I'm Starting To Breed Platys And Mollys

halfbloodprincess

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I am going to start breeding platys and mollys since I am going to switch my fish in my 29 gallon to a 55 gallon and I will have an extra tank. I plan on putting the fry in an extra 10 gallon fish tank that I have. Does any body have any advise? :D
 
i only ask that you dont use a breeder net or trap, because it stresses the fish out, if you feel that your molly or platy is about to explode

put the female in the 10 gallon alone watch her closely and take her out after she drop all the fry

good luck :)
 
Thanks! And yes I dont want to use a breeder trap or net. It would be to stressfull for the fish. I plan on heavily planting the fish tank that their in. :D
 
Do you have a plan as to what you will do with the excess fry, or are you going to try to control the population by one means or another?

If you do not put any effort into controlling your population and try to "save" all the fry, you will quickly find your tanks over stocked. Granted with the tanks you have it might take six months to a year to do this.

A 10gal fry tank does nice unless you have multiple breeding females, because they can fill it quickly. And you have to keep moving them to make room for newer smaller fry.

Not trying to talk you out of it, just giving you fair warning that they breed alot. You can get on average 15-20 fry every month from each mature female. I was being careful to control my population, and had a single female give birth to 80 fry in one day, which after a month or two overwhelmed my fry storing ability. Large numbers like that are rare in my opinion, but have read that the broods can get as large as 120 fry.

If you want to keep the fry you will have to take steps to protect them from your filters and gravel cleaning. I've found that for a fry tank fine gravel that they can't dive into is a plus, and have found that a bare bottom tank is even better for the newborns. Ive tried to cover a power filter intake with a fine net, but that just caused the fry to get stuck to the net. A sponge covering a power filter intake works much better. I also tried getting a large sheet of filter pad and compeletely covering a 10gal undergravel filter plate with it. This also worked very well and Java Moss stick to and grow very well on it. You just have to leave extra filter pad on the plate to make it a tight fit in the tank so that it won't float up on ya.

For food, the fry can eat flakes crushed into a powder. They seem grow expecially fast when fed live baby brine shrimp. And with a pipette or medicine dropper you can easily measure out the right amount to feed them so that you give them enough for rapid growth, but don't polute the tank with uneaten excess.
 
Also keep in mind, I know guppies can do this, not sure about platys or mollys, but they can mate once and have 20-80 fry a month for 6-8 mos from one mating without ever being near a male again.

So definately take all the info they've already given you.
If you want to save fry, also have lots of cover (65%) on the top and bottom for fry to hide in.


Kath
 
Dont worry I have two extra tanks. 1 10 gallon and 1 15 gallon. I fill catch the fry as soon as they are born and put them in the 10 gallon and then I will put them in the 15 gallon when they get bigger and then when they are ready I will sell them on aquabid and to a local petstore. :D
 

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