Dalmation Molly Fry Care!

[AmiLou]

A week ago my Dalmation Molly gave birth to about 20 fry on the 20/2.
I would just like some advice, at the moment they are in a breeder box that floats in the tank with the other fish. I am feeding them the flaked food that the other fish eat and they seem to be growing okay.
I was just wondering if keeping them in the breeder box with so many will actually stunt their growth ...? Also how long does it take for them to be "fully grown"?
I have 8 Neon Tetras and a Peppered Catfish also in the tank with my 3 adult mollies.

Any advice accepted!! This is my first time having fry and I want to make sure everything goes smoothly
Thankyou
Amy

[GuppyLover]

First off how big is the breeder box? And congrats on the fry!

[dbeckwit]

Congrats! I've got 5 fry I iust recently noticed as well. They are 1/2" and haven't been eaten yet with similar tank mates. Maybe I got lucky. In any case, you might be alrite releasing to general pop. At that size? Took roughly 3-4 days.
Anyone else chime in?

[AmiLou]

Originally Posted by GuppyLover

First off how big is the breeder box? And congrats on the fry!

The breeder box is approx 20cm by 6cm and thankyou. They were in with the "big fish" but the tetras starting picking on them, hense why I brough the breeder box x

[GuppyLover]

Thats pretty small so I see your concern. What I suggest doing is going to a cheap pet store or LFS and buying a 2-5 gallon tank and setting it up, it would be easy with a 2 gallon, all you would need is a heater and a sponge filter which would cost like $15 total. Then you would just take the water out of the community tank, put it in the new one and replace the water with dechlorinated water. If you don't want another tank then you could always buy a tank divider. You mainly have small fish so if you don't mind loseing a few put them in the tank. My only worry would be that one of the mollies might decide to make a snack out of a few. How big are the mollies?

[jmk49a87]

Originally Posted by GuppyLover

Thats pretty small so I see your concern. What I suggest doing is going to a cheap pet store or LFS and buying a 2-5 gallon tank and setting it up, it would be easy with a 2 gallon, all you would need is a heater and a sponge filter which would cost like $15 total. Then you would just take the water out of the community tank, put it in the new one and replace the water with dechlorinated water. If you don't want another tank then you could always buy a tank divider. You mainly have small fish so if you don't mind loseing a few put them in the tank. My only worry would be that one of the mollies might decide to make a snack out of a few. How big are the mollies?

That is what we have. A 2 gallon tank w/sponge filter just for fry. You might find you don't need the heater though. I found that the light that comes with a 2 gallon tank sufficiently heats the water.

If you can't find a sponge filter at your local pet store, you can find them online. They don't cost a lot but in my opinion work a lot better for fry. Before we set up the fry tank, I was losing fry because they were getting sucked into the filter intake. HTH

[AmiLou]

Originally Posted by GuppyLover

Thats pretty small so I see your concern. What I suggest doing is going to a cheap pet store or LFS and buying a 2-5 gallon tank and setting it up, it would be easy with a 2 gallon, all you would need is a heater and a sponge filter which would cost like $15 total. Then you would just take the water out of the community tank, put it in the new one and replace the water with dechlorinated water. If you don't want another tank then you could always buy a tank divider. You mainly have small fish so if you don't mind loseing a few put them in the tank. My only worry would be that one of the mollies might decide to make a snack out of a few. How big are the mollies?

My mollies are about 2 inches long. The fry are getting bigger now so I'm deciding weather or not to place them back in the tank when they get to 3 weeks.
I would buy a new tank but I can't really afford it at the moment. All my wages from my weekend job go onto college. How much would a tank divider be and would it have vents in it so the water circulates?

[GuppyLover]

Here is a nice one:
http://www.petco.com/product/112552/...t=OnSiteSearch

[AmiLou]

Ahhh brilliant Thankyou I will look into it

[GuppyLover]

Okay, Let me know what you decide on

[dudeofrude]

My Molly fry are about a week old and they have been in the tank with guppies, mollies, swordtails and plecs. All are doing fine, they can easily outswim the bigger fish. Just make sure you have plenty of places for them to hide. I've found the fake grass is good for them to take refuge in, plus it does well at catching bits of food for them.