Creamsicle Molly Babies!

[keri578]

One of my female Mollies had babies sometime in the past two days! I randomly spotted a tiny little fish swimming near the surface! I'm assuming it's a Molly and it came from one of my creamsicle Mollies since both females were pretty fat and prego looking and now one looks thinner. I have only found two babies total. I'm assuming the others were eaten They are both gray in color, about quarter inch. I've got them in a pitcher I use for water changes with plants and some sand. How often should I feed them? I have been feeding them crushed flake and crushed shrimp pellets. What is a safe size to add them to the tank? I currently have 9 other mollies (range of ages) 5 Platys, a Gourami and 2 cherry barbs.

 

[keri578]

Also any idea on what coloration they will be? I'm guessing the female was pregnant when I got her, but I have a male dalmatian and a pure white male Molly who could be the dads. The babies are both silvery dull gray in color.

 

[tmh0921]

I don't have Mollies, but I have Platties which grow at similar rates. My platties develop their color within the first week or two, with my blue platties taking the longest to color up.

I leave all of my fry in the community tank, but I've created a "nursery area" of dense plants and larger rocks for the fry to hide in. All of my female platties and guppies tend to naturally gravitate to that area to drop their fry, and the fry hang out in there until they are big enough to venture out. My oldest platty fry are about 6-7 weeks and are venturing into open water safely as they are too big to be eaten now. My oldest guppy fry are slightly older at 8-9 weeks and are still cautious about venturing too far from the nursery area...they seem to have a slower growth rate and are a bit slimmer.

Generally, you can add them back to the main tank when they are too big to fit into your largest fish's mouth and too big to get sucked into the filter intake (although I just found two live, happy, healthy platy fry in my canister filter tonight when cleaning it...they are back in with their siblings now).

*Edited to add: Yes, a good number of the fry get eaten by the adults in my community tank, but that's nature's way. I have a LFS that will take the fry I'm not going to keep, but other than that this 'nature's way' approach keeps the population under control and the smartest, strongest, and fittest fry survive.

 

[OldMan47]

Feed them daily a very small amount and expect them to grow quickly compared to many livebearers. These are a few of mine at only a few days old.