Molly Babies!!!

[HeatherW]

So excited!! found some Molly babies in my 90 gallon tank! I have been looking and looking for days now. I really thought she would have a batch around the 10th or so, but never found any. tonight we found 3 little survivors! but they don't look like newborns... maybe they are 10 days old?? any guesses?

 

[HeatherW]

Here is a pic ... Zoomed in of course

 

[ocminpin]

Are they black mollies? I haven't had those yet.. But wow they look so big!

 

[phoenixkiller]

Are they black mollies? I haven't had those yet.. But wow they look so big!

I'll say!! There is NO WAY those fish are only 10 days old. Are those 2-3 big black mollies the ones you were talking about Heather??

 

[HeatherW]

yep - these are my new additions.

so here is my story. I don't really know how long they have been in there - I honestly have been looking for them but they must be harder to find in the big tank

got my molly when she was already pregnant.
she had her first batch of fry jan 5
then had another much smaller batch close to Feb 9
moved her from the 20 gallon to the 90 gallon on feb 16 and introduced her to her new mate - Pongo, my dalmation molly.
so I was expecting another batch around march 10 or so. figured either she was already pregnant or her and Pongo did the deed and she would have a batch with him. I have been looking and last night was the first night we saw anything. just 3 babies but not really that small. so there is no way they could have been born before Feb 16. that means they have to be under 4 weeks...

what do you think?

 

[ocminpin]

yep - these are my new additions.

so here is my story. I don't really know how long they have been in there - I honestly have been looking for them but they must be harder to find in the big tank

got my molly when she was already pregnant.
she had her first batch of fry jan 5
then had another much smaller batch close to Feb 9
moved her from the 20 gallon to the 90 gallon on feb 16 and introduced her to her new mate - Pongo, my dalmation molly.
so I was expecting another batch around march 10 or so. figured either she was already pregnant or her and Pongo did the deed and she would have a batch with him. I have been looking and last night was the first night we saw anything. just 3 babies but not really that small. so there is no way they could have been born before Feb 16. that means they have to be under 4 weeks...

what do you think?

Any other mollies in the last 3 months in the 90g?

 

[HeatherW]

Here are some pics not zoomed in. Hopefully this gives a little reference and I included a pic with my little harlequin rasbora for a size reference

 

[HeatherW]

Any other mollies in the last 3 months in the 90g?

nope these are the only two. everyone is new in the tank as of 16 Feb

 

[Candi1990]

Those are very well formed to be a month old! She must have had them as soon as you put her in that tank! The thing about mollies is that they eat their babies so they have to fight to live if they are in the tank. If you see that she is pregnant again, and want to save em, take measures before she gives birth! I had baby mollies a few times, they were so much fun!

 

[phoenixkiller]

Those are very well formed to be a month old! She must have had them as soon as you put her in that tank! The thing about mollies is that they eat their babies so they have to fight to live if they are in the tank. If you see that she is pregnant again, and want to save em, take measures before she gives birth! I had baby mollies a few times, they were so much fun!

Yep, but livebearer breeding can get out of hand...

 

[Candi1990]

Yep, but livebearer breeding can get out of hand...

Yes and no. I just had jack dempsey fry and the live bearers were MUCH easier. For so many reasons. And I think the hatchlings can get out of hand much faster than the live bearers. The mollies can only have what 30-50 at a time. My Jack just had a few houndred, I dont know how many will survive but if 1/3 of them do, I have to go out and buy a new tank! And from what I understand they will drop more eggs in 4 to 6 weeks. Now THAT is out of hand. I look forward to seeing these babies grow up, these are my first JD... BUT I don think I can do another batch of these fry.

 

[phoenixkiller]

Yes and no. I just had jack dempsey fry and the live bearers were MUCH easier. For so many reasons. And I think the hatchlings can get out of hand much faster than the live bearers. The mollies can only have what 30-50 at a time. My Jack just had a few houndred, I dont know how many will survive but if 1/3 of them do, I have to go out and buy a new tank! And from what I understand they will drop more eggs in 4 to 6 weeks. Now THAT is out of hand. I look forward to seeing these babies grow up, these are my first JD... BUT I don think I can do another batch of these fry.

Well, yeah, but egglayers (Like the Jack Dempsey) produce many more fry than livebearers because the Fry Survival Rate is much lower than that of livebearers. I don't know for sure, but I thought I saw somewhere that livebearer fry mature faster than babies that were hatched... (If I am wrong, please tell me in a pleasant manner!) Anyway, livebearers are pretty hard to STOP breeding than to START them. 2 years ago, my cousin started breeding livebearers accidentally. He didn't use a breeding trap, fry tank, or special food, he just let them scavenge. His livebearer number doubled. (After this, he got a fry tank and a lot more of them survived...) So imagine having 200 babies, but they are from 4 different preggo females, and yes, livebearer breeding can get very out of hand!

 

[HeatherW]

well I love the little babies. I can already tell I am going to have problems down the road, but I can't seem to help myself! lol

I have a batch in my 20 gallon - maybe 15 fry that are about 2.5 months old (born 5 jan) and my plans are to sell those to the lfs but I cant seem to part myself with them, so I think I will save me just one female.
and I also have one lone survivor from my platy fry. I gotta save this one too right??? maybe if it is a girl it will be able to stay, but not a boy. then I would have inbreading right??
now I have just a few that were born in my 90 gallon... I saw 3 originally, then yesterday saw only one so I thought the other 2 might not have made it. but then today I see 2 now!! yay!! so who knows how many are in there - probably just the 2 but maybe 3... I will keep you up to date.

my little guys keep hiding in the bunch of anachris that I bought - have it floating on the top. I am now thinking maybe I should go out and buy another bunch to put up there with it. I was told that it made good fry hideout.

 

[Candi1990]

Well, yeah, but egglayers (Like the Jack Dempsey) produce many more fry than livebearers because the Fry Survival Rate is much lower than that of livebearers. I don't know for sure, but I thought I saw somewhere that livebearer fry mature faster than babies that were hatched... (If I am wrong, please tell me in a pleasant manner!) Anyway, livebearers are pretty hard to STOP breeding than to START them. 2 years ago, my cousin started breeding livebearers accidentally. He didn't use a breeding trap, fry tank, or special food, he just let them scavenge. His livebearer number doubled. (After this, he got a fry tank and a lot more of them survived...) So imagine having 200 babies, but they are from 4 different preggo females, and yes, livebearer breeding can get very out of hand!

Now this is my first go at the egg layers. So I dont know how many will survive. From my research, I have a chance of over half of them surviving. This will leave me with 100+ fish from ONE birth! Then she will lay more eggs in a matter of 5 to 6 weeks. I want her to because I think its super cool, but I will have to seperate her from her male because IF I have survivers I have to buy another tank.

When I had mollies I bought a second tank for the babies. They grew up, I put them up in the main tank with the parents, and after about 4 pregnancies I did have about 40 fish or so survive. But thats a drop in the bucket if I get 100 from this ONE batch! I dont know if your facts or right or not, they could very well be. Because I dont claim to be an expert I only research and try to deal with my situation... so you could be 100 percent correct on your facts. But I have done both... live and eggs... and I wont know for sure until I see the survival rate of my fry... but if I get 100 of these to live.. I will have to do something because they grow 10 times the size of the mollies, and I have to find somewhere for all of them to live, OR someone to take some of them. Lets finish this discussion in about 3 months and see where I am !

 

[phoenixkiller]

well I love the little babies. I can already tell I am going to have problems down the road, but I can't seem to help myself! lol

I have a batch in my 20 gallon - maybe 15 fry that are about 2.5 months old (born 5 jan) and my plans are to sell those to the lfs but I cant seem to part myself with them, so I think I will save me just one female.
and I also have one lone survivor from my platy fry. I gotta save this one too right??? maybe if it is a girl it will be able to stay, but not a boy. then I would have inbreading right??
now I have just a few that were born in my 90 gallon... I saw 3 originally, then yesterday saw only one so I thought the other 2 might not have made it. but then today I see 2 now!! yay!! so who knows how many are in there - probably just the 2 but maybe 3... I will keep you up to date.

my little guys keep hiding in the bunch of anachris that I bought - have it floating on the top. I am now thinking maybe I should go out and buy another bunch to put up there with it. I was told that it made good fry hideout.

If you want to save the lone platy fry, you will have to place him in a tank where none of the fish in there are in any way related to him. Inbreeding must be the technical term, because I always called in incest. The result of incest is bent spines in guppies, and growth deformities in mollies and platys. I hope you can prevent inbreeding!

 

[phoenixkiller]

Now this is my first go at the egg layers. So I dont know how many will survive. From my research, I have a chance of over half of them surviving. This will leave me with 100+ fish from ONE birth! Then she will lay more eggs in a matter of 5 to 6 weeks. I want her to because I think its super cool, but I will have to seperate her from her male because IF I have survivers I have to buy another tank.

When I had mollies I bought a second tank for the babies. They grew up, I put them up in the main tank with the parents, and after about 4 pregnancies I did have about 40 fish or so survive. But thats a drop in the bucket if I get 100 from this ONE batch! I dont know if your facts or right or not, they could very well be. Because I dont claim to be an expert I only research and try to deal with my situation... so you could be 100 percent correct on your facts. But I have done both... live and eggs... and I wont know for sure until I see the survival rate of my fry... but if I get 100 of these to live.. I will have to do something because they grow 10 times the size of the mollies, and I have to find somewhere for all of them to live, OR someone to take some of them. Lets finish this discussion in about 3 months and see where I am !

Yeah, you could be right as well, it all depends on the amount of livebearer fry verses the Jack Dempsey fry. I used to want to breed cichlids, but I realized that selling cichlids would be harder than selling livebearers, which is hard enough as it is. I'll stick with livebearers!

 

[Candi1990]

Yeah, you could be right as well, it all depends on the amount of livebearer fry verses the Jack Dempsey fry. I used to want to breed cichlids, but I realized that selling cichlids would be harder than selling livebearers, which is hard enough as it is. I'll stick with livebearers!

Yes I dont understand that!! They are more expensive, why are they so darn hard to sell??? Pet stores wont take them until they are much bigger anyway. And I could care less about the money I just want them to have good homes. I cant keep em all.

Some people posted that they keep thiers and use them to feed to the others. I definitely cant do that. I have no idea what I will do if I have 100 survivors. NO idea!

 

[phoenixkiller]

Yes I dont understand that!! They are more expensive, why are they so darn hard to sell??? Pet stores wont take them until they are much bigger anyway. And I could care less about the money I just want them to have good homes. I cant keep em all.

Some people posted that they keep thiers and use them to feed to the others. I definitely cant do that. I have no idea what I will do if I have 100 survivors. NO idea!

They are harder to sell because they have more specialized needs than your average livebearer. I would just post an ad on Craigslist now so that when someone actually asks for one, they will be pretty big.

 

[HeatherW]

If you want to save the lone platy fry, you will have to place him in a tank where none of the fish in there are in any way related to him. Inbreeding must be the technical term, because I always called in incest. The result of incest is bent spines in guppies, and growth deformities in mollies and platys. I hope you can prevent inbreeding!

well that is why i was kinda hoping it is a girl. if it is a boy then they will obviously breed... that would not be good. but I figure I have a little while to figure it out. this guys is still so small I am not sure he has the mickey mouse ears on his tail yet! I keep looking, but he is so small I am just not sure. I figure he was born around 24 Feb so he is just coming up on 4 weeks.

 

[phoenixkiller]

well that is why i was kinda hoping it is a girl. if it is a boy then they will obviously breed... that would not be good. but I figure I have a little while to figure it out. this guys is still so small I am not sure he has the mickey mouse ears on his tail yet! I keep looking, but he is so small I am just not sure. I figure he was born around 24 Feb so he is just coming up on 4 weeks.

Well, keep an eye on him, and prepare to find a home for him if he is a male. Keep me posted!