Is It Just Me?

[hodgeheg]

I already have
> 3 platys
> 2 female balloon mollys
> 3 7 week old molly fry (in a breeder net)
> 4 2 week old platy fry (in a seperate breeder net)

And I know that if I have any more fry (more a question of when rather than if I suppose ) I can't "rescue" them and put them in breeder nets cos if they survive then I'm gonna have too many fish

I was just wondering if anybody else is overly sensitive like me and finds it really sad that they'll have to be left and probably get eaten?

I get so excited when I find the little wrigglers in the tank and I instantly fall in love

There was a fry in one of the tanks at the lfs yesterday and I wanted to bring it home, but my Mum reminded me of how many fry I already have so I didn't

 

[Ludwig Venter]

Yes.... Wrigglers is a term more associated with Cichlids... just after the eggs hatch, the fry wriggle in the nest for another day or 2....

The fry being eaten??.... it is a eery feeling, but, it's natures' way.... I've ...(with time) learnt to deal - and live with it...

Overstocked.... A breeder net is not the ideal place to be kept indefinately.... regularly check your stocking levels to accepted norms, and give away to your friends, if you're sqeemish about them being devoured.

 

[Tory]

I understand how you feel. My rule of thumb has generally been If I see them, I will catch them, if I dont, they get eaten. Unfortunately, I have made the big mistake recently, that if I find fry in the tank, I have also started checking the filter. If I hadnt of done this, I would have only had 5 mollie fry - now I have 10

I am now seperating my livebearers lol

 

[OldMan47]

I don't like to lose my fry to predation either. The problem that I have is that there is no more room for tanks to rear fry. I am up to over 20 tanks as it is and have very few places left to put a fry tank even if I had the time to care for them all. I have ended up giving my fry the best chance that I can by providing good cover in the form of a clump of java moss in each tank and keeping only one species per tank. By not having a mix of species in a tank, the predation seems to be reduced and the adults do learn that small fish in their tank are not really suitable food. I get enough survival of fry that I must constantly remove adults to keep the numbers under control. I remove the largest adults first to constantly renew the breeding pairs in my species tanks rather than have a breeding pair get so old that when one dies it is a major loss to my breeding program. I also find that mature adults are much easier to pass along at a club auction than a group of juvenile fish. My fish are not as common as most of the ones we talk about here so they are not available in your average LFS. Mine go to other specialist fish keepers in the hobby who are willing to pay for quality breeders of wild type fish.

 

[hodgeheg]

I don't have friends with fish, so I can't give them to somebody else.

At the minute my stocking levels are fine - even if all my fry survive till they can be released into the main tank

Unfortunately my female platy died yesterday so now I'm extra hopeful that her 4 fry grow up healthy!

My balloon molly is pregnant again and I'm kind of hoping that I don't spot too many fry cos once they're spotted I can't help but love them!

 

[Harlequins]

Same here,i ended up catching 35 platy fry because i didn't want them to get eaten

 

[matchstickman47]

i duno...

i sorta let nature do the talking.... if i see fry i will put it in my trap ( evry fish gets a chance )

but if i kno there are fry in the tank... an i cant see them i wont look fro long..... call it mean or whatever you want but i dont think it is..... i have so many fry atm and i dont realy mind if i dont have to feed my fish for a while.
i did use to care so much about the fry when i had my first bunch but after that the tank got a bit overcrowded


your lfs should take them off your hands for free

 

[OldMan47]

You need to join a local club Hodgeheg. They are a great place to connect with other people who have many of the same problems that you do and are also a great place to exchange fish and pass around whatever you have in excess. It is also a great place to find things that you will never see in the LFS.

 

[hodgeheg]

I would love to but I don't know if one exists near me - I live in a small town on the east coast of England and the nearest city is over an hour away.

I'm hopefully moving to Birmingham next year though, so there'll hopefully be a club there I could join

 

[OldMan47]

Try going to a place like the BLA site and asking them to recommend one in your area. There are lots of clubs all over the UK, far more than there are here. I drive 50 miles, about 80 KM, to attend my club meetings and it is well worth the trip to connect with fellow fish keepers.