Seriously Need Advice

[FishySarah]

I currently have about 20-25 fry (balloon molly and guppy) in a five gallon tank

I have another pregnant guppy I'm waiting to give birth in another five gallon tank.

I have a pregnant platy and three other pregnant guppies in my big tank. I was planning on using breeding traps for a few of them.

So I have lots of fry and potential fry. Right now I have a 29 gallon tank with 2 mollies, 10 mollie juvies (1/2 an inch each) 3 platies and 4 guppies. I want to keep three or four of the juvies and add some of the remaining fry to my 29 gallon.

I have pet stores willing to take the extra fry. My question is- how much room do I need for the fry to grow up in? The guy said he'd take them at 3/4 an inch to an inch long. How long does it take balloon mollies and guppies to grow that large?

I have the two five gallon tanks for them to grow up in, and, in addition, I have one half-cycled ten gallon and another I started cycling today.

How many fry can I handle? When should I stop saving them? How many babies can grow to sellable size in the space that I have? I want to save as many as possible, but there has to be a limit at some point, I think.

 

[Tolak]

I'm able to get platys to 1" stocking at 2 fish per gallon, 50% water changes twice weekly.

 

[Colin_T]

Feed the fry 3 times day with all sorts of food, including newly hatched brineshrimp if possible. Do a 50% water change and syphon out the gunk on the bottom every day. Keep the temperature around 28C and the fry should reach an inch in about 2 months.

Generally the bigger the tank, the faster they grow. If you don't have a spare tank then buy a plastic storage crate and use that to keep the fry in. You can pick up 120litre (30gallon) plastic storage crates pretty cheap. Just treat it like a tank and do water changes each day and put a filter in it.