now sitting next to mine. Am going to transfer the babies over to that. Fingers crossed they make it!

On a side note, I think I may have also just solved my over-population problem as well. While asking arond for a spare tank, I've just been offered a AquaOne 620T FREE!!! 120litres of space!

Thanks again.

 

[Paradise3]

Then i think you should be ok. That tank will have plenty of space for the mollies. Get the AquaOne 620T cycled and you can move the adult mollies across then when the babies are big enough you can move them across. Do you have a heater? For the 120L tank you will prob need a 100watt heater or something like that.

~AJ~

 

[NewDad]

Then i think you should be ok. That tank will have plenty of space for the mollies. Get the AquaOne 620T cycled and you can move the adult mollies across then when the babies are big enough you can move them across. Do you have a heater? For the 120L tank you will prob need a 100watt heater or something like that.

~AJ~

It has a 100w heater in it, really horrible pink gravel and a very bad background!. I have al sorts of thoughts about a nice sand substraight (is that ths right word?) with lots of tall plants and some drift wood. Sounds nice but will have to plan it all out, ie what other fish i can have, if they like sand etc. Have I just made this little hobby a whole lot bigger!?

 

[Twinklecaz]

Yes lol

 

[Paradise3]

Yep you have made it alot bigger!
You should be fine with sand in the tank and i think you could probably get a couple of platys, swordtails or guppies to go with your mollies in the big tank. You could even use both the BiOrbs to raise fry from the fish.

~AJ~

 

[LilyRose Tank]

hi congrats on your fry. however you will be better off putting the fry in the 120L tank once its cycled. the bioorb will prob be ok fdor a few months while they grow, but i would imagine they may need to be separated between the bio orbs, until old enough to go into the 120L. just a quick word tho...a 120L tank needs a 120/5w heater. main rule of thumb is 1w per 1L. at least thats how it seemed when i researched it. you can use a higher watt on a lower tank, but noit too much higher.
maybe you should put fry in one bioorb, the adults in another and remove fry as and when into the second bioorb until the 120L is cycled. A female molly can drop about 40 average fry every 1-2 months when a male is present, so you need to rehouse the male from the female. their anal fin looks like a gun, rather than a triangle like the girls.

 

[OldMan47]

Congrats on your new fry NewDad and welcome to the forum.
Even a fairly young person, like MissCosmo has given you very good advice. You are faced with the dilemma of what to do with your present tank setup and where to go forwards from the present situation. Your transfer of the fry delays any choices that you may need to make on the stocking of your main tank. I am also a breeder of mollies and find them to be very versatile in what you do with them. My own fry experiences are related in the thread that you can choose to read through here. It is a simple thread relating my own experiences of keeping fry from one drop to the next and the female's status at each stage of what I could observe. It no way is intended to be a "perfect" way of judging your own molly's progress. I do indeed recognize the limitations of the methods that I have used.

 

[NewDad]

Congrats on your new fry NewDad and welcome to the forum.
Even a fairly young person, like MissCosmo has given you very good advice. You are faced with the dilemma of what to do with your present tank setup and where to go forwards from the present situation. Your transfer of the fry delays any choices that you may need to make on the stocking of your main tank. I am also a breeder of mollies and find them to be very versatile in what you do with them. My own fry experiences are related in the thread that you can choose to read through here. It is a simple thread relating my own experiences of keeping fry from one drop to the next and the female's status at each stage of what6 I could observe. It no way is intended to be a "perfect" way of judging your own molly's progress. I do indeed recognize the limitations of the methodsw that I have used I do indeed recognize the limitations of the methods that I have used.

An excellent bit of information! Many thanks for that. Unfortunately I've no idea which of the 5 adults was the parent so will need to keep a close eye for one changing shape. I now know what to look for though thanks to your pictures.

 

[OldMan47]

Glad to be of some help there NewDad. I really wish I had more to add to the excellent post by MissCosmo.

 

[Paradise3]

Glad to be of some help there NewDad. I really wish I had more to add to the excellent post by MissCosmo.

Thank you! I really put an excellent post? I will soon have more mollies myself.

~AJ~

 

[NewDad]

All, thanks again for the good avise. Babies seem to be doing well and I'm still not sure how many there are! I've now taken delivery of the Aquaone 620T (bit bigger than the 35L Biorb!). I've been tryimg to plan out what I'm going to do with it but am get so confused and swamped in info so am turning to you guys again for a bit of help if thats ok.

I'm thinking i'd like a planted tank and I cant decide between sand or gravel yet... My friend says he has a load of lava rock I can use. So, have found lots of info on planting and stuff like that but am struggling to find the right info about my fish. I want to include my 15ish mollies, but what can i put with them? what plants will they benefit from best, etc

Do you guys know of any particluar sites that have fish databases or something like that - or even - is this info available right here on this board and i've not found it yet?

Any points would be great.

 

[OldMan47]

An interesting alternative, especially if you like live plants is to use the cheapest potting soil that you can find, the unenriched stuff you might use for house plants. Put a layer about 2cm deep in the bottom of the tank and wet it. Leave it overnight and then add a similar layer of well washed small gravel. The gravel keeps the soil from making a mess in the tank because the potting soil can't just float around. Plant the plants into the potting soil and finish filling the tank. If you get 4 or 5 types of plants, some will survive with no other troubles on your part to fertilize them. The small traces of various nutrients in the potting soil will carry your plants for about 5 or 6 years before it should be replaced. In the meantime, the normal feeding that you give your fish adds enough other nutrients such as nitrates to the water for the plants to grow and prosper. It is a method, called an NPT or a Walstad planted set up, that does require a fairly high light system to really do best. I have been doing that with this tank for about 3 years now to see how things develop and if it would work for me.

 

[Paradise3]

Nice tank OM47. Has that got fish in it? If it did you probably wouldn't see them very often

Missy x.