Newbie With A Few Questions

[mojobanana]

Hi all,

just thought I'd share my newbie experiences so far and ask a few questions. apologies if these types of questions have been answered before. I've read loads of the comments about various things, but still have a few things I'm unclear on.

We've set up a new 63 litre tank, put 6 black mollies in after three weeks (about 2 weeks ago) and 3 died. Two for no apparent reason, the other from finrot, I think. One of the remaining 3 had 5/6 fry, but they all went awol before we could get hold of a hatchery.

We were left with 2 males and 1 female molly.

On the weekend, we got 4 more mollies, silver this time and very pretty (1 male and 3 females by pure chance), and 4 guppies (1 male and 3 female by choosing). Sunday night I spotted one of the female mollies had gone missing and I found her behind the filter popping out some babies. From the looks of it, one of the other female mollies is pregnant.

From the molly, we now have 13 fry. I managed to pop her in the hatchery after two babies, managing to catch one of them and every time I turned around, another 2 had appeared. Is it me, or do they always appear in twos? Is this something that happens a lot?

Anyway, from the outset I've wondered if the silver and black will mate. Will I end up with grey mollies? or dalmation mollies? The fry appear a bit orange. Is this normal, or are they the result of a dalliance with a leopard molly?

I'm delighted to have all these little ones and am keen to understand more about keeping them. We didn't start off wanting to breed (fish, that is), but it's nice!

Would it be cruel to separate the males and females? I'm considering getting another tank to keep the males in as I don't want to get over-run with fry, bearing in mind that the other molly is preggers and I think at least two of the guppies are. And I know that mollies can keep sperm for a while, so I'm bearing that in mind too.

Last question. Each fish is about 2 inches long (to the end of the tail for the guppies). How many is too many? I've read so many conflicting entries on various sites and now don't know. We have 11 adults (7 mollies and 4 guppies) and I don't want to make their lives miserable. Should I let the fry take care of themselves, a la Darwin?

Sorry this is so long, but I wanted to give a bit of background to the fishies while I asked some questions.
Thanks in advance for any answers.
Love our baby fish!!!

Cheers
Jo

 

[Annastasia]

Okay, let's see if I can answer all the questions!

I managed to pop her in the hatchery after two babies, managing to catch one of them and every time I turned around, another 2 had appeared. Is it me, or do they always appear in twos? Is this something that happens a lot?

I've never noticed they appeared in twos, it might be just you. Though perhaps they are sticking together if they feel threatened or something similar.

Anyway, from the outset I've wondered if the silver and black will mate. Will I end up with grey mollies? or dalmation mollies? The fry appear a bit orange. Is this normal, or are they the result of a dalliance with a leopard molly?

Ah...tough question. It's going to come down to what genes come from what parent, and what parent carries what genes. As far as I'm aware, Dalmation is a gene in itself, and not one that comes from crossing two colors. It's normal if the fry are orange, it just means somewhere along the line, one or both of the parents had some orange in them. It's pretty common to see at least a little orange in black Mollies.

Would it be cruel to separate the males and females?

Nope, as long as you have enough males so one or two don't get ganged up on. 5 seems to be the magic number with males. But you'll also need a pretty big tank, if you want to keep all males, as they get pretty big, and they'll need space. Your 63l (16 US gallon) tank isn't going to cut it, I'm afraid.

Last question. Each fish is about 2 inches long (to the end of the tail for the guppies). How many is too many? I've read so many conflicting entries on various sites and now don't know. We have 11 adults (7 mollies and 4 guppies) and I don't want to make their lives miserable. Should I let the fry take care of themselves, a la Darwin?

You're overstocked as it is. If you're doing it by inches, you're going by the inch per gallon guideline. Your fish would break out like this:

7 Mollies x 4-6" = 28 - 42"
4 Guppies x 2" = 8"

At the very least, 36" in a 16 Gallon tank. Of course, the inch per gallon method is just a guideline, as it depends on the fish, but if you want all those fish full grown, I'd be looking at a 40-50 gallon or so. Doing survival of the fittest with the fry will probably be your best bet for now. Keep in mind, though, not all fish will eat fry, so you may end up with a lot anyway....


Good luck!

 

[mojobanana]

Hi there,

thanks for the answers, cleared a few things up for me. I'll certainly be considering a second tank to try and separate the males. I'd like to keep a few of the babies too, so I'll leave them in the hatchery for a few more days to give the tougher ones a chance, then release them. There's at least one fry eater in the tank as we had 6 black molly babies go to the great big fishtank in the fry.

The 'grown-up' mollies aren't that big at the moment, 3" tops, but I hadn't realised they grow up to 6"! Typical newbie mistake, I bet.

Are there any fish that are really easy for a newbie? I've been reading loads of things about how people have the 'wrong' fish, too many of them, etc. I think in the future, we'll be getting advice/tanks/fish etc. from a local specialist place instead of the more convenient LFS.

Thanks again for your help. I'm sure you'll be hearing from me again!
Jo

 

[Annastasia]

I'm glad I helped.

Not all Mollies grow to 6", that's only Sailfins. But some others can get to 4-5", so either way, Mollies are big fish!

Really easy fish is hard...all fish need good water quality, and the right parameters. Zebra Danios are pretty hardy, however they are very active fish, so I wouldn't recommend them for anything less then a 15-20g. The Mollies you have now are probably not going to be the easiest fish. Mollies are picky about hardness and pH and such, if kept in freshwater. Salt addition is always a good idea with them, but not all community fish can tolerate salt. Do you happen to know all your water stats, such as the kH, gH, pH, etc?

 

[mojobanana]

Hi there,

I don't know anything about the water, but I have been reading a lot about mollies liking brackish water. What sort of salt can you use? Is there a special type or is the sea salt you buy in supermarkets ok? Will the guppies be ok in brackish water?

Argh! So many questions!

I'll see what I can do about testing the water. From what I know about the local water, it's fairly neutral on the pH front.

All the fry are still alive. We're going away this weekend (someone coming round to feed the cats and fish, hopefully not the fish to the cats) so I'm going to release them into the tank.

It's a tough life...
Jo

 

[Sp00ky]

From the molly, we now have 13 fry. I managed to pop her in the hatchery after two babies, managing to catch one of them and every time I turned around, another 2 had appeared. Is it me, or do they always appear in twos? Is this something that happens a lot?

I have a green female lyretail mollie give birth last weekend and whilst watching her i saw her push at 4 in one go at times. Mind you, she had 105 of the buggers in there !! So i would say from my personal experience that it isnt unlikely for the female to push out more than one at a time.