Ok, So The Babies Have Arrived...what Now?

[roadmaster]

Welcome to the forum Ruth. I moved your duplicate post to the junk pile, in case you wonder where it went.

The male molly is doing exactly what he should do. The female is at her best in terms of his genes being the ones to be passed on. Almost all livebearers have the same response to a recently dropped female. She will get all the attention in the tank even if there are 15 other females to choose from.

I agree with this. The lone female with no other's (females), could be pestered to death literally. I try to keep the best looking females and select the best looking male for breeding. I remove the male after the female gives birth to give her a chance to rest. Usually place the male in another tank with numerous females.
Keeping livebearer's long term ,ultimately result's in numerous tanks,some for fry,one or two for adult males ,females.
Fish store usually takes the fry for me but I seldom recover the cost of feeding the fry till they are large enough to trade for store credit.

 

[amy1994]

Ooh now I feel guilty! It's not that I'm not prepared to look after the fry as in I don't care, I'm literally "not prepared"! :0(
Amy's idea of seeing if I could get stuff on eBay sounds like a plan? As fir feeding I put the normal size flakes in at the side of the tank the adults always cone up to when it's feeding tine, then I've been crushing flakes into dust and popping that in on the other side where the fry hide out. I didn't realise they couldn't get food yet, I hope they managed to get a wee bit! I'm gonna see if I can get a breeder trap and cheap tank now! I couldn't bear it if people thought I didn't care, I really do, but just wasn't prepared for all this. If I can manange to look after 2 kids, 1 husband, 1dog, 1 budgie, 10 adult fish and 2 dumbo rats, I'm sure I can make the effort to try to give these poor wee things a chance! V sad and guilty now! :0(

I don't think that you don't care, you've asked people about this situation, you wouldn't do that if you didn't care.
And sorry for worrying you, they can get food, but sometimes it may take a while just as they're not used to it, but putting the crushed flakes in the area where they are is a good idea so keep going The only problem i faced with that is when i managed to find all the fry i could, when i moved them, i had to clean the gravel as it was horrible...

 

[Ruth1969]

Thank's guys for all your advice. I have today bought a fry trap and managed unbelievably to catch 26!!! There are still a few left in the main tank, but I'll have to leave them. At least this way I know I can feed them directy so the have a better chance of growing. Also good news is that my aquatic shop is happy, once they're of a decent size, to take some off my hands and also suggested i pass mum on the them aswell. So for now I'm going to do my best and just let everything calm down, (including me!) and enjoy my aquarium. I used to sit and watch it just to relax, but this last week I've been a nervous wreck! Who knew little fish could be so demanding Thanks again and I'll be back if I have any further worries. I don't like to call you "oldman", but your knowledge has been very enlightening. And thanks again to everyone else replied. Cheers Ruth

 

[amy1994]

Wow! well done for catching all of them

 

[OldMan47]

I take much the approach that your shop has suggested. Any livebearer that starts to get out of control has the adults all sold off and just the fry retained. When I do that with fish like guppies, I have another batch of adults to sell off 3 months later and the tank is still filled with fry. I do not intentionally separate any fry from the adult population of the same species although I do try to keep most of my livebearers, my own specialty really, in a species only tank. That way I don't have goodeids eating guppies etc.