Dalmation Mollies

[Shodo]

I got two Dalmation Mollies and two Red Platies yesterday. I bought some livebearer food and it mostly floats. The platies eat it right up and go to the surface to eat. The mollies however are not catching on. I have overfed the platies twice now hoping the mollies would catch on. Do you think eventually they will catch on or should I switch food, or method of feeding?

Also I have these guys in a 10 gallon. Platies are about 1.5 inches and mollies are 2 inches long. Am I overstocked?

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Shodo.
A typical molly, regardless of color, will take any decent flake food. Livebearer mixes tend to be a bit heavier in vegetable content than other foods but that is good for a molly. Far too often they are given a diet too high in animal protein.

 

[Jenste]

you will probably have to buy a bigger tank down the road - -
mollies can get to 4 or 5 inches i believe....upgrading to a 20 gallon would help immensely.

also, what genders do you have?
livebearers should always be kept either in groups of all males, all females, or with a ratio of at least 2 females for every male.

male livebearers can try to breed with a female so much that they will exhaust and stress her to the point of death! having more females than males means their attention gets spread around, giving all the females time to rest


also, having livebearers of mixed genders means one thing - - fry, Fry, and more FRY! they will quickly overstock their own tank unless you take actions - - granted, they will eat most of their own young if you do nothing, but the few that survive will grow up just like their parents and will also have fry....see how quickly you could become overstocked?

 

[Shodo]

Thanks for the info on food OldMan47!

Jenste: I have an 18 gallon hex front I can set up later on, I just need a stand. I got all males, had mollies a year or so ago and found out the hard way how they can multiply, I moved and brought them all back to the pet store. I am enjoying these new guys very much. Thanks for all the advice

 

[Jenste]

fantastic planning on the all males!!! and the 18 gallon should be alright as long as you stock lightly

to get your mollies to feed you can also try:

a couple mashed up, boiled peas. boil them (sticking them in water in a cup in the microwave works too!), pop them out of their skin, then mash them with a fork into tiny pieces...fish LOVE peas! and it will give them more vegetable matter (obviously) and ward off constipation caused by too much freeze dried food!

you can also try tossing in a algae wafer here and there - - about once a week I toss one in my guppy tank as a feeding, and with in an hour or so they have devoured the whole thing (i have 4 guppies - - so one wafer seemed like an appropriate amount to recommend for you too with four fish )

 

[Shodo]

Awesome! I'll be blanching some peas for their next meal. Never hit me that they would eat veggies like that, will they eat homemade gel food as well?

I will look for those algae wafers next visit to the fish store. I'll let you know how the peas work out.

Thanks again