Mollies Mollies everywhere!!!

[Floyd R Turbo]

Oh my god, I just doubled the population in my fry tank from 17 or 19 to almost 40! My Molly just had her babies! I noticed a few hours ago that her vent had opened up. So I did a quick 4 gallon change in my 10g fry tank w/16-17 week old guppy fry in it, transferred 4g out of the 55g, then topped off the 55 with fresh water. This is my daily routine 'cause our pH is so high it would shock the 10g. Then I netted her and put her in a ziplock, and set that in the 10g, the pH/temp are identical, just firgured it was a good idea. Less than 5 minutes later, I see a tail sticking out of her canal. Before I could get her out of the bag, 2 were out. In a matter of less than 10 minutes, she had dropped about 17 or 18 fry and 1 egg, which she quickly ate. I suck at taking pics, but it doesn't matter 'cause they're all hiding out in the hornwort. It looks cool to the naked eye, to see all these fry just hanging out and recovering. Here's a full tank shot anyways.

So I think there's around 16 1 week old guppy fry and 18 or 19 molly fry. I'm gonna need a bigger tank. CR@P!!

 

[FastFly67]

i'm still waiting on my platy to pop
what do you mean by her 'vents opened'

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

It's kind of hard to explain. You have to watch her closely and wait until she's turned away from you, then right in front of the anal fin you will see an area around her anus that looks like it is opening up. I suppose much like a human birth, her birth canal starts to expand and it becomes visibly larger. That, and she was hovering near the gravel, and sort of hiding behind things. This was very unusual for her, as she is a total spaz whenever you walk past the tank, rushing toward the surface waiting for food.

I don't know about platies, but I'm assuming you should see the same behaviour. Plus I noticed a few days ago that she started to 'square off', which I'm assuming means that the babies got big enough to push toward the back of her body. Also I noticed that 2 nights ago when I shined a flashlight on her, her abdomen reflected blueish in color. She's a big creamsicle orange lyretail, and there is a silver sailfin male and a dalmation lyretail which I thought was a female, but he's staying small so I guess it's a male, so hard to tell 'cause he's got very long finnage.

I literally bagged her within 5 minutes of delivery, otherwise the other 25 fish in my 55 would have gotten a great meal. Now I just have to figure out what to do with an overstocked 10g fry tank. Any suggestions? All the babies appear to have survived, 1/2 swimming around, the other 1/2 enjoying the mass of hornwort at the surface. I'll have to use a turkey baster to get an accurate count, guppy fry included. I started with 19 of those and can only count 16.

I also have a big Mystery snail which you can see in the pic that has produced at least 6 offspring, it's a bare tank and they just appear out of nowhere. I have 3 that are at least a couple weeks old and just found 1 more, and accidentally killed one when I took out the fake plants, found him at the bottom of a dry bucket and thought it was a rock. Rocks don't squish when you pick them up though. Oops.

 

[JWALK2828]

so where are you saying the snail came from.. my aquarium is totally artificial.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

I bought the Mystery snail (that's what they're called) at an LFS for $3. I just checked on it, they lay eggs above the water line, and then all of the sudden you have more snails. As soon as they get big enough I'll move them to the 55 and let 'em have at it. They also could have hitchhiked on the hornwort I suppose.

What do you mean by 'artificial'? No line plants?

 

[JWALK2828]

oh really eh, u dont have to feed them or anything? do the other fish try to eat it or can they even mess with it?... my plants are plastic, store bought. but that doesnt matter now that you said u can buy them seperate ( i heard they come in wood and plants sometimes). do they have a bad side/ negatives from what u can tell so far?

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Some people don't like them because they multiply and end up everywhere. I think they're great, they clean up the excess food, eat some kinds of algae, and you can get some that will dig in your substrate and keep it loose. I suppose the little baby ones would get eaten or messed with, depends on the fish though. Must have for a breeder/fry tank IMO although they do poop a ton.

 

[JWALK2828]

alright alright, good to know - thanks man

 

[colematthewmalaka]

I have 21 platy fry and they make such a mess i have do do almost daily water changes! Is there any way to speed up a baby platy's growth?

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

With fry, you're supposed to do daily water changes anyways. I do at least 20% a day, I got sick and ran out of dechlor at the same time and let it go 3 days, then did 40%, but that's the worst I let it get.

As far as speeding up growth, turn up the temp to 79 or 80, but do NOT let it get above 82, that's the danger zone for livebearers. Higher temp will give faster growth but shorter life. Also get a baby brine shrimp kit and hatch some live brine shrimp for them, I'm sure they'll love that, good protein and gotta be better than crushed flake food. I'm going to do it myself.

My adults go absolutely bonkers for the frozen brine shrimp. I'm talking like catnip to a cat bonkers. I feed them a little every day, thawed & rinsed (or else it can foul your tank water). Need a brine shrimp net to do the rinsing part just FYI.