In At The Deep End

[Nicky2]

I went out and brought a 65L tropical tank (because im new to fish keeping). Anyway, I set it up with the heater, filters, plants etc and left it for a week then had the water tested. The result of the water test meant I could add some fish, so I added 4 neon tetras (one of which disappeared after 24 hours), 2 blue guppies and 2 other guppies. Yesterday 10 days after I added the first batch of fish i went back to the aquatic shop and had the water tested again, all was well. This time I decided to add 2 gold swordtails (one of each sex i think),2 bleeding hearts and 2 dalmation mollies. I noticed one mollie was more fatter than the other (but being new to this didnt really know what to think). Then this morning I got up and ive so far noticed 3 fry! Im assuming these are from the fat molly, one fry is dead, it was at the bottom of the tank in the gravel. My question is, will there be more fry, or will the other fish have had them for lunch? Do the fry bury themselves in the gravel? and what can I do to ensure the survival of some fry?

Is it likely that the molly will give birth to more fry in the next few days and is it worth putting her in a separate breeding tank within the community tank?

Any help would be gratefully appreciated as I was rather exited on seeing the fry and would like to be successfull.

Regards
Nicky

 

[fish_master]

Im newish to it all to but from wat i no i would say ther will be more and u need to put the fry in a seperate tank or anything that will hold water and is big enough so remove the fry from that tank or they rlikely to get eaten

 

[Nicky2]

Im newish to it all to but from wat i no i would say ther will be more and u need to put the fry in a seperate tank or anything that will hold water and is big enough so remove the fry from that tank or they rlikely to get eaten

thanks for your reply..... bit difficult to catch the fry already in the big tank, but will go out and get a breeding net (tank) to put female molly in just incase theres more fry on the way

 

[fish_master]

Ok der shouldnt be anymore from wat iv found because they r livebearers and have fry about 1s a month and should be seperated from other adults becuase they r canabalistic

if uyr tank is well planted they should be alright because they will be able to hide

 

[Nicky2]

Well i got myself a breeding net, but i cant seem to find any fry at all now. I only saw 3 this morning, and cant even see them anymore. Surely there should be more than 3 and will they have been eaten by the other community fish or will they be hiding in the plants and substrate?

 

[karen84]

fry are very good at hiding so their probably in plants or stones, community fish will eat them and their probably was more but were eaten.

 

[dwarfgourami]

Do not put the mum in a breeder net, it will stress her out and may even make her abort fry. If you want to keep fry, plant the tank heavily and put some floating plants at the surface (Java moss is good, but failing that, any plant will do that's vaguely the right shape). You can also keep an eye on her and see if any more fry appear; if so, pop them into a breeder net, preferably with a plant in there. She will in all likelihood give birth again in 4-6 weeks, so you can be prepared when she starts looking fat again.

You won't be able to keep them in the breeder net for very long as they need space to grow, but even a week will help them to become more capable at dodging the others. Feed them with crushed flake 4-6 times a day and be careful to keep the tank clean; young fry are sensitive to water stats. Mum and dad are probably the greatest danger, and the swordtails.

 

[Nicky2]

thanks for all the replies.