Fish had Fry HELP!!

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FLmomof2

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Apr 5, 2006
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My daughter has a 5 gallon tank that we have one Dal. Molly in along with some snails that rotate thru as food for my dwarf puffers. Any how we just got this Molly about 2 wks ago if even that long. Well just now my daughter was watching the tank as the snails moved around and she starts yelling "MOM BABY FISH". I was like no way so I go look and sure enough I can count about 5 baby fish so far and the Molly still looks rather big around.

What do I need to do for these fry... Do I need a different tank and try to get them out can they stay in this one for now then be moved up to my 29 gall. I'm full of questions as I've never had fry before.

Michele
 
how many fish do you have in the 5 gallon?

usually puffers should be kept in a species tank b/c they tend to harass other tank mates to death.

plus a molly will get a bit big for a 5 gallon unless it's the only fish in there.

The fry you have will most likely be eaten by the other inhabitants unless you manage to wrangle them all up into a breeder net (which will be quite a chanllege)

if you put the pregnant mother in the net and wait for all of the fry to come out you can take her out of the net and raise them in there

if i were you i'd get a 10 gallon tank really simple and set it up for a pair of mollys -get one more (i'd say female or the population will quickly exceed the carrying capacity of the tank) and then allow a few of the fry to grow up and leave it at that
 
Congratulations!

I'm no expert on this, but the basic principles I use to take care of my guppy fry are:
1) Make sure they don't get eaten. Most fish will eat fry (anything with a big enough mouth) including the mother! You could put them in a separate tank, but if you don't want to set up a whole new tank, you could put the fry into a breeding trap or breeding net for a week or so, until they're a little bigger. A breeding trap is a small plastic container that floats inside the main tank. A breeding net is similar but uses a net instead of rigid plastic container - they give the fry a little more room than a trap.

2) Feeding. You can get special fry food (typically liquid) at the pet store, or you could just feed them the usual flakes, crumbled into dust.​
If you plan to be dealing with fry on a regular basis, there are a lot more details you should research, but following the above principles will be fine to deal with your current little surprises!
 
FLmomof2 said:
My daughter has a 5 gallon tank that we have one Dal. Molly in along with some snails that rotate thru as food for my dwarf puffers. Any how we just got this Molly about 2 wks ago if even that long. Well just now my daughter was watching the tank as the snails moved around and she starts yelling "MOM BABY FISH". I was like no way so I go look and sure enough I can count about 5 baby fish so far and the Molly still looks rather big around.

What do I need to do for these fry... Do I need a different tank and try to get them out can they stay in this one for now then be moved up to my 29 gall. I'm full of questions as I've never had fry before.

Michele
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The dalmation molly should be in at least a 15 gallon tank...as it will grow to about 4", the 5 gallon is not adequate space. If anything, I'd let the fry stay in the 5 gallon and move the molly up to a bigger tank. Otherwise, unless you have lots of hiding space for the fry, the molly will eventually eat them all.
 
The puffers are in their own 10 gall tank for two dwaf puffers..

The five gall. tank was meant to be a snail tank for puffer food so I didn't have to put all the snails into the puffer tank at one time. My husband had taken my daughter to the pet store to pick up some food for all the pets and they came home with the dal. Molly. I really didn't want it for our 29 gall that is only half stocked at this point. So I put it in the empty (except snails) 5 gall. tank. Today it's having fry... so far since we noticed I've counted her drop 5 plus I counted about 5 before that.

How many do they normally have? I guess after she's done (how will I know), I'll add her to my 29 gall. comm freshwater tank. That will bring us up to six fish in that tank.. 4 tetras and two danio's.

Thank you for the advice... I'll do my best to keep them alive. However I don't want MORE fry so I don't know what I should do with them once they grow up maybe I can give them away.
 
FLmomof2 said:
How many do they normally have? I guess after she's done (how will I know), I'll add her to my 29 gall. comm freshwater tank. That will bring us up to six fish in that tank.. 4 tetras and two danio's.

Thank you for the advice... I'll do my best to keep them alive. However I don't want MORE fry so I don't know what I should do with them once they grow up maybe I can give them away.
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Hard to say how many she will have. She'll look slimmer when she is done. But, like other livebearers, mollies can store sperm, so she may yet have more broods...usually around 1 month apart. If you really don't want to keep fry, then just let the other fish eat them. They're good food. :)
 
ah! I'm sorry i was confused!

your plan sounds perfect- you can use the fry as feeders if you want or often your LFS will give you store credit if you bring them in once thier grown out a bit.

cheers-Kyle
 
She's still having fry as I type.. My daughter is watching the tank yelling "there she blows" with each fry that drops. UGH... why me, why did MY daughter have to pick a pregnant fish. She's such a little animal lover she'd never let me let the fry be eaten.

Thanks again...
 
if you just don't say anything and leave mom in there most of them will disapear in the night- she might not assume that mom will eat her own babies
 
FLmomof2 said:
She's still having fry as I type.. My daughter is watching the tank yelling "there she blows" with each fry that drops. UGH... why me, why did MY daughter have to pick a pregnant fish. She's such a little animal lover she'd never let me let the fry be eaten.

Thanks again...
Click to expand...

As kyle3 mentioned, the fry may just get eaten when your daughter isn't watching. However, it's not uncommon for the female to snap up the fry right after they are born (my calico platy would do this.) Besides, it's a good lesson about the cycle of life...it's what these fish would do in the wild too.
 
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