What To Do ?

[little nipper]

in my tank i have 3 pregnant fish ,1) guppy ,2) white sail fin molly,3) orange/black marble molly ,i noticed 2 days ago that there were some small yellow yolk looking sacks in one corner of the tank which the other fish ate before i had a chance to get a pic !!
1) any idea's as to what these were ??
2) is it ok to put both the preggers molly's into the same breeding net??
3) what chance do the fry have if i leave them to fend for themselves in the tank ??

any help greatly recieved as my kids are very excited about becoming parents
now of to use the search button

 

[fatheadminnow]

in my tank i have 3 pregnant fish ,1) guppy ,2) white sail fin molly,3) orange/black marble molly ,i noticed 2 days ago that there were some small yellow yolk looking sacks in one corner of the tank which the other fish ate before i had a chance to get a pic !!
1) any idea's as to what these were ??
2) is it ok to put both the preggers molly's into the same breeding net??
3) what chance do the fry have if i leave them to fend for themselves in the tank ??

any help greatly recieved as my kids are very excited about becoming parents
now of to use the search button

I would say those are eggs, and if they lay again, take the eggs out and put them into a separate tank and raise them there. That is if you want to keep them. If you keep them in the same tank as the bigger fish, they will most likely be eaten. You will then have to do research on how to raise them as well; not too hard. It also is very normal for the female to eat the eggs.
-FHM

 

[little nipper]

thanks but i thought the fish were livebearers ??

 

[little nipper]

now of to bed but will check for responses in the morning

 

[fatheadminnow]

thanks but i thought the fish were livebearers ??

Yes, you are right, sorry about that, I was thinking about Cichlids, which are not live bearers. I am not quite sure what the yellow yolk looking sacks are. Unless they are un-fertilized eggs. Sometimes the male will get stressed out from moving around a lot from tank to tank when buying the fish and during shipping, and will become sterile. Also, I would not recommend putting 2 pregnant molly's in the same breeding net, someone correct me if I am wrong. I would just get two breeding nets. The fry should survive just fine inside the tank, just as long as you have a LOT of plants and hiding places for them. This will allow the fry to hide, and also, it slows down the older fish that are trying to navigate through all the obstacles. Also, to feed the fry, take some flake food, put it in a plastic back and crush it up into a powder. The food will now be small enough for the fry to eat.
-FHM

 

[fatheadminnow]

now of to bed but will check for responses in the morning

Just thought I would say it is 3:00 in the afternoon here...lol.

 

[OldMan47]

The yellow things are eggs. It means that one of the fish has aborted some undeveloped fry. It does happen. If all of the fish in your tank are the 3 that you listed, and you have lots of plants planted tight together for a dense cover, some of the fry will survive in that tank if you do nothing but keep the fish well fed. If all you had was a single female molly, you might even get away with just leaving well enough alone and get lots of fry like I do. This picture of my female was taken the day she delivered her fry. It is now almost 6 weeks later and all are still living with her in the birthing tank.

If you want a very high survival rate, you could use a breeder for a female. One to a breeder is a good rule because you don't want one fish following the other around eating sushi, especially with the kids watching and asking questions. If you have a way to do it, the best of all methods would be to put the female molly into her own birthing tank, as in the picture above, with some decent cover. Depending on the particular molly, you might need to move her back right after she gives birth but you could get lucky and have a very gentle mother like I do. I suggest the molly because she is much more likely to ignore her fry than a guppy would be.

 

[fatheadminnow]

The yellow things are eggs. It means that one of the fish has aborted some undeveloped fry. It does happen. If all of the fish in your tank are the 3 that you listed, and you have lots of plants planted tight together for a dense cover, some of the fry will survive in that tank if you do nothing but keep the fish well fed. If all you had was a single female molly, you might even get away with just leaving well enough alone and get lots of fry like I do. This picture of my female was taken the day she delivered her fry. It is now almost 6 weeks later and all are still living with her in the birthing tank.

If you want a very high survival rate, you could use a breeder for a female. One to a breeder is a good rule because you don't want one fish following the other around eating sushi, especially with the kids watching and asking questions. If you have a way to do it, the best of all methods would be to put the female molly into her own birthing tank, as in the picture above, with some decent cover. Depending on the particular molly, you might need to move her back right after she gives birth but you could get lucky and have a very gentle mother like I do. I suggest the molly because she is much more likely to ignore her fry than a guppy would be.

OldMan47,
Have you ever had any fry get sucked up into the filter or stuck to the inlet nozzle? I was just thinking about it and thought I would ask.

Neat picture by the way!

-FHM

 

[OldMan47]

As a matter of fact, I rescued a Xenotoca eiseni fry that looked to be about a month old from my canister filter just this past weekend. When you realize that a newborn Xenotoca is about 1.5 cm long, it must have been living in the filter for most of a month. In tanks with vigorous water filters or small fry, I place a sponge replacement filter cartridge over the suction tube of the filter. The one in that tank can barely move enough water to call it a filter at all.

Sponge insert in place on a filter tube in my Heterandria formosa tank

 

[little nipper]

thanks for the help ,gonna buy myself a breeder tank & some plants