My First Fry!

[Suzi]

my pregnant copper mollie has had babies!!!!
ive caught 15( 8 male and 6 females) and put them in the breeding net but ive seen about 3 females i cant catch. but the tanks heavily planted and nothing was eating them befre i caught them so fingers crossed they survive!

i didnt even want fry but now ive got some they're soooo cute!
the males are bright orange and the females are dull brown.

think i scared my boyfriend half to death when i switched the light on and screamed BABIES!!!!

cant someone please give me some info on what to do next?
ive put some leaves in the net for som cover and i crushed up some flakes which has nearly all gone (put in 5 mins ago) but is there something better i should be feeding them?

 

[widgetuk]

Congrats
if you have another tank i would put them in there so they can grow on if they aint been eaten now then they should be ok what else have you in the tank with them . food fine crushed flake is ok baby brine shrimp finly chopped frozen food i would also finly chop some veg or blend it blance first

my mollie had babys last night i transferd them into a 2ft tank this morning with my pepperd coys to mop up the food they leave
hope this helps i am sure you will get more good advice soon good luck with them

 

[Sp00ky]

my pregnant copper mollie has had babies!!!!
ive caught 15( 8 male and 6 females) and put them in the breeding net but ive seen about 3 females i cant catch. but the tanks heavily planted and nothing was eating them befre i caught them so fingers crossed they survive!

i didnt even want fry but now ive got some they're soooo cute!
the males are bright orange and the females are dull brown.

think i scared my boyfriend half to death when i switched the light on and screamed BABIES!!!!

cant someone please give me some info on what to do next?
ive put some leaves in the net for som cover and i crushed up some flakes which has nearly all gone (put in 5 mins ago) but is there something better i should be feeding them?

congrats !!

still waiting to see some pics of these "copper" mollies though

Have fun raising the kids heheheh

 

[blitztidus]

Normally you can't tell male from female at that young of an age, I wouldn't count your eggs before they hatch, if that sounds right to you

 

[Annastasia]

You can tell the sexes that early? Wow. How old are they?

My suggestions would be;
Don't keep them in the breeder net too long. Mollies are the biggest of the common Livebearers, and with that many in there, it might get overstocked fast and prevent them from growing as well as they could. I'd say 1-3 weeks is the max you should leave them in there, depending on how fast they grow.

And

For feeding, give them a balanced diet. BBS is good, small frozen/live foods are good, you can even crush up some freeze-dried food into little pieces. All those are high-protein foods though, and if you give the fry too much of those, they can becoma bloated or constipated. So it's recommended you give them some flakes, and also veggies. Veggies are very good for Livebearers, especially Mollies. Peas, Zucchini, Lettuce, Cucumber, Broccoli, and Spinach are the most common ones to feed, but there are others. It's best to blanch them before you give them, just to soften them up a bit. And the peas need to be shelled.

Best of luck with the babies! It's so exciting, isn't it?

 

[Suzi]

Normally you can't tell male from female at that young of an age, I wouldn't count your eggs before they hatch, if that sounds right to you

the adult males are bright red and the females are brown so im guessing the same goes for the fry
time will tell!!!

i'll take some pictures tonight and post them. sorry kept getting side tracked from doing it at the time!

will probably sell some if not all of them when they're bigger as i have no room for them and i have no room for another tank so if anyone's interested there might be a post in the buy/sell section in a few weeks

 

[Annastasia]

That's not always the case. It's all going to come down to the genetics of the colors of the parents, and what percent of fry got what from who. I won't bore you with my long speil, but basically, it's not always the case. I've had a mother Wagtail Platy, and a Father Rainbow Platy, and they all came out to be male Wagtails. I'll be looking for pictures!

 

[Suzi]

oooh i hope thats the case then! the females i have are very dull so if some of the bright orange fry are female i'll be over the moon!

 

[Suzi]

quick update... now have 19 fry in breeding net! cant see any more in the tank but theres plenty of hiding places!

quick question... the bright orange fry look more albino now... they have little pink eyes and are sort of a orange/peachy colour. the mum was pregnant when i got her but there weren't any albino fish in the tank so im getting confused... do albino mollies exist?

 

[blitztidus]

Albino types of critters exist for everything but, depending on numbers can be very rare, very common, or none. Good luck, they for sure sound like albino mollies. Cant wait to see the pics

 

[Annastasia]

They may be Albinos. Sometimes they will change color though, and develop markings, so it's really hard to say until they are full grown.

Congratulations on all the fry!

 

[Suzi]

update... 20 fry in net... all doing fine and eating crushed flakes. will treat them to some veg tmw
im pretty convinced 8 are albino, 3 are pale brown with stripes and the rest are dark brown... will be interesting to see what they all turn out like!
ive never seen albino mollies and i dont understand why some are albino and the rest arent but im no scientist!