Mollie Fry Help!

[Ellesig]

Hi everyone, I am fairly new to this so please forgive me if I sound a bit naive or stupid. Two weeks ago I bought 4 mollies for my 130 litre tank. 3 days later my silver mollie had fry. I couldnt watch them being gobbled up so I fished them out and put them in a breeder net. I now have 18 healthy Mollie babies . I really wasn't expecting them all to survive! My question is, would my tank be completely overstocked if I kept them and if I let nature take its course would the adults eat the inevitable load of fry that will follow? I love my little fishes and wouldn't want them to have a poor quality of life...Tia

 

[Akasha72]

Hi, have you considered a third option? you could give them away. Many local fish stores will take them in, grow them on and then sell them on. It's not often that they will give you anything for them but if you have a lfs that you have a good relationship with it's always worth asking.
 
The problem that you have now is that some of the fry will be male and so the circle of life will carry on and yes, you will be over-run in no time. As livebearers mature they start to produce fry in larger numbers. The only way to stop this is to keep all female or all male. All female livebearers (molly, platy and guppy) can hold sperm for up to 6 months so even if you don't have a male they will continue to have fry for that time. 
 
does that help?

 

[Ellesig]

Thank you akasha.. unfortunately my local pet stores will not take them. I wish they would!! I think I will keep a couple and try to find good homes for the rest..x

 

[Akasha72]

oh that's a shame. They are missing a trick by not taking them in. 1. they get healthy fry that havn't been mass farmed. 2. they get fry that are least likely to come harbouring disease. And 3. they can get free stock ... I mean why wouldn't they go for that?! Madness
 
You could try advertising on freecycle or similar