Lots Of Babys

[newbiegrant]

right well, 5-6 months ago i set up a 3 foot 90L tank for live bearers, so far i have guppies, baloon mollys, and 2 platy felmales in there with a couple of neon tetras, a clown loach, marbled hatchit, 2 honey gouramis and 2 2" bristle nose pleco's.
well, my problem is ive got too many young, ive got a 35L tetra tank that ive set up for the fry, so far ive got 55 young guppies and baloon mollys, around 15 guppies and 40 mollys, the 1st lotof guppies are around 4 months old now and growing well, but the rest arent growing that quickly i think the tank is over stocked (this being the 35L fry tank) at the mo im cycling a 15L plastic tank to move the guppies and some of the molly fry into good idea ??
ive also got 7 small cory's in the bottom of this tank, i will be moving some of these into the 15L tank.
do i need to set up another tank for the fry of will the 35l and 15l be ok ?? im going to stop fishing out the young fry from the 3ft tank now lol !!
thanks
grant

 

[Jenste]

sounds like all of your tanks are WAY over stocked!!! 35 L is no where near big enough for a grow out tank for 10 fry, never mind 55!... even the 90 L would be pushing it as a grow out tank for that many fish. 15 L is a bad idea all around - not even worth the effort of cycling it IMO

unless you have the option of upgrading the size and number of tanks, you may want to reconsider your stock - -even if all fish were male you are massively overstocked unfortunately

 

[This Old Spouse]

yikes.

 

[OldMan47]

My own perspective on your plight is that you are severely overstocked NewbieGrant. The best bet for any new fish keeper is to decide what they really intend to rear. Only those fish are given any help in having their fry survive.
I know that sounds harsh but unless you have a place to sell off your fry, any expansion in numbers will cause a problem for all of the fish you already have in a tank. I never allow any fish to survive that I do not have a place to sell the fry. I am a member of a local fish club and am well aware that certain fish will be in demand at my next club auction. Those, and only those, fish will be allowed to have large numbers of survivors in my tanks. All of the other fish that I keep are "doomed" to not have any more than a replacement number of fry. I often sell my surplus fish at club auctions for almost enough money to cover my fish food expenses. That means that the hobby is not a major financial drain on me. It is not the same as making a profit on fish but is enough for a hobbyist like me.

 

[This Old Spouse]

Oldman, I envy your ability to be able to sell your stock to help defray the costs of keeping fish. I have some magnificent guppies maturing that I wish I could sell to a local market!

 

[newbiegrant]

thanks for your help
i can sell my fish no problem its just i have to get them to a sellable size, and with them in the small tank they arent growing fast.
ive spoken to my local petshop and they are going to put 30-40 of the baloon molly young in there tank once its free and grow them on to sell.
and im going to invest in another bigger tank for the fry to grow on in.

thanks for your help, im going to be leaving the fry in the main tank for a while now, was surpised how well they all bred to be honest

grant