Help Me, Dear God One Of My Mollies Had Babies!

[electrikrainb0w]

So I got some new fish recently, in particular a balloon belly molly and lyretail molly which, as you guys know, have live babies. Today I got home and looked in the aquarium and saw some strange things at the top I thought at first were bubbles, and then quickly realized were eight baby fish. Each one is white and about the size of a quarter of my pinkie nail. I'm pretty certain they belong to the lyretail but I could be wrong.
 
I didn't expect this or plan for this. I didn't know any of them were female or pregnant. All the fish stores are closed right now and I really need to figure out what to do. Their mom appears to be leaving them alone and the babies are all swimming at just the very top of the my 10 gallon aquarium.
 
Please someone help me! What do I do, how do I feed them and care for them? I have no other tank to put them in so I'm forced to just leave them with the others. The fish ate before their birth and I'm afraid to feed the babies now for fear they might be confused for food themselves (they are just so little) but I don't them to die of starvation either. So... the major question now is... do I feed them and how do I? None of the fish in the aquarium are top-dwellers (I planned on getting one soon).
 
The aquarium currently holds:
- two upside down catfish
- one plecostomus
- one balloon belly molly
- one white lyretail molly
- a mystery snail
- and eight baby fish

 

[freerunner416]

I think the babies will find some food in your tank somewhere to keep them going.
 
I may be wrong but i think that molly's don't generally eat there fry (some might get munched at somepoint though). I am not sure about the upside down catfish - may depend on its size.
 
If you have some plant in your tank you could float a bunch on the top of the water as this would give them somewhere to hide and keep them safe, whilst also trapping any food (could crush up flake and drop some in for them).
 
other than that you could nip to your pet shop and buy a wee breeding trap for the babies. this would give them a wee cage and stop you having to set up another tank.
 
Hope that helps a little bit and goodluck with the fry.

 

[Akasha72]

Hi, you have a few options (if you still have them as the adult fish will eat them if they get hungry)
 
You can go to the store and buy a breeding net/trap. A net type is best for not allowing escapees. These often hang on the side of the tank. There is also the trap type that float - these are designed to add Mum to and the fry fall to the bottom between the gaps. The problem I've found with these is the fry can often escape
 
Another option would mean having a seperate heater and filter - a sponge one being best for fry. This option mean grabbing a plastic storage box, adding some tank water to it, adding a heater and filter and seperating the fry from the tank altogether - this is a good option if the fish has dropped a hundred (or so) babies and they can't be kept in the tank.
 
The other option is to just leave things be. They might get eaten, they might not. If you've got plenty of plants their chances of survival is better.
 
Regarding food - there are a few baby fish foods on the market. TetraMin Baby is the one I've used to good effect but you can just grind up the adult flake really really well - until it's a dust-like as possible and the fry should be able to take it  

 

[Essjay]

If you have had one batch of fry, there will be more. Even if both your mollies are females they can store sperm so they'll be able to have several more batches. If the other molly is a male, you will have a lot more fry!
 
 
You said you don't know if you have males or females. One of them is obviously female but this will tell you how to find out if the other is a male or female. The photos aren't mollies but the way to distinguish the sexes is the same for all common livebearers.

 

[attibones]

Most of those fish will snack on fry, but this is actually a good thing because you are way overstocked with inappropriate fish. You should start to rehome the adults, beginning ideally with that pleco which is probably not one of the smaller species (even these are not good in a ten gallon tank). The adult mollies should eat some of the fry, which will make rehoming the fry much easier if you've got only a few. They can be difficult to rehome as most LFS won't take fry, particularly livebearers because they are so common.

 

[smudge_]

lol at this thread title . the "dear god" part of the title is why when I went in to get platy's and molly's today, I made sure every single one of them was female.

No doubt I will still end up with some fry though!

 

[smudge_]

lol at this thread title

. the "dear god" part of the title is why when I went in to get platy's and molly's today, I made sure every single one of them was female.

No doubt I will still end up with some fry though!

 
Yup, just went to feed the fish and spotted about 5 baby molly's in my all female tank lol

 

[OcBirdie68]

I would float a plastic container in there to keep them separate until you figure something out. Hehehe good luck

 

[Colin_T]

don't get too excited about this thread, it's from 2015