Babies!

[dirtydogg]

I just set up my first tank about three days ago, and purchased a few new fish. Already one of my black mollys has had babies! So far I've been able to count about four of them. This happend so fast that I am completely un-prepared for this. I do not yet have a breeder tank and my Tiger Barbs are now chasing the babies around .
Um I was wondering if there would be anyway to cycle a very small tank quick enough in order to give theses little guys a chance?
Right now the ones that I've found are hiding in spaces between the substrate(Medium sized river rocks). I know that they will not do well in that sort of situation. If anybody has any suggestions I'd love to hear them.

P.S. I am also taking this as a good sign that the fish are probably comfortable with the setup I've provided for them.(I think that's a good usumption)

Thanks in advance,
D

 

[yhbae]

Do you have an additional filter handy? If so, plug that into your main tank and let it run for a day or so. At the same time, fill up your new fry tank with water from your old tank (heater set to same temperature). Catch the frys and put them into the new tank if you can catch them. One day isn't going to kill them as they produce very little waste at this point. After one day, you can plug that new filter into your new tank.

I have done that multiple times before and worked for me... But these days I take an easier route - all of my small tanks are filtered using Aqua Clear Mini so the sponge media can be transferred from a tank to a tank so cycling is completely unnecessary. Even my larger tanks have an additional AC Mini on them...

 

[dirtydogg]

Thanks for the quick reply, I'll start that in the morning.
One more question though.
how long should fry stay isolated?
as in how long until molly fry are large enough to fend for themselves.

Thanks again.

 

[yhbae]

At least for platy fry, when they hit about 1/2 inch, they seem to be ok. I have a tank mixed fry, ranging from 1/2 inch up to 2 inches. I would say after about 1 month, you are safe.