Miniature Molly

[leoncie]

I have a Molly born in my tank. He is at least 8 months old now. However, he has never grown more than 1/2 the size of the adults he came from. Has this happened to anyone? There was only one other baby that survived that breeding but it died after about a month. It seemed to be the same, extremely small for the age that I knew it was.

 

[biokid101]

not to me yet... but it could be deformed or something is wrong with the water.

 

[VaegaVic]

I have a Molly born in my tank. He is at least 8 months old now. However, he has never grown more than 1/2 the size of the adults he came from. Has this happened to anyone? There was only one other baby that survived that breeding but it died after about a month. It seemed to be the same, extremely small for the age that I knew it was.

Not that I know of in mainstream hobby.
Might be worth while breeding him on when he reaches a year or so to see if you can create Mini-Mollies. I love mollies, but the sizes (8cm-12cm) has always been a bit off putting.
Obviously don't release these to the public shops, and only breed him if you are satisfied that he's healthy and there are no other factors that have stunted his growth environmentally.
I might even take some off of you as well.

 

[helterskelter]

Hi leoncie and welcome to the TFF

Personally it sounds like stunted fish, this can be caused by poor water for not doing simple water changes.

Their are several species of mollies but in the shops you tend to see the larger species, how ever their are a few dawrf species and on the last 6 months painted micro millies (P. picta) which get slightly larger them guppies but with you the long fins have been on the market.

 

[leoncie]

Thanks for the replies. All the platy babies born around the same time grew normally. And all my fish seem to be healthy, and I try to do my water changes on a regular basis. There were a few mollys born shortly before that grew normally and others born after that were all normal. I separated all my females to another tank around that time so the babies left that have grown are just starting to breed now. This mini molly is a male and I see him chasing the females now. None of them have had any babies yet. They're not a year old yet so they may not be mature enough for babies yet.

It will be interesting to see if my now grown babies will produce me any offspring. The platies definitely are producing well.

 

[OldMan47]

I find that my molly fry grow much slower than other types of fry. Right now mine are about a year old and are nearing adult size. I was also concerned about their growth at 6 to 8 months but they have come along nicely since. Mine are from 2 drops and I have been growing them out in a 55 gallon tank. Needless to say, they look a bit crowded in a tank that small although they looked fine in it when they were only 2 or 3 cm long.