Mollies Having to many babies

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Welcome to the hobby! Yes, plenty of people learn the hard way that livebearers breed like nuts - also be aware that once a female guppy/molly/platy has mated with a male, they can store and use sperm packets for months afterwards, even with no male around, so your adult female could continue to have fry every 6-8 weeks for a long time - even up to a year.
You can tell male and female adult livebearers apart by looking at their anal fin- females are fan shaped, males have a pointy fin/sexual organ (called the gonopodium) there. But bear in mind that babies will all look like females at first, it takes a few months more male mollies to develop the gonopodium.

So you may want to consider rehoming or returning the adult females if you're not set up to handle a lot of fry. As you've seen, the fry don't always get eaten! And it's easy to get overstocked.

From your photo, your main problem seems to be lack of tank maintenance. Not knocking you at all! You're new to this. Do you have a gravel vac, and know how to use it to clean the substrate?
Like this:

When the tank is dirty, as the substrate is in that pic, algae then has plenty of nutrients to thrive. It's not great for the fish either, so it's important to give the substrate a good clean while doing a weekly water change of around 50%. Get a tank cleaning kit and it should include a scraper with a metal edge to remove the hard algae from the glass.Once the tank is cleaner and you're in a routine of doing weekly maintenance, it's worth considering adding some live plants to the tank. Live plants will compete with the algae for nutrients. Some algae is normal though, it's just what happens in a tank of water with light on it - even more if the tank is getting direct sunlight from a window? The trick is to learn how to balance the tank so the algae doesn't get out of control, and you're the best weapon for that.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Eeeekk! Just looked at the photo again and saw something terrifying - that heater, sticking straight up and sticking out of the water! This is dangerous, especially if you do a water change and the water level drops even lower. Heaters must be fully submersed at all times, if they stick out like that, they tend to overheat, trying to heat the air around them, then explode when the cooler water hits them.
Move the heater so it's sideways, and lower down in the tank. I have mine right down by the substrate, lengthwise, so even if I drop the water level really low, the heater is okay.

If you can, also fill the tank to the top. Remember that it isn't 65L when the tank is only 3/4s full, and as far as the fish are concerned, the more water, the better.

 

[aidendl23]

Also, do you vacuum your substrate when doing a water change?

i wish i could but i dont know what am doing wrong when ever i vacum my subtrate it collects allot of it in the bucket. (it takes it out the tank)

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

i wish i could but i dont know what am doing wrong when ever i vacum my subtrate it collects allot of it in the bucket. (it takes it out the tank)

Watch these videos to learn how to pause the flow of the syphon! Then you can suck up the muck, but let the actual substrate fall back into the tank. What substrate do you have?

 

[aidendl23]

Eeeekk! Just looked at the photo again and saw something terrifying - that heater, sticking straight up and sticking out of the water! This is dangerous, especially if you do a water change and the water level drops even lower. Heaters must be fully submersed at all times, if they stick out like that, they tend to overheat, trying to heat the air around them, then explode when the cooler water hits them.
Move the heater so it's sideways, and lower down in the tank. I have mine right down by the substrate, lengthwise, so even if I drop the water level really low, the heater is okay.

If you can, also fill the tank to the top. Remember that it isn't 65L when the tank is only 3/4s full, and as far as the fish are concerned, the more water, the better.

1st image is my sihpon
2nd is Mater test kit readings
3rd is tank with changes i can do right now

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Nice that the heater is sideways now, but it's still very close to the surface, can you push it down lower?

Hard to tell with a photo and on a screen, with the tubes against a dark carpet, but from what I can see, the results look fine.
Haven't seen a syphon gravel vac quite like that before... is it able to suck up the mess from the substrate? Is that flakes of rock from the decor mixing into the substrate?

@Essjay what do you think of the rock in there? Almost looks like marine rock?

 

[aidendl23]

Nice that the heater is sideways now, but it's still very close to the surface, can you push it down lower?

Hard to tell with a photo and on a screen, with the tubes against a dark carpet, but from what I can see, the results look fine.
Haven't seen a syphon gravel vac quite like that before... is it able to suck up the mess from the substrate? Is that flakes of rock from the decor mixing into the substrate?

@Essjay what do you think of the rock in there? Almost looks like marine rock?

ill move it more down tommorow its just quite akward because there is only 1 clip that why its kinda tilted. and its algae and fish poo on the gravel i will try vac it tommorow after watching that video and will try to get a cleaning kit

 

[Essjay]

@Essjay what do you think of the rock in there? Almost looks like marine rock?

Yes it does look a bit like that, or possibly limestone-ish.

Is it a real or fake rock? If it's real, and it is a limestone, it could increase pH, GH and KH. The thing that does make me wonder is your pH - and as it's the highest colour on the chart it could be even higher. You give your location as Scotland, and most of Scotland has soft water with low pH. If it is real, could I suggest taking it out of the tank, drying a corner and putting some drops of vinegar on it to see if it makes bubbles. Then give it a good wash and put it back in the tank. Let us know if it does create bubbles.

 

[aidendl23]

Yes it does look a bit like that, or possibly limestone-ish.

Is it a real or fake rock? If it's real, and it is a limestone, it could increase pH, GH and KH. The thing that does make me wonder is your pH - and as it's the highest colour on the chart it could be even higher. You give your location as Scotland, and most of Scotland has soft water with low pH. If it is real, could I suggest taking it out of the tank, drying a corner and putting some drops of vinegar on it to see if it makes bubbles. Then give it a good wash and put it back in the tank. Let us know if it does create bubbles.

i done a high range ph test and it was the lowest at 7.4 to 7.8 to i still need to do all the stuff with the rock then

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

ill move it more down tommorow its just quite akward because there is only 1 clip that why its kinda tilted. and its algae and fish poo on the gravel i will try vac it tommorow after watching that video and will try to get a cleaning kit

If your parents have a clean, unused stanley blade, one of those used carefully can be used to clean the glass. They're super sharp though, so be careful if you use one! I've nicked my fingers a few times using them, lol.

 

[FishandBirdLover]

Welcome to the hobby! Yes, plenty of people learn the hard way that livebearers breed like nuts - also be aware that once a female guppy/molly/platy has mated with a male, they can store and use sperm packets for months afterwards, even with no male around, so your adult female could continue to have fry every 6-8 weeks for a long time - even up to a year.
You can tell male and female adult livebearers apart by looking at their anal fin- females are fan shaped, males have a pointy fin/sexual organ (called the gonopodium) there. But bear in mind that babies will all look like females at first, it takes a few months more male mollies to develop the gonopodium.
View attachment 167526

View attachment 167527
So you may want to consider rehoming or returning the adult females if you're not set up to handle a lot of fry. As you've seen, the fry don't always get eaten! And it's easy to get overstocked.

From your photo, your main problem seems to be lack of tank maintenance. Not knocking you at all! You're new to this. Do you have a gravel vac, and know how to use it to clean the substrate?
Like this:
View attachment 167528


When the tank is dirty, as the substrate is in that pic, algae then has plenty of nutrients to thrive. It's not great for the fish either, so it's important to give the substrate a good clean while doing a weekly water change of around 50%. Get a tank cleaning kit and it should include a scraper with a metal edge to remove the hard algae from the glass.Once the tank is cleaner and you're in a routine of doing weekly maintenance, it's worth considering adding some live plants to the tank. Live plants will compete with the algae for nutrients. Some algae is normal though, it's just what happens in a tank of water with light on it - even more if the tank is getting direct sunlight from a window? The trick is to learn how to balance the tank so the algae doesn't get out of control, and you're the best weapon for that.

Agreed.

 

[Lynnzer]

If your parents have a clean, unused stanley blade, one of those used carefully can be used to clean the glass. They're super sharp though, so be careful if you use one! I've nicked my fingers a few times using them, lol.

Aye, and I've scratched the glass a few times too.

 

[Lynnzer]

As for live algae eaters, I almost gave up when I had a hell of a job getting algae under control and even had an absolute nightmare with hair algae.
Then I got a few Amano shrimp. With those in the tank and a really reduced number of hours of lighting things came back to normal quite quickly.
I'd give that a go and I think you'll be amazed at the outcome.

 

[Tarnlad23]

i have 2 mollies in my 65litre and they had a baby like 2 months ago it grew up and i thought i was pretty cool but little did i know what was on the horizon......... so i come home from my dads and look into the tank which my mum has been feeding, and see another baby am like cool.... then another one and another one there are like 10 or 12 baby mollies. i thought they would of got eaten by the other or they would of just died off but they are all living strong what do i do. my tank already has 8 neons 2 guppies 1 pleco 6 zebra dinions and ofc the mollies its not a dirty tank but there is also alot of algae on the glass and gravel idk how do get rid of it that would be usfel too i tried scraping the sides with toothbrush using gravel pump for the little spots of algea on gravel and took fake plants out and rinsed them but didnt really help tbh. (this is my first tank btw)(and the first baby mollie is about the same size as a guppie)

Take em to your local supplier and trade them

 

[sparkypenguin]

i have 2 mollies in my 65litre and they had a baby like 2 months ago it grew up and i thought i was pretty cool but little did i know what was on the horizon......... so i come home from my dads and look into the tank which my mum has been feeding, and see another baby am like cool.... then another one and another one there are like 10 or 12 baby mollies. i thought they would of got eaten by the other or they would of just died off but they are all living strong what do i do. my tank already has 8 neons 2 guppies 1 pleco 6 zebra dinions and ofc the mollies its not a dirty tank but there is also alot of algae on the glass and gravel idk how do get rid of it that would be usfel too i tried scraping the sides with toothbrush using gravel pump for the little spots of algea on gravel and took fake plants out and rinsed them but didnt really help tbh. (this is my first tank btw)(and the first baby mollie is about the same size as a guppieI

I have mollies and platies and have exactly the same issue.
The platies I have managed to get under control by removing all males and taking them to a LFS, however they keep on giving birth due to the fact that they store the sperm.
The mollies have been much harder as they seem to give birth to much larger quantities of fry and I now make a trip every month or so to the LFS to offload as many as I can catch.
The upside is that you get to see the fry grow and can get some credit at the LFS.
The downside is that it is an ongoing battle and often by the time the fry are large enough for the LFS they have already reached a sexually mature age and have impregnated the fish that you are keeping and hence they whole cycle continues.

If you are going to keep live bearers of more than one sex then please ensure that you have a ongoing reputable outlet for them and please consider when stocking your tank that you may end up with many more fish than your system can easily cope with so you need to allow for this.
Also note that catching the fry / fish can be very difficult and also very stressful for all of the tank inhabitants.
This is especially the case if you are moving the decor to try and catch specific fish.
I tend to put some food in and sweep up whatever I can with a large net and transfer them to a small bucket.
I then catch the ones I want to keep out of the bucket and put them back into the tank, it's much quicker and less stressful for you and the fish this way.
Plus do not get too caught up, pun intended , in trying to net every fish that you want to remove as you could be on for hrs.

If you go for one sex then note that the females may already be impregnated and you will be back in the same boat and please note that you should really be keeping at least 5 or 6 mollies as 2 is not enough and if you do go for mixed sex then 1 male for every 3 females is a good ratio as the males will aggressively chase the females.

Many fish shops do not explain to customers the real issues of keeping mixed live bearers which in my opinion is unethical.
They should be separating the males and females before they are sexually mature and selling them separately unless the buyer can demonstrate that they have an outlet for the fry and have good knowledge of the whole cycle.

Regards the algae I would recommend getting a couple of Apple snails.
I had an algae problem but after my last good clean I introduced 2 of these and they have all but eliminated the algae.
I simple weekly sweep of my magnetic algae cleaner is enough to keep my tank looking nice and clean.
They are also very, very interesting as they are constantly busy and have many quirky features, like the fact that they have snorkels that they use to breath above water and they also do a good job of eating any left over fish food.
Also unlike other snails the population is easily kept under control.
If you do consider getting some then please read up before doing so to ensure the water parameters, fish mates etc are all compatible.
Plus if you can add a few live plants these will use up some of the nutrients that the algae live on.
Lots of small changes can make a big difference.

I do not have any experience of keeping guppies but from what I read I would also suggest that 2 guppies is not enough and please note that as far as I know you will have the same breeding issues as you are having with the mollies.

Hope that helps and good luck with your new hobby!
Mark.