Babies!

[dazhavu752]

I had two Mollies, and two tropical guppies. Two days ago I awoke to find the male guppie dead. At colser notice, the female guppie was attacking one of the Mollies. WHich later died as well that day.
When I got home last night there were four little tiny babies swimming around!
My questions are...
Could she have killed the two fish for protection over her babies?
and more importnantly
How do I care for these little ones?!
Do the need special food, special coverage? I am so new to this! NAy help or advice would be greatly appreciated!
THANK YOU!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Guppys don't care for their babys, they have them and thats that as far as they are concerned- they'll even eat them from time to time.
Mollys and guppys belong to the livebearer family which means they give brith to live young, they are sociable fish that need to be with their own kind but you should have at least 2-3females per male as the males can harrass the females alot and having lots of females in mixed gender groups helps lower aggression .
Alot of fish will bully another fish when they know it is on its way out, its more likely your female guppy finished your molly off rather than killed it when it was healthy.
Raising livebearer fry is reletavely easy, but mollys and guppys can get pregnant and deliver fry every month and guppys can produce over 40 fry a month while mollys up to a 100 every 1-2months- its very easy to get over run with livebearer fry, so while as they are very cute they can also overstock your tank within a couple of months(it only takes 3months for guppy fry to become sexually mature for example)and put everything at risk, the question is wether your tank has the extra space(or any space at all) for raising livebearer fry .
How many gallons is your tank and how long has it been set up?

 

[Annastasia]

First off, congratulations on the babies!

Toxis has covered a lot, but there are a few things I wanted to add. As she already said, Livebearers give birth very frequently, and you can easily become over-run with them. Some people raise them and give them away or sell them, and some people do survival of the fittest. The choice is your's. If you choose to raise them and sell them, you have to make sure the store you are thinking of will actually accept them. Not all stores will. Some will take them, but for pennies. And some you might just have to give them away to. Anyway, on to your second question...

In your case, you basically have two options right now.

1. Let them stay in the tank with the mother, and see how they do.
2. Or, seperate them. For now, you'd have to use a breeder net, since I doubt you have a fry tank!

If you choose the breeder net route, here is some information on that: Breeder Traps and Nets

If you plan on raising more, your best bet would be a fry tank. Which is basically a small tank where you can grow the fry up. I have written more on that here.

Another great guide that would be helpful to you is Your First Baby Fish

Read through those, and if you have anymore questions, feel free to ask! I'll be happy to answer them, and I'm sure others would too.

 

[dazhavu752]

Thank you all so much! Well for now I will be raising them and watching them! This is so exciting! This is my FIRST time owning fish, and babies at that! I am going to do all I can to keep them helathy and grow up stong!
Thank you all again!

 

[IMCL85]

hehe ur tank will be full with them in no time if u use breeding trap I once buy a pair of guppy but with in a monthes I got 30+ fry in my tank swimming arround. And I just dont know where to put them as they simply mutiply too fast. So at the end I feed them to my gold severum.