Molly Having A Small # Of Fry

[Queen Bee]

I've had 3 Balloon Mollies give birth in the last month or so. The first 2 didn't know that they were pregnant, so I didn't get them into a breeder right away. I only managed to save 1 from each of the first 2 mollies. One of them did have a couple of fry that were still born and looked kind of alien.

Today, I saw 2 still born fry in the bottom of the breeding net. One healthy fry swimming around like he had no worries at all. I immediately moved him into a separate net for my fry. That is it. This happened at 10 this morning and tonight when I got home from work at 1 am, no new fry. The mom has been in the net for a couple of days. I have noticed nothing. She is still fairly big. Will she give birth to more fry or should I let her go. Seems weird that she only had a few. She went into the net as soon as I got her home from the lfs. I knew she was ready to give birth any day.

I am used to platys having such big batch of fry every time. Balloon mollies fry are quite large though. Can they only produce a few at a time. I think I read that they will have 12 - 30 fry each time.

 

[youngfisher]

Well my molly had around 10 frys. If your tank is planted, You should just let her have the fry in the tank and then catch the fry afterwards, HArd work but more rewarding!


Seems to me if she's still big then she should be having more, but the reason for the still born etc. Might be because of stress of being in the net. You should only keep them in for 24 hours before they get stressed I think.

But its your choice.

 

[kizno1]

i would let her out you sholdnt keep them in the breeding trap for more than 48 hours put he back in tonight they normal have there babys first thing in the morning so i dont think you will miss it

 

[Queen Bee]

Cleaned the tank today. Found a couple of small dalmation lyretail fry. They are so tiny. Maybe add more java moss to hide in. I have lots of fish that are fond of fry. Exciting to have them and watch them grow. Will try letting them give birth naturally. Reallly hard to catch fry in the tank. Lots of stuff in there.

Thanks