Baby mollies - when to release them

[jlinsey]

We are brand new to fishkeeping...started up a 6 gal aquarium on Christmas day, two days later added a platy and a molly. Three days later the molly had babies, then both the molly and the platy died. A few of the babies have died but we still have 8 in a hanging playpen. They are about 1/2" long and 17 days old. We have been crushing up the flake food to feed them. Thanks to the AA Unhealthy Fish forum, we are keeping the water quality better with less feeding and daily PWC. Also we have added a new platy and a tetra. Wondering when it will be safe/appropriate to release the mollies. The platy is about 1.5" and the tetra is 1". On the one hand, it's nice having them in the playpen to observe them, make sure they're getting food and remove any that die, but on the other hand the playpen is taking up a lot of space in our little tank. Also, the tetra has chased the platy so much that it hides most of the time, although it appears healthy and eats. So we were wondering whether having the baby mollies around would take some stress off the platy. Also we want to make sure the babies would be big and strong enough to keep from getting siphoned during a water change. Thanks for reading this and for any help you can offer!

 

[TCTFish]

Introduce the babies when they are big enough not to get eaten or seriously pestered.

 

[FawnN]

I wouldn't release them until they are at least 3 months, but then again, it all depends on how fast they are growing.

While you're waiting, be sure to clean out the breeding net often to avoid any leftover food decaying in the netting.

 

[jlinsey]

Well our 8 baby mollies grew fast in 2 months, and the netting on the playpen was covered with algae (it really looked awful but my efforts to clean it did not work), so we decided to release the babies last weekend after our weekly PWC and when we were home to observe how they did. The platy and tetra seemed to enjoy swimming by and scattering the babies, but never really looked as though they intended to eat them. They babies are doing great and the whole tank looks so much better. Yeah!