Dalmation Molly fry - Aquarium Advice

neurotik · 07-04-2009, 05:44 PM

So I was looking closely at my 55 gallon planted tank this afternoon and I noticed a little molly fry swimming around in some of the thick background plants. I looked a bit closer and I discovered three more. Pretty big surprise to me, but it's really cool. I was wondering what I should do at this point to keep them healthy and make sure they survive and grow properly. I tried to get them in a net really quick when I first noticed them, but my tank is so heavily planted and they're so tiny/fast that it was next to impossible to do so. Would they be safe in the tank if there is plenty of thick plants for them to hide in? They seem to be staying in all of the plants right now as it is, and I have not noticed any of my other fish bothering them as of yet, but I'm sure that could easily change over time.

If I do need to separate them into a different tank, is there an easier way to catch the little guys? I'll be doing my weekly water change tomorrow morning, so I was thinking maybe trying to grab them then once I have 50% of my water removed, but even then I think it will be almost impossible unless I get really lucky due to all of the plants I have in the back of the tank and with them being as tiny as they are.

Any help is appreciated! I'm pretty excited that I have some fry and I've been wanting to set up a smaller tank with some mollies for my girlfriend later this summer because she thinks they're adorable, so I thought it would be really cool to make sure these ones survive and use them to put in the tank I set up for her later.

HN1 · 07-04-2009, 05:55 PM

Congrats on the fry!

With enough places to hide, thick plants are a huge plus, they should be fine. No gaurantee though. Your only chance to net them will probably be during the water change as you mentioned. Hopefully someone will have a useful trick up their sleeve. The only fry I caught were out of bare bottom breeding tanks so it was easy.

neurotik · 07-04-2009, 06:33 PM

Well, they definitely have a ton of places to hide amongst the thick plants. The other fish usually don't even go that deep into the background plants anyway, so as long as the fry stay back there like they have been I think they should be pretty safe.

What is the best way to feed them? I highly doubt they'll be coming up to the surface to eat any time soon like the other fish, but I guess I could be wrong. And any food I put in the tank is probably going to get eaten by the others first anyway. I've noticed the fry seem to be nibbling at the plants as they are swimming through them, but I'm not sure if they're actually eating anything from them or if that is even sufficient nutrition for them until they get bigger.

HN1 · 07-04-2009, 06:36 PM

Your best bet to get food to them may be BBS. You can hatch them yourself or use frozen thawed in tank water. That way you can pour them into the tank and get them down into the plants for the fry.

neurotik · 07-04-2009, 06:44 PM

Sounds good. I'll get some frozen ones on Monday, unless you think I should worry about feeding them sooner than that? I only say Monday due to holidays and such this weekend.

HN1 · 07-04-2009, 07:05 PM

They should be ok. Having established plants is definitely a good thing. The fry have probably been grazing on microfauna and such.

DizzCat · 07-04-2009, 09:30 PM

You can also crush some flake food into powder, soak it in water then use an eye dropper or something similar to squirt it down into the plants where they are hiding. Most adult fish ignore tiny foods like flake crushed to powder.

neurotik · 07-04-2009, 10:51 PM

That's an awesome idea with the dropper. I was actually thinking of trying something like that tomorrow, was planning on posting later to see if it would be effective. I'll do that tomorrow and see how it goes. Should they accept flake food pretty easily, or will it take them a while before they develop good eating habits?

DizzCat · 07-05-2009, 12:43 AM

They will eat fine from the beginning

neurotik · 07-05-2009, 02:29 PM

The powdered flake food and the eye dropper worked pretty well this morning. I squirted a little bit of the mixture down into the water near the fry and it seemed like they took a little nibble at one or two particles of food, so hopefully that's good enough!