A few fry....very few... - Aquarium Advice

daydreamer4186 · 03-20-2006, 06:35 PM

So far my fry count is up to 14 fry (11 guppies & 3 mollies). This is between several mothers! I have 2 female mollies...1 had 3 fry (1 still born) and the other had 2 fry (1 still born). As for the guppies, the highest number that I have discovered (got to witness one having her fry) is 4 from one female. I have heard from others as well as read many times that they usually have a lot of fry so I don't know why my fish don't seem to. All of the fry are perfectly healthy and growing well...there just aren't very many. Any idea what is going on with my fish?

**Zagz** · 03-20-2006, 07:24 PM

It is extremely likely that your other fish may have eaten several of the babies.

Florida8 · 03-20-2006, 07:27 PM

yep, even the moms will eat them. Do you have a breeding box or net that hangs on the aquarium? It helps quite a bit and they can grow out in there for a little bit too. Just add a little floating plants for them to hide in.

DepotFish · 03-20-2006, 08:33 PM

People can get pretty crazy with their exagerations. Maybe a few people actually do have hundreds of fry. Our guppy tank never has more than a dozen at a time. They eat so many that they control themselves. I never had a take over of snails either but then again some people have.

**Zagz** · 03-20-2006, 11:33 PM

My guppy tank used to be like that but added some live plants and now there is so much cover that I discovered over 50 of the little fry!

, Thinking the plants may have to go into another tank! That is way more fry than I need!

daydreamer4186 · 03-21-2006, 05:12 PM

Yay good news! My molly had 3 more fry during the night! I'm pretty sure that the mom has eaten some each time. I do have a breeder net hanging on the side with some light gravel in the bottom. I'm getting good at figuring out when they are about to have their fry. Now I have 17 fry (guppy/molly) total. I guess I should be happy that I'm not completely overrun with fry! Thanks for the help!

woodsplace1 · 03-21-2006, 11:29 PM

daydreamer...you mentioned you were getting pretty good at noticing when your molly was getting ready to deliver. Any advice for me, mine looks like she is going to bust any moment...did you do anything to expedite it? It seems like she has been ready for weeks now. Thanks!

Big Ben · 03-22-2006, 12:09 AM

what are all your male/female ratios? And do any of you know if balloon mollies can mate with regular mollies? I have a male black molly that looks kinda small (inch and a half maybe) and a female balloon and i used to have another female who died that looked like a normal white one...they were all suposively balloons but only one had the big belly. Is a 1 male to 2 female ratio good enough to end up with some fry?

fish_4_all · 03-22-2006, 11:35 AM

With my experience with swords, platies and guppies, they have broods that can be from 2-50. I have seen the largest female sword looking like she was ready to explode drop only 4-5 babies and then one that looks very small but you can see the babies eyes in here tummy, drop 35. It could have to do with the ration of male to female. 3:1 will keep them happy but produce less babies if there is only one male. Has to spread himself too much to the others to produce large patches. 2 males to 5 females works well to produce large batches. Lets of plants will also help the babies to survive by providing lots of cover that the mother will give birth in and provide their first food source withut feeding them. I found 27 sword fry in a bunch of java moss that I didn't even know had been born.

IMO, I would be much happier with smaller batches. The female is much less stressed out and the babies always seem to be happier and healthier. I plan to start breeding BN plecos and will probably go 1 male to 2 females just to get multiple broods but hopefully smaller than 100 at a time they have been known to have.

daydreamer4186 · 03-22-2006, 08:09 PM

woodsplace1, When some of my fish are ready to drop they swim up and down in the tank as if they are following something. One of my guppies would just kind of hover and then flick/jerk and stop again in another spot. You really just have to kind of know how they act normally and then if they start acting different, it might be that time!

As for my ratio...there are 3 female mollies to one male (used to be two males though but one died). So that may be why. My guppies always had a ratio of about 2-3 males to 4-5 females but I got 4 fry max. Oh well...I'm kind of happy with lower amounts...this way I don't have to worry about having too many and no room! One of the new ones died last night though...16 fry total now.