Help please with pregnant molly

[sarah5775]

Hi. I'm new to the whole tropical fish thing, and very new to mollies. I have a pregnant molly. I have put her in a net breeder and expect her to give birth any day now. I was told at the pet store that I need to feed the molly babies 5x a day. I can't do that, because I have to go to work! What can I do to provide food for them while I'm away? Should I buy a ten gallon tank to put them in and feed them extra so they can eat it? Do I have to worry about cycling the new tank for the babies? Should I get one of those weekend feeder things and let them eat that when I'm not home? Should I take my fabric plant which is covered with algae (Should've bought just plastic ones at the fish store) and put it in the net breeder so they can eat the algae? Help!

[Zagz]

Welcome to AA! First you don't have to feed 5x per day, feed flake food, crushed up very small. They won't eat the algae. The breeder net may stress the mother more than leaving her in the main tank. What size tank and what other inhabitants? Mollies will eat their own fry so even in a breeder net you may not be able to save them. If you have a lot of hiding places the fry stand a better chance in the main tank depending on your tank inhabitants. If you choose to get a 10 gal for the fry, you will need to cycle it. You can use some seeded media from the exsisting tank to jumpstart the cycle.

[sarah5775]

Thanks, and thanks for the welcome!!
Here's what I have

a male molly
a pair of platys
three neon tetras
a blue gourami
two silver tetras
four lemon tetras
1 small pleco
1 chinese catfish

I have some floating plants, a little house/cave, and some plastic plants. I have been wanting to add more plants- should I get some big bushy ones for the babies to hide in? Would that work?

[Zagz]

It would help a lot IMO. Mollies do eat their own fry as well as the other fish. The catfish will probably find them the easiest. A 10 gal would be good if you can catch the fry or if you can remove the mother as soon as the babies are born. If she seems stressed, take her out and watch as often as possible to try and catch the fry. Mollies close to giving birth get squared off at the back as well as if they aren't black, their gravid spots become really obvious. Quite often a molly close to giving birth looks as if she will explode she will get so big.

[Alshain]

Your tank is too stocked with little hiding space. My personal experience is that I used a breeder chamber, this kept most of the fry from getting eaten before I got the mother out. I then moved them to a fry tank.

[Zagz]

The tank is a 29 gal correct? IMO not overstocked is properly filtered with regular water changes. Once the fry get bigger you will need a tank for them.