Dalmation Molly fry

[DizzCat]

They will nibble at it all day now.

[neurotik]

Even if it sank to the bottom after a while? They also seem to be getting more comfortable with their surroundings and are starting to come towards the front of the tank a bit more now, hopefully this does not make them easy targets for any other fish in my tank. So far they're all still safe, just did my PWC for the week and all is good for now.

[HN1]

If the other fish are well fed, they may not be in a mood to hunt at all so the fry may be fine.

[neurotik]

That's what I've been thinking too. I have been making sure that my fish are well fed (although I always do that anyways), but making sure not to overfeed them. Hopefully that will be enough to deter them from snacking on my little fry. The fry seem like they're starting to school together now too -- every time I spot one the others are right with him as well, swimming amongst the plants in a little group. It's too cute!

[neurotik]

Just thought I'd update this thread since it is the end of the week and I like to keep my ongoing threads pretty up to date with my progress and results. Three of my fry have grown a noticeable amount just within this one week, they are definitely much larger in comparison to the other two smaller ones. They are starting to eat better as well, when some of the pieces of flake food get sent throughout my tank after the initial feeding frenzy each morning, they are always hanging out near the bottom catching all the pieces as they float around, it's fun to watch!

None of my other fish (surprisingly) have eaten any of them, even since the fry have become more comfortable within the tank and have begun swimming all around it, rather than just hiding in the plants. They even go under a piece of driftwood that my big pictus catfish hides out under and he never bothers them. I've seen a danio swim over to them once or twice if they got real close, but never pursued them beyond that. The same goes with my clown loaches.

I'm glad they are doing well, hopefully they will continue growing and eventually be as big and healthy as their parents I just need to figure out what to do with them now, haha. I suppose I could put one or two in one of my other tanks, but the rest I will probably give away or try to sell if I can find anyone interested.

That's all I've got for this set of updates!

[hacket]

That's great that they are surviving. Hopefully nothing will happen!

What fish do you have in the tank with them? I've seen you mention a few, but what's the entire list?

[neurotik]

I've got 3 Giant Danios, 3 Dalmation Mollies (2 females, 1 male), 2 Pink Kissing Gouramis, 1 Rainbow Shark, 3 Clown Loaches, 2 BN Plecos, and 2 Pictus Catfish. They all seem to get along quite well together, haven't had a single problem with any of them so far besides two of the loaches getting Ich a while back. Oh, and 5 Dalmation Molly Fry (obviously)

I'll be moving my loaches to a larger tank in the coming year(s) once they get larger. They've had one or two nice little growth spurts since I got them, but they are still small enough to be in their current tank.

[neurotik]

I snapped a couple pictures of my fry a few minutes ago while I was doing my water change and stuff. They aren't the best of quality, but it's as good as I could do do with how tiny and quick they are. Enjoy!

[neurotik]

Wanted to bump this thread real quick to ask one more question. I plan on probably only keeping one of the fry once they grow bigger, so I'm either going to sell the others or give them away locally to a friend or someone at my LFS if they are interested. How old should the fry be before I should begin trying to get rid of them? I can already notice since last week how much they have grown in size, and they are all over the place in my tank just swimming along side of all of my other fish and none of them even bother the fry at all, it's really surprising (and cool)!

[HN1]

You can sell or give them away whenever. As long as they don't go into a tank where they'll be seen as snacks...

If you sell them, I'd grow them out for 3-6 months. That's about when I used to sell all the fry I raised.