Help; baby mollies!

noodles62

noodles62

Just Noods......
Apr 17, 2008
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Real Name
Dawn
:help:Well, ok. I picked up one, (only one!) Dalmatian Molly today and she is giving birth!!!! One fry so far. I only got one cause I did not want to overpopulate the planet with fry!!! How many can she possibly have? How long can this go on?!!?! Please help! :wall:

Correction! 3 fry so far! AAAHHHH!!!!
I know I should have known better. Doh!
 
My Platignum Sailfin Molly has had two batches of fry so far ( i have a pair that are prolific breeders) each time about thirty have survived. I have been told that there were probably more but they get eaten.Due to have another batch any day now. Have got a spotted corydora now to help keep the numbers down and I have also got neon tetras and glowlights which also apparently keep numbers down. But I have come to the decision that they are probably vegetarian!!I have a friendly lfs that takes my babies after about four to six weeks. So now you are a granma!!congratulations.
 
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I think I read somewhere that she can carry eggs and keep delivering for some time; but I could be mistaken. What do I feed the fry? She is (was!) alone in the tank so no chance of anyone getting eaten unless she does it herself!
 
Yes I have heard that too so in your case its wait and see. My fry have eaten the same flake that i put in for the others i also us micro pellets as they sink faster. But its not long before the little ones join the big ones. It is possible that the mother will eat some fry. I have tried hatching baskets but the mother got so stressed it wasnt worth it, I let nature take its course. My substrate is lava so the fry hide in that for a day or so and i have plants for them to hide in.
 
I have sand substrate but they are hiding in the plants. She is dropping them two at a time now! Ouch!!! I think we are up to 8 or so! UGH!!!Anybody want some dalmatian mollies! LMAO
 
I usually crush some flakes up and feed the babies that.
Oh and CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! My Gambusia (another livebearer) just had >20 on Saturday! They are already taking crushed flakes... even though they are little slivers of fish!
 
Well, we are up to 10-12 babies, 1 still birth and several, what appear to be little yolk balls w/ eyes littering my pretty white pool sand! LOL
She is considerably thinner thus I am hoping she is finished for the time being.......More to follow, if more follow! :nilly:
 
I had a molly drop fry about 2 weeks ago and there are about 30 to 40 of them today. They are swimming around too much for me to count them easily or accurately. The female will eat fry so if you want to keep some fry your choices are to separate them from the female or give them lots of places to hide. In my case I had a big community tank that the mother could go to so I have many of the original drop but I saw her eat a few before I removed her. The tank the fry are in has a fair amount of cover but not enough to save all the fry that I wanted.
The little egg looking things are immature fry that will not likely make it. As JM1212 said 50 is a typical brood of fry but it could go as high as 75 or as low as 20 without being too unusual. Molly fry are quite large compared to most livebearers so they can easily eat crushed flake food and even things like frozen daphnia.
 
Oy Vay! What a wild ride this will be..............:22_yikes:

Will keep you posted as things progress and maybe even some baby pictures in the near future. (Aren't grandmas obnoxious w/ the baby pics!?!?) LOL
 
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