I have a bunch of fry, and one little guy stands out

[GothFishKeeper]

Hi,
So this week early Monday morning one of my 5 mollies gave birth, but only two fry were born. Then Wednesday another one appeared, and Thursday morning I all of a sudden had roughly two dozen fry. One of the two first ones is unique compared to all of his siblings. He is silver with a black head, while everyone else is a translucent cream color. Their mother is a silver lyretail and the father is unknown but probably the same or at least silver. I originally thought the mother was male because when we brought her home along with a couple other females of different colors (one dalmation and one gold) about a week and a half ago her anal fin was clamped due to stress I think. So at the time we had 3 female mollies, one gourami (RIP Gideon) and two otocinclus catfish (RIP Lurch). Now we have three otos, two platys (1M & 1F who is pregnant), and 5 mollies (one male and 4 females, two of which are now pregnant with the male and one who just gave birth to all these fry). I know livebearers tend to eat fry but that doesn’t seem to be the case in my tank for some reason because after just a few days of being alive all my fry are coming out of the hornwort to steal little bits of flakes without being targeted at all, and also not being targeted while roaming the tank other than at meal time too. Basically, I have all these fry and they all look the same other than the one lil guy shown in the first picture. A group of the others are shown in the second picture. The main group seems to be growing already after two days of living, but the lil guy seems like he hasn’t grown at all after almost a week. Does it have something to do with him being kind of like the runt of the litter, or is he not getting enough nutrients? I’ve had multiple failed attempts at making infusoria using vegetables and hornwort clippings, and I’m now using yeast which seems to be working but it’ll be another day or so before it’s ready. They all seem to be eating fine, including the little guy, living off of ground flakes and whatever micro-organisms are living in the tank as it’s a pretty decently planted tank with lots of places for things to cultivate, but I’m worried about the fact that he’s not growing. I’m also wondering if he’s smaller because he’s different in whatever way he is, so any answers on if he needs special attention somehow would be great. But also can anyone tell me what’s up with him and why he looks so different? Also for my three females that are currently still pregnant, I’m debating on getting a small 5G or so tank for them to give birth in. Will that be big enough? Would that do more harm than good considering I’d be risking the mothers getting too stressed out? If I should get a birthing tank, do I need one for each mother since they’re all probably due around the same time, do I need one for my mollies and one for my platy, or can I have them all in the same one? Any answers to any of these questions would be much appreciated. Thank you for reading.

 

[emeraldking]

First, the way they look at birth doersn't say anything how they'll look like as adults. Even as adults breeding forms of mollies can still change color. So, it can also be that once your fry are adults that all will the same or differently. If you see splothes on a fry it can grow outlarge or even become a solid color that will cover the whole body. Or it can also become smaller in size or even disappear.

The one that is staying behind in size could have less nutrition than others. If others are faster to head to the food given, the less fast ones will get less food till almost none. But it can also be something genetic that such a fry won't grow up that large as others. In that case, no worries about it.