I'm Horrified!!

[HeatherMW]

Hi !

I had molly fry about one month ago and through the suggestion of another post here, decided to try and put them back into the main tank.

Last night I added in about 5 fry, 10 minutes later another 5 fry etc. etc. until all 20 fry were in the main tank.

Everything looked great! All the little guys were swimming right along with the big fish.

Great right!!??

Wrong...I watched them for about twenty minutes and everything was very good. So I decided to go have a shower. When I cam back only TWENTY minutes later....there was half a fry floating in front of the glass!!!

I grabbed my net quickly to try and save the remaing fry. I scooped them all back into their one gallon tank.

In the end I only found 12!!!

I checked in all my plants and it appears like the other 8 were eaten!

My fish are EVIL !!

I feel soooo bad! being my first set of fry I'm kinda traumatized I guess. I really thought they would be okay with the others.

As a general rule, how long should I wait before adding them back in??

I just moved them to their one gallon tank two days ago, but I was worried because there is no filter, air pump or heater. However it does have a light in the canopy and the temp is still in the green range of my thermometer....holding steady between 72-74. They appear to be doing well.

Anyone else ever house fry in these conditions? Any luck?? How much longer should I wait before adding the fry back to the main tank.

I'm kinda worried cause the fry just don't seem to be getting any bigger. I feed them powder Nutrifin Fry Food 2-3 times per day and once every couple of days I give them crushed up Nutrifin Freeze Dried White Shrimp. They LOVE that!

Thanks for any help that can be offered!

Heather

 

[Stacey269]

What kinds of other fish do you have in your tank? I've found molly fry to be very good hiders and very fast swimmers. I moved my fry to a tank that didn't have a filter, pump, etc, because I was worried about them. They all died except for 3. They did better hiding and swimming away from the other fish in the main tank.

 

[HeatherSweetness]

I never put my molly fry back into the main tank until they are nearly or right at one inch long because I find them clumsy and more naive than the other fry. The seem to think 'hey,I'll swim around with these big fish and be their pal'.
My sailfin,she dropped nearly 20,and they were so clumsy and foolish they never hid from anything,only 2 are left. They were an easy snack.

 

[guppymonkey]

A one gallon tank is very very tiny for fry, especially 20 of them. I am sorry that your other fish ate some of the fry. What are the fish in the main tank? I would suggest getting a little bit larger of a tank for the fry. Maybe a 5 gallon or a 10 gallon. A lot of the time you can get a ten gallon tank cheaper than a five gallon. A larger tank will give them more room to grow.

 

[HeatherSweetness]

A one gallon tank is very very tiny for fry, especially 20 of them. I am sorry that your other fish ate some of the fry. What are the fish in the main tank? I would suggest getting a little bit larger of a tank for the fry. Maybe a 5 gallon or a 10 gallon. A lot of the time you can get a ten gallon tank cheaper than a five gallon. A larger tank will give them more room to grow.

Me?? I don't have anything in one gallons except bettas.

My mollies are in the 20. With other mollies. They were munched to nearly nothing left. I say let the strong survive,but mollies are special to me and I put them in the breeder net until they're at least an inch. Everything else is on it's own.

 

[Carolinesugar]

hiya heather, sounds like uve been abit unlucky

id suggest that u dnt put the fry in with the others until they have grown at least 1 inch.

ive neva kept fish without a heater, but ur temp seems to be staying at a nice warm level.

as 4 air, u mite wana add that wen the fry are grown abit more.

Gud Luck!!

 

[guppymonkey]

A one gallon tank is very very tiny for fry, especially 20 of them. I am sorry that your other fish ate some of the fry. What are the fish in the main tank? I would suggest getting a little bit larger of a tank for the fry. Maybe a 5 gallon or a 10 gallon. A lot of the time you can get a ten gallon tank cheaper than a five gallon. A larger tank will give them more room to grow.

Me?? I don't have anything in one gallons except bettas.

My mollies are in the 20. With other mollies. They were munched to nearly nothing left. I say let the strong survive,but mollies are special to me and I put them in the breeder net until they're at least an inch. Everything else is on it's own.

Sorry, I was talking about Heather MW.

I just moved them to their one gallon tank two days ago, but I was worried because there is no filter, air pump or heater. However it does have a light in the canopy and the temp is still in the green range of my thermometer....holding steady between 72-74. They appear to be doing well.

 

[HeatherMW]

Thanks guys !

I wouldn't think that a one gallon tank would be too small for fry...???

They are sooo tiny that they have a tonne of room to swim around in....but again, I do not know much about fish!

Well, I moved them back to their breeding net in the main tank....which is WAY smaller than the 1 gallon tank......

I guess I will just have to leave them in there until they get a bit bigger....whenever that is...

I expect the same mollie that had these fry will have more anytime after tomorrow. I have several breeding nets so it shouldn't be a problem....YET!

Thanks again for your help! By the way...the other fish I have in my tank are listed in my sig for all those that were asking

Heather B)

 

[RobbieM]

you might be upset but your other fish are probably quite happy!

 

[snowyangel]

"I wouldn't think that a one gallon tank would be too small for fry...???"
It's not too small for newborn fry, IMO. I raise all my new borns in 1 gallon bowls, even up to 30 fry a bowl and I've had no casualities. But i upgrade them to a 5gallon after a month then a 10 gallon when they reach 2 months. If you planned on raising them to adulthood in 1 gallon tanks, then you would have problems.

"I just moved them to their one gallon tank two days ago, but I was worried because there is no filter, air pump or heater. However it does have a light in the canopy and the temp is still in the green range of my thermometer....holding steady between 72-74. They appear to be doing well.Anyone else ever house fry in these conditions? Any luck?? How much longer should I wait before adding the fry back to the main tank."
You can raise many fish with no filter or heater just as long as you do daily water changes and your room temp is not lower then the desired temperature(say 72F or so). All my fry bowls are unheated and unfiltered and they're doing great and growing fast. As for how old the fry should be before going back to the main tank, depends on your judgement. I'd say once the fish reaches atleast an inch you should be safe(unless you have bigger fish then guppies in there). Right now my baby guppies are over 2 months old but I'm still gonna wait till their 3 months just to be safe. Even if a baby won't fit in their mouth they will still chase it and harass it b/c of its size. Also make sure they're bigger then the filter outlet so they dont get sucked up.

 

[Myke]

I have Mollie fry that is in a 60 gallon tank right now with only six other mollies. They are 5 days old and I never seperated them in the tank. A few of them were eaten by the larger mollies but most of them are still alive and doing just fine. They are very, very quick and can get away easily. I have no worries about them. They are very active, swimming all around the tank.

 

[HeatherMW]

Thanks again !

My platies seem to be very agressive. I KNOW they are the ones that ate the other 8 fry.

Someone told me that it is because (by fluke) I got all males from the Petstore...3 of them and no females. Could this make the males aggressive? Not having any females to "play" with?

no I wasn't planning to raise all of my fry to adulthood in a 1 gallon tank, just until they are a bit bigger.

Well, thanks for the info guys. I'll keep trying and hopefully some of my first set of fry will make it to adulthood.

Momma mollie is due again TODAY...but she doesn't look "quite" ready yet !



Heather