Molly fry experience, anyone?

Charise

Charise

AC Members
Apr 9, 2008
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Boondocks, Pennsylvania
I was just wondering how long it takes Molly fry to reach a good size (big enough to un-rig my filter so it doesn't suck them up). Right now they are 2 weeks and 2 days old and they've gotten about double their size at birth :)

Also, the mother is a yellowish-orange balloon molly, but all the fry right now look like dalmation mollies...do they all look like this at first before they get their real color? They seem to end up with more spots on them each day, so I'm not sure if the father was a dalmation or if this is just how their color develops.

Thanks in advance!
 
Usually you will be able to tell the coloring of the fry almost immediately. I would say by the way you are describing it that the father is a dalmation.

Marinemom
 
Unless you are running with a powerful filter flow, a molly fry would be able to swim away from it virtually from birth since they are so large at birth. On the other hand 3 or 4 weeks would give it a fighting chance to escape mom.
 
Mine got sucked into the (10 gallon)filter after they were several weeks old...I lost most of them
 
Yea, I think they're a little too small for the filter still. I have a piece of screen "netting" (for screen doors) rubber-banded on the filter.

I moved the 4 adults to my 15 today (which they really seem to be enjoying!), so I have the babies in the 10 right now. I guess I'll just wait and have hands-on learning about how fast they grow and whatnot.
 
Is the screen stuff soft enough to not scratch the little guys? I buy a cheap net, cut the netting part off and rubberband it around the filter.

Mine are all dalmation as well. They are SO cute! THey are about 2 1/2 months old and plenty big enough to mix with the adults (I too just upgraded to a 55g :)
Isn't it fun???
 
Yea, the screen is pretty soft. They've been in there for 2 weeks with no problems :)

Aww do they look like a "real fish" yet or still baby-looking?

Yes, it's fun :). I bought the Mollies for my 3 year old and my 16 month old (though I'm sure you can tell who cares about them lol). They day after we bought them "mama" had the babies. Pleasant surprise, though I kinda freaked out and was like, "OMG what do I do!!?!?!?" But after reading up on the subject online, I saw that you should remove the parents, but I didn't have that option, and none of the 4 adults ever ate one baby. So I guess I got lucky!
 
When my baby molly (PeeWee) was born, he was pretty much see-through...all you could see was these big black eyes. Once he started to get older he turned a greyish color and now he is about 3 months old and is totally black...at first I thought he was a she and was going to be just a bla nothing of a color but now i can clearly distinguish that he is a he. I'd say i was able to tell the sex of him after he was a month old but of course it will vary for everyone when you're able to tell the sex of the fish depending on the living conditions of the fish and what/how much they're fed and so on. Good luck! Aren't they so cute?? I told myself i would keep only these 3 babies and not try to save the next batch but everytime new ones are born i find myself freaking out and running for the net to try and catch them hahaha.
 
Well I'm glad your's changed colors since birth! That gives me hope that I won't have a bunch of spotted fish hehe. I want to seperate the males and females asap, but I checked them all out today and they all look like females right now..??? Guess only time will tell.
 
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