molly question

[~nessy~]

i have wanted to put a few mollys into my comunity tank its a record 96 and ive been told its around 30-35 gallons and after reading Tokis-Phoenix thread in the chit chat section i relize i havent put enough thought into it i am still wanting mollys and im asking for some help on what to do if one of my mollys get pregnant as i havent got a clue

thanks for reading any help would be appreshiated

vanessa

 

[ScoutCarcer]

Im not sure if this will help:

http/badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile24.html
http/www.fishlore.com/Profiles-Mollies.htm

 

[sylvia]

A few questions first -

How many mollies? I assume you are aware that these fish often get quite big - to at least 4" - should be kept at a ratio of 2 females to every male.

Are you going to keep any other fish with them? If so, what and how many of each?

Also, is the tank going to be planted?

So you are worried about caring for and raising the fry or is it something else that's bothering you? If it's that you want to be able to raise any fry, just plant the tank heavily and some fry at least will make it and not get eaten. They'll happily eat crushed/powedered flake foods. If you simply don't want fry to begin with, go for all one sex. If you get all females, they may still produce some fry during the first few months as they can store sperm for a pretty long time. If you get all males, you deffinately won't be getting fry but you *might* get some aggression. As long as you have at least 3 males though, the aggression should be spread out enough to not be dangerous or particularly stressful. If you want both sexes but don't want fry, just refrain from heavily planting and the fry will get eaten before they grow large enough.

I can't think of anything else you may be concerned about realy. If you are going to stick to just mollies, a little extra salt in the tank will do them good. Don't add salt if their tank-mates won't tolerate it though. So no salt with fish like cories or loaches. Most tetras don't like it either and neither do most plecs or other generaly soft-water fish.

Honestly, with livebearers, you don't need to worry about them breeding. They do it all by themselves and you don't need to be concerned with it unless you have a specific plan for the fry. If you don't want them to breed, get males. If you don't want fry, don't add lots of hiding places. If you want some fry to survive, get lots and lots of plants. If you want all the fry to make it, invest in a seperate 'fry tank' and let the female give birth in there, then take her out and raise the fry to a decent size.

 

[~nessy~]

thanks you for the fast replys lots of information to think about