Breeding Molly's Requirements

[Daral]

Hello dear enthusiasts!

I am new to the breadth thing and had a few questions:

I have a 10gal tank with 7 Female Mollies and 3 Male ones, they have plenty of space to swim in, and hide as well, 2 air pumps and a water filter.

My questions are:

1. I have had the tank with these fishes for 3 weeks now without a heater/thermometer and no one has passed away, is it recommended to have one? And if so at what temperature should the tank water be at?

2. I keep reading numerous info about water pH and hardness, so I got a small test kit and I can't get the pH to drop, I'm currently at 7.5/7.6, is this ok?
What's the optimum pH for breeding Mollys?

3. On a small separate tank I have 4 baby fry from one of these Molly try are growing really slow for some reason and the pH in that tank is 7.2 without a heater as well, why's best for the fry in regards to pH? And food I've been feeding them micro worms and powdered flakes. Is that enough?

4. Rumor has it that to induce birth water temp increase will do the job? Is this true as well?

Thanks for your time and advice, recommendations, and critics are welcomes so please post your thoughts!

-Nothing better than to be a well informed owner!

 

[rich311k]

First that is a lot of fish in a ten gallon tank. I would not keep mollies in anything less than a 20 gallon. Your PH is fine for them, leave it alone. A heater is a good idea as you will want to keep a steady temperature. 78F should be fine for them.

Fry growth is based on temperature, quality of food, quality of water etc.

 

[Somethingclever]

As far as the heater is concerned, i don't have one in mine and my fish are doing fine. A heater is recommended but as long as you keep your room at a warm temp they should be fine.

I breed mollies, but i agree 10 gallons is way to small for that many. I have a 29 gallon with 8 of them in it haha.

 

[Daral]

They are small in size, once I get my laptop I'll post the pictures but yes I do agree with small size, I'm trying to see if anyone local has a 20gal tank that wants to swap or sell so that's in the top of my to do list!

Yes the tank is in my room and sun light warms up the room but there is no direct sunlight exposure, so far so good!

I'm just concerned about the fry bc thy are now a few weeks old and yet still look so tiny, another thing I noticed but it could be just my experience, but do black Molly's have bigger fry than other Molly's?

Thanks for your advice and I will keep you updated on those changes to come.

 

[Somethingclever]

IME black molly fry are a little bigger, my dalmation mollys were tiny and stayed tiny til about a month old. Like Rich said, it all depends on heat and food and water quality. You are supposed to feed them every four hours i believe. What are you feeding them by the way?

 

[Daral]

Microworms 2x a day and crushed/powdered flacks 1x a day. Should I be soon something else? Or different?

 

[Somethingclever]

No, crushed up flakes are fine. I feed mine crushed flakes and now and then i'll drop in an algae wafer, they love em.

 

[1 LARA]

decreasing temp aids in breeding
pwc and intro cool h2o

 

[Daral]

So decreasing temp helps in breeding and increasing helps in speeding up the birth?

 

[Daral]

For the algae wafer, what brand and what type? i saw a few but the pebbles seem big.

-thanks!

 

[Somethingclever]

I use Hikari sinking wafers. They are thin lil wafers that sink straight to the bottom and the fry will usually pick at it for days. Just be careful, if you leave it in for too long it gets gross lol

 

[Daral]

How long would you say is long? I only have 4 fry in there, but soon more to come from the other Mollies.

 

[Daral]

Also, what do you think about Java Moss?

Can I introduce this plant into my tank without it harming my current residents? Will it dirty/affect my current water quality? Does it need CO2? I just keep coming across Java aka the indestructible and wanted to educate myself more on it.

Thanks once again!

 

[Somethingclever]

Like more than a couple days i usually vacuum it out. As far as the java moss i'm not sure, i have never used it. I wouldn't think it would harm anyone, but you may wanna post a seperate thread about that.

 

[Daral]

Thank you once again!

 

[Somethingclever]

Anytime