Black Molly

barebreeze · Jan 6, 2009

I have a Tank with two female black molly's. I used to have a male but he died in suspicious circumstances about 5 weeks ago. On Chritmas eve I noticed a baby in the tank, wonderful I thought, Yesterday I found a further 6 babies in the tank, Blimey I thought.... very confused. Could someone out there advise me on how to look after the babies ie. how long can they stay in the tank and is there anything else I need to do

minxfishy · Jan 6, 2009

The females will store sperm for up to 6 months I believe, so you could have more fry to come in the future. Let nature take its course really, unless you want to be swamped with fry, feed them finely crushed up flake or some liquifry. They can stay in the tank until they are large enough to be moved on/rehomed which is at a few cms I believe or you can keep them, but mollies being mollies will interbreed and you will soon run out of room for all the fish you get.

Have a good read thru the pinned topics in the livebearer section on the forum for more detailed (and probably more correct info - I dont do livebearers) :lol:

Duck and Dive · Jan 6, 2009

^ you are quite right i would just let nature take its course if you are just starting to breed them. I would only use a rearing/breeding box if you have got somewhere for the babies/adults to go, as you will end up with a lot of fish!

mireme · Jan 10, 2009

I have a Baby Molly which is about 3 or maybe more weeks old and have it in a seperate keep net. When do i release the beast?
He is about a cm long. I dont want to release him at the moment because his/her sibling got eaten straight away by the black tetras i have.

Annastasia · Jan 10, 2009

mireme said:
I have a Baby Molly which is about 3 or maybe more weeks old and have it in a seperate keep net. When do i release the beast?
He is about a cm long. I dont want to release him at the moment because his/her sibling got eaten straight away by the black tetras i have.

There is no real rule for it, but I try to guesstimate it the best I can. What other kinds of fish are in the tank you are looking at putting him into? I usually try to make sure the fry can't fit in the biggest fish's mouth, but if you have some aggressive fish, that doesn't always work.

If you only have one fry in a breeding net, you don't have to worry too much about him becoming cramped and possibly stunted. Just if it starts looking kind of tight in there, even if he still seems kind of small, I would release him and maybe put some extra plants/decorations and floating plants in the tank for him to hide in. Chances are though, he'll be fine in there until he is big enough.

mireme · Jan 17, 2009

[thanks for the reply.
I decided to keep it in the net until its about the size of the cardinals i have. Its nearly their size already.

OldMan47 · Jan 18, 2009

Molly babies will not be as fast swimming as a cardinal tetra so if the cardinal is living because it is fast you may want to wait a little longer.

mireme · Jan 21, 2009

OldMan47 said:
Molly babies will not be as fast swimming as a cardinal tetra so if the cardinal is living because it is fast you may want to wait a little longer.

My baby molly is great. I let him/her out and she is very happy swimming around and none of the other fishes care.

OldMan47 · Jan 21, 2009

The baby mollies are best cared for by feeding them a mix of both the flake that you feed to their parents and a vegetable formula flake food. They will do best in hard, high pH water but can survive in a neutral pH. Frequent water changes will help their growth but these guys are about a week old and are living with their mother in a breeding tank.

The molly female will not eat much fry as long as she is well fed, but if I put these fry in with other fish I would lose some. they are about 1cm long plus the tails.