So apparently one of my fish has given birth and I have no clue what to do. I made a point of getting all male or all female fish of the species because I'm not knowledgable enough about fish to handle fry, but I guess I'm going to learn! The fry are black so I'm assuming they're from one of my dalmatian mollies. I took them out of the tank and put them in my water-changing bucket, but separating them is the extent of my fry knowledge. Can anyone tell me what I need to do here?
Help! I have fry and don't know what to do
- Thread starter Luna
- Start date
Are you wanting to keep them? If yes you should get some liquifry (at LFS) and feed it to them, or get some other form of food meant for fry. Make sure you keep their water as warm as the tank water, and as clean. How many are there? If you plan on keeping them you can sell or give them away to an LFS. What size is the tank you have now? And what fish are in it?
I don't know if I should keep them, because the only extra tank I have now is a 10 gallon. Whatever they grow up to be probably wouldn't be too happy in a 10 gallon!
I found four of them. The tank is a 75 gallon, with five zebra danios, three dalmatian mollies, two dwarf gouramis, a guppy, five neon tetras, and a ghost shrimp.
I found four of them. The tank is a 75 gallon, with five zebra danios, three dalmatian mollies, two dwarf gouramis, a guppy, five neon tetras, and a ghost shrimp.
You can skip liquifry if you want to save the money. If you do intend to raise these fry they'll need a place to live (a five gallon bucket is actually fine), a heater and I suggest a sponge filter. Make sure the heater is not touching the bucket at all. I'd hate a hole to melt in the plastic and you find a puddle of dead baby fish the next day. Really, without the sponge being cycled, it's going to be tough. For food, feed crushed flake food (and I mean finely crushed, it works fine.) Feed 3 times a day. If you don't feel ready for fry... well, they make good food for other fish. If you can cope with it, you could always place them back int the main tank and let nature take its course. If you want to help a few survive in the main tank, floating plants would work well. Hornwort is very good for fry. Anacharis is a decent plant for them as well.
If the tank is planted and provides hiding places, the fry should be okay in there. You can always leave them in and if they survive and you don't want them, you could give them or sell them like I suggested before.
How big do they have to be before an LFS will take them?
They probably prefer them almost full grown, if not completely full grown. They are not as colourful when they are young, as they are when they are grown, so the LFS may see this as a poor selling feature. However, you could speak with them and see what they prefer, there's some that would probably take them when they're younger. If they're too young, they might feed them to their other fish.
While four mollies would live in a 10 gallon, I have to say my mollies are very, very active fish. I wouldn't put them in anything smaller than a 20 long and honestly, I'd be hard pressed after seeing how much fun they have in my 29 gallon, to put adults in anything smaller than that.