Panic! Pregnant Mollies!

[Eunified]

So I've been watching my tank and am absolutely 100% sure three of my mollies are pregnant! I have a red tailed shark that I'm pretty sure will eat any fry. Was thinking of buying a 10-gallon for fry but I don't think I have enough time to cycle it. If I take some gravel from my cycled tank, will it help move it along? I'm freaking out!

 

[jairic]

Yes it would help since the gravel holds a lot of the beneficial bacteria, Assuming your going to put a filter in this 10g tank you should let the new filter run in your cycled tank for a few days to start the bacterial colony, this should also aid in the cycling of your tank. You can also add start zyme which can be bought at most lfs's. My pregnant molly gave birth yesterday and I cycled a 10g tank for her about two weeks ago for her birthing tank. Hope this helps. Best of luck.

 

[MacDracor]

You could do that, but honestly it's probably more work than its worth. Mollies can store sperm for months and give birth numerous times from one mating. If there is any cover at all, some of the fry will survive to adulthood.

 

[Mrs.h2012]

So I've been watching my tank and am absolutely 100% sure three of my mollies are pregnant! I have a red tailed shark that I'm pretty sure will eat any fry. Was thinking of buying a 10-gallon for fry but I don't think I have enough time to cycle it. If I take some gravel from my cycled tank, will it help move it along? I'm freaking out!

I would let nature takes its course until you can get a 10g for fry if you want them to survive. As long as you provide plenty of densely planted areas with bushy plants, also some form of a floating plant bunch would be helpful too, and provide maybe a cave or two that is hidden by a lot of plants (I'm talking put plants around it so that there are places big enough for fry to get in and not adult fish). Some should survive as long as you provide some shelter for them. I had a platy that was pregnant in my 10g, not long after she had her fry I got a 30g and moved my two adult platys to it. At that point I had 5 fry. Then when I had to move my fry to the 30g community (probably about a week ago) tank I had 3 that had survived, and after a week of being in the community tank I think two have survived so far. The ones that are meant to survive will survive. The weaker ones will usually be the first to die off, kinda a harsh way to look at it but thats how it happens.

 

[Darkseid76]

You don't really need to cycle an entire new tank. I would get a 5 gallon and box filter like you see in pet stores.

You can use filter media from your main tank in the box filter. Then just use water from your main tank. No need for gravel or decor if the set up is just to raise fry large enough to not be eaten.

In my case I also added a small heater and a few clumps of java moss.

 

[Mrs.h2012]

You don't really need to cycle an entire new tank. I would get a 5 gallon and box filter like you see in pet stores.

You can use filter media from your main tank in the box filter. Then just use water from your main tank. No need for gravel or decor if the set up is just to raise fry large enough to not be eaten.

In my case I also added a small heater and a few clumps of java moss.

Water from the main tank won't help cycle a tank, it would be just as good to put in fresh conditioned water. You could use some old tank water to acclimate but honestly I think brand new conditioned water would be better.

 

[MacDracor]

True, but used filter media, as mentioned in the first bit of that, will cycle such a small tank. And as it would be used for fry, the bioload would be rather insignificant. Old tank water... well, in my experience, the fry of common livebearers such as mollies are very hardy. New water, old water... I'm not sure that it would matter a great deal. I would however add a small bit of live plant such as anacharis, hornwort, or foxtail in order to let the fry believe they are safely hidden.

 

[Fredje]

The Black red tailed shark in my tank hasn't eaten any of my baby mollies (yet?), despite that they don't hide themselves at all. It would actually not be such a bad thing if some were eaten, because another pregnant female is starting to hide herself and soon my tank will be full of mollies.