New Here With A Few Molly Questions...

[ericam]

Hey everyone! I've got a few questions about Mollies, if anyone here could possibly answer them?

I've got two black mollies (and a few other fish, 3 black skirt tetras, a red wag(m), a mickey mouse(m), and we recently had a sunburst (f) but she died, I think she just bred herself out...

anyway, the black mollies are male and female, we had no idea we had live bearing fish until we found a few black ones that survived, (only one made it to growing up) after that we got lots and lots of babies from the sunburst but never anymore from the black molly female. I would observe her growing bigger in pregnancy, then the next day being smaller, but I never found any babies.

I started to notice the daddy chasing the mommy around a lot, and more and more, it seemed he was constantly poking at her bottom with his face (my guess is he waited until she gave birth and just ate the babies as soon as they popped out) the daddy also has 'grown' an orange color on the top of his top fin and back of his end fin (?) I know thats a stress signal, but I just cant figure out what/why all this is happening?

So today I decided to put the mommy in the fry separator (I have a few babies in there from the other mom, she doesnt see to care (the black molly) and the babies are avoiding her)

but within five minutes of putting her in there her stomach started to square off, she slowed down her movements, and started breathing heavier. She doesnt like when I get near the tank now.. and shes been in there about an hour.. I put her in there against what I read online just to get her away from the daddy (what I read: that putting a pregnant molly into a separator can stress her out) She immediately took the biggest bm!! LOL, anyway.. I'm just waiting now to see babies..

What are your opinions? did I do the right thing? whats going on here in my tank? I dont want a bunch more females to breed more, we never intended to be breeding fishies!!

 

[AquaticHamster]

Whats the size of your tank?

 

[ericam]

its a 20 gallon tank, weve never had more than 8 fish in there. Not including the babies, the most babies we've had has been somewhere around 18, but I give them away as soon as theyre about 1-2mos just old enough to transport to a new tank, probably about half an inch or less in length.

And sure enough, I went out for a few hours.. came back and there are at least 6 black molly babies in there, it looks like 1 of them didn't make it.. but I couldnt believe it! Definitely the right choice.. Now how can I tell when she's done birthing them? I dont want to leave her in there too long. But I'm sure shes enjoying the break from that bully of a husband haha

 

[hughessomefish]

I think she may be done dropping fry, I advise you to take her out since keeping her in to long can lead to her death because of stress.

Normally what I do is let my fry be born in there adults parents tank and scoop up any I find, this way I don't end up with to many fish, and I don't kill the mother from stress.

 

[ericam]

The problem with not separating her is that I have found NO babies over the last few bearing cycles that she's had. The male molly pretty much just chases her around all day long.

I went back and checked again and there are yet even more babies.. she seems to be dropping them slowly is that abnormal? Either way I'll give her a little longer. As well as the one I thought didnt make it, was just hiding.. I've never seen them so soon after birth so this is very neat! I put some food in there and she is totally uninterested, so I'm guessing she's not done yet.

I keep checking back every ten minutes or so, but I can't be around her much or walk up to the tank fast, because she gets stressed easily.

I'll post some pics of the new/old fry when I get to it.

Do you think I should add another female or two, to keep her less stressed? I'm reading 4 females to 1 male. (how prolific! haha)

Also I'm not super clear on the different species/breeds, and which can mate with eachother. I'm curious because I'd like to get one or two more females to alleviate her stress by being the only one. Is there a link someone could point me to? I cant find anything on here....

 

[Cazgar]

You don't say how many females you have
If you get more females, then you'll get more fry & soon be very over stocked
If possible separate the males from the females

 

[ericam]

Sorry in my first post I ran off all the fish I have in this 20gal tank

3 black skirt tetras (not live bearers, so they dont really count in this part of the equation)

1 male 1 female black molly

1 male sunburst, 1 male red wag

(we ended up with males and females because we went to the store twice (lost a couple of our first fish when we first set up the tank) and they did not tell us if they were giving us males or females either time. Although ive gone back to the store and seen MANY male/female mixes in their supposedly male only/female only tanks Haha.

I asked our local pet store if they would like the baby fry once they get older but they said no. Is there somewhere else I can find to give away the babies once they are large enough? I've been giving them away for free on craigslist, but annoyingly enough I have to scan each person that asks to make sure they have a cycled tank and the correct type of fish so the fry will survive (I dont give them away until theyre at least 1 1/2 months old which seems to be long enough) as well as a fry separator until theyre old enough, crushed flake food etc.. LOL

Also the first thing I tried was a tank separator, but the only one they sold at the pet store was a sad little thing that didnt work at all, the males scooped into the females side very easily...

Like I said though, if I had known or had been told which were males which were females in the beginning I wouldnt be raising all these little guys anyway. But I dont want any of them growing to adulthood in my tank because of inbreeding...

and trust me, I asked a LOT of questions, but the store employees seemed to know less than I did.

 

[ericam]

sooooo here we go! I've got about 50 babies!!! I turned off the light for an hour or so and she just popped out a zillion of those little babies.. and daddy is still so aggressive i think I might advertise him to give him away as i do not have a second tank. that way I can get another female or two (since I can tell the difference now!) and if they happen to be pregnant when we get them, then so be it, and I can advertise to give those away as needed, then once theyre done being pregnant, ta-da we'll be done! haha.

im going to try and post a photo for you all.. I just have a cheapie fry net separator box so its kind of hard to see...

 

[AquaticHamster]

Cute little babies!

Your lucky your doing so well with your mollies. All of the mollies I ever put in my tank died within a month of getting them. I dont do well with mollies, although I think theyre so pretty.

Oh and females dropping their fry slowly isnt abnormal. Some can take up to a few days just to drop all of them. My female guppy took the whole of Christmas morning just to drop 5 or so fry.

When your fry are old enough, you can always give them away to friends who have tanks or other people you know. A second tank is always an option, provided you seperate the genders, or you can just let them breed and let the babies get eaten or something.

And what pet store did you go to? Petsmart? Petco? Stores like those usually wont accept fry but family owned or nonchain pet stores may. Im not sure, seeing as im only on my first batch of guppy fry, and therefore havent tried to get rid of any yet.

Hope this helped.

 

[ericam]

oh gosh I had a whole reply typed out and it disappeared.

Thanks for replying!! The only trouble I had with Mollies was when we first set up the tank, the employees told us to put the fish in right away (within 24 hours of set up) and we lost all but one of those fish. We had several tropical frogs which just kept dying, and even a very small algae eater, which just plain disappeared! So bizarre...

But my husband said he wanted to keep some of the babies and get another tank, so that will be fun.

Is there a quick way to cycle a new tank for fry? Id like to get another tank with no gravel so I can see the babies and let them roam around in a big tank.

Oh and the chain stores wont take them, and the only local mom and pop place just closed down. at least the only one close, so I'm out of that for now. CL it is!! lol

 

[OldMan47]

There is no shortcut to cycling except to clone a fully cycled filter. If you have a fully cycled filter, you could clone it by simply cleaning it in the new tank with the new filter running. I almost always get a fully functional filter that way in about a week or less.
A new fry tank with a partially cycled filter like that will support the fry as they grow as long as you do your weekly water changes. With all of the feeding that you do with new fry, weekly large water changes are in order any way.

 

[omgitzmollie]

Be careful with that male my suggestion is to get more females the same thing happened to me but after the fry were born i put the mom back and the dad went right back at her, sadly she died from stress. I would let the fry go after they thicken up a little.