# For Fryin out Loud



## PaulO (Aug 13, 2012)

So this all starts about 4-5 weeks ago, I was planning to put my female bettas in a 10 g (divided) and so I bought 2 mollies then gradually added1 about every week and a half to have the grand total of 4 which is all i'm going to have. I have a 10 gallon with an aqua-clear 30 for 10-30 g aquariums. So here I was all happy and somewhat aware that I was going to have fry because the mollies did have bulging bellies....well turns out one of them decided to release a few fry today and I am pretty much drowning in panic. I was planning on a 2.5 with a sponge filter but now I don't know. I need help on all fronts, I need to find a good quick setup and get these fry out before they are eaten. ( I am currently keeping them in the cups my bettas were in so its pretty much 10 fry to a cup...at the moment. Pretty much what am trying to say is....S.O.S I made the room the tank is in as dark as possible and turned off the aquarium lights to raise the fry's survival rate (I already watched one get gulped down as soon as it entered the world, and now I am kinda depressed. Anyways I'll try to evac. as many fry as possible but I need options people...pronto, please. I expected the fry to maybe appear in about 3 weeks by which I would be ready but this is a full on surprise attack. Well thank you for reading this post I apologize if you've lost 20 years of your life trying to get through it and thank you.


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## mursey (May 9, 2012)

You want to save your fry? Damn, I want to get rid of mine. (Platy fry) Want about 10 of them?


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## PaulO (Aug 13, 2012)

Not that I want to save them just I need a way to maybe let them mature and pass them out to people. I NEED ADVICE PLEASE ANYONE?!! I would have taken your fry maybe a few weeks from now if I didnt have this problem. I know somewhat what to do but I just wanna make sure that I get the room needed, temp, and food under control. Guess instead of breeding bettas like I thought of (somewhat as a joke between my parents and I)I'll be stuck caring for molly fry for the next decade because I read these dang fish can wait for the opportune moment to drop. I think theres a meme about I'm feeling right now...


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## mursey (May 9, 2012)

Well, even though I didn't want mine I didn't have the heart to let them all be eaten. I did scoop them out and stick them in a small bowl with an air stone at first. They were so small I didn't use a filter at first and I just had to be very very careful when trying to clean their bowl with my turkey baster that I did not suck them up.

Actually, I did suck them up on purpose with the turkey baster at first to get them out of the tank with their mom and my betta Cornelius because he was trying to eat them and I felt sorry for them. I did that and also tried to make catch them with little plastic cups.

All you can do is either stick plants like anacharis or . . is hornwort or camboba that has fry-friendly shapes? I think so. I also put very tiny decorations with hidey holes that no other fish could get to in the tank with the pregnant mom. She has had 3 sets of fry already and she's still totally fat so I know it will happen again. (Jeez!)

Um. . . not sure what else your questions are? I went on a tangent so maybe I didn't help at all!

Also I do have 2 decorations that scream "fry can hide in here". I had 2 pretty Bioorb decorations that didn't seem right for betta but very good for fry to hide in. I have these but you could get something similar instead:

http://www.warehouse-aquatics.co.uk...-range/biorb-decor/biorb-white-sea-lilly.html

http://www.warehouse-aquatics.co.uk...rb-decor/biorb-extra-large-white-sea-fan.html

Your thread title is really funny, btw.
I think the airstone at least made sure there was oxygen in the bowl, and I bought hikari first bites to feed them.


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## PaulO (Aug 13, 2012)

hanks for your reply. I was asking what ideal water temperature, ph, food, gallons would be ok. I currently have 8 but I know that when I wake up tomorrow I'll be looking at at least another 2-8...*sigh* If anything I will probably get a 2.5 or 5 whichever would be better and just work with that. Well anyways time to steal some floating plants from my betta tanks (I hope they will forgive me being feisty fish...fin and all) btw I was going to use a turkey baster to suck them up  but I thought it would b too streeful so I just painstakingly relocated the one by one...took a while. I could not believe how fast these little suckers can swim. Oh and yeah I figured I might add a little humor in the title to lighten up this post.


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## mursey (May 9, 2012)

I too thought using the turkey baster was messed up, but the last few were so hard to get I just got obsessed!


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## PaulO (Aug 13, 2012)

yea I don't blame you, tricky little ones aren't they. Luckily all my fry were hanging out on the surface so I just put the cup in the water, pushed it in for some suction and just scooped out 2-3 at a time . Btw good luck with your next batch...at this point you must be feeding them to a cat or to some chichlids or something .


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## mursey (May 9, 2012)

Ha! I am going to put an ad on Craigslist soon I think. They are taking up a tank I need for one of my tailbiting bettas. Plus I am likely moving soon and don't need to take them with me, I'll have enough problems!

Edit:

Actually I forgot I told my sister I was going to dump them into the plant tank at Petco when no one is looking.


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## PaulO (Aug 13, 2012)

Lol that is evil .. just if you were to do it make sure you can very discreetly get a water sample and check ph, I know mollies like a ph of 7.5 - 8/8.5 ish but I have no idea about what fry like or platy.


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## PaulO (Aug 13, 2012)

Update: At around 8:30 A.M. I checked the tank for more fry, I rescued one but found the mom dead behind some plants. This is the second of my mollies that died, I'm starting to suspect the other girls in the tank are the culprit. Both times when the mom's looked ready to release the young the other fish would hang around like a pack of demented, cannibalistic groupies. Anyway I wont even bother returning the dead fish, will probably just bury it in the garden under a lavender bush. Don't know if memorials on this site accept mollies, but for a beginners and supposedly easy fish she had one heck of a character. ~R.I.P Marble 9/5/2012 Died in the morning before 8:00 A.M.


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## LadyVictorian (Nov 23, 2011)

You can always keep one of her babies to remember her by, but yeah that is an intense situation. I had this with guppies once but my tank became so over run with guppies I started selling them all off because thy were stressing me out. One would die and 20 would take it's place.


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## PaulO (Aug 13, 2012)

yea the only thing that I know about guppies is that they breed like crazy. I dont know if I will have the room but I probably will try to hod on to at least 1 fry. The one thing that frightens me is as was burying marble I noticed red around her gills so I hope it was just from her trying to protect her fry from the other fish and not septicemia. If it is I just have to cross my fingers and hope that the fry escape this omen. If anything goes wrong I'll probably just try to save the fish but might end up tearing down the tank bleaching it, let it sit empty for a month then do a fishless cycle, and finally putting my bettas in (with a divider of course) like I had originally planned to. But like I have said before if anyone has had any experience raising any fry particularly fry of live bearers and even molly's or platy's, please share your experience and ideas. I am planning a 5.5 gallon to hold the fry and let them get maybe 6-8 months old before I start passing them out.


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## Pilot00 (Jul 24, 2012)

Reading all this i got a tad bit confused in regards to the species that overruns your tank: Guppies or Mollies?

If it is mollies i am find it strange that that you have been finding small batches. I have seen a molly giving birth to 100+ fry in 2-3 continually labor hours... OFC one of mine gave birth to three and that was it. Well technically 2 since one was kinda of a stillbirth, it was an egg!

Anyways if you got past my rumbling heres something useful:

For mollys:Feed small amounts of powder flake about 8 times a day, keep temperature about 78 - 80, add 1 tablespoon of aquarium salt per 5 gallons, and do water changes DAILY (add salt to new water when added).

I also feed hard boiled egg yolk. Just hard boil an egg and take the yolk out, add water to it until it becomes a paste. Next use a toothpick to scrape out SMALL amounts (avoid chunks) of paste and then swirl it in the water. Protein clouds will form and they will swim though and eat it. This will trigger fast growth. Feed this 2 -3 times a day in SMALL amounts.

You can also feed shredded lettuce one they grow a bit.

In about 4 - 6 months they should be an inch or longer.

For Guppys: Hard-boil an egg, put it in to a resealable container, add some water then squish it all together. Feed the formula twice a day. Be careful not to feed to much because it is very high in protein and makes them to grow faster. Baby Brineshrimp is also a good fry food. As they get older start feeding them Bloodworms.


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## PaulO (Aug 13, 2012)

Mollies are the only species that I have in the 10 gallon. Anyway I have set up a 5.5 gallon as well as an airstone and pump (kept on low flow with valve) I managed to rescue 11 fry but I am sure that is not all of the ones that were born. I should have put the mother in the empty 5 gallon but I wasn't thinking ahead. Next time I'll probably buy a breeder with that floor that the fry drop down into. As for food I have some hikari first bites I think is its name and they seem to be enjoying it. Water fluctuates 78-81 but very gently and the fry seem happy enough chasing ea. other around. If you guys want I can upload a picture to get a better idea.


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## mursey (May 9, 2012)

I have that breeder thing with the bottom for the fry to fall into. It isn't really useful to me with the platy because apparently she can just keep on having "batches" of fry many times even though I separated her from the male. 
Once I found just two babies, then about 5 another time, and the last time about 5 more. I just assume all the rest were eaten. But I never know when she will have more.


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## PaulO (Aug 13, 2012)

The mollies I'm keeping are all female so hopefully their "supply" will eventually run out and that will be the end of my problems. The real downer is I was doing a fish in cycle to eventually set up a sorority but now I have to care for these fry (don't have the stomach to throw them in the adult tank) and let them grow before I ask people if they would like some fish. Not to mention the I can no longer put the adults in a smaller tank because it is now the "fry tank".


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## Pilot00 (Jul 24, 2012)

mursey said:


> I have that breeder thing with the bottom for the fry to fall into. It isn't really useful to me with the platy because apparently she can just keep on having "batches" of fry many times even though I separated her from the male.
> Once I found just two babies, then about 5 another time, and the last time about 5 more. I just assume all the rest were eaten. But I never know when she will have more.


Yeah i have those still. I had a loach and was trying to suck the fry from the vents. Those are very temporary if you cant relocate them as soon as they are born they wont live in there.


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## PaulO (Aug 13, 2012)

Yea I know its not permanent but my only other options would be leave them in the tank (get eaten) put mother in fry tank (other fry are eaten) get another tank (pointless,cost ineffective, and lack of space) any way I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow, as much as it is a pain ... watching the fry zip around is pretty cool  and makes up for most of the problems.lol they're lucky, my juvenile paternal instincts are kicking in. Anyway goodnight everyone.


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## kellyyoungmoney (Jun 20, 2012)

i was in almost the exact same situation, my mollies had babies, all my adult mollies died, and now im left with no more babies. im pretty much positive that it was the fact that they didnt have brackish water, because i lost my last baby about 3 days after his 2 month birthday. but my mollies were also in my sorority so i just netted all the remaining babies and put them in a breeder net box and my girls didnt seem to mind at all. just make sure you put gravel or something in the bottom so the girls cant rough up the babies through the net.


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## jag14 (Sep 23, 2012)

I have a solution for your extra fish. I am raising platies at home in a 30 gallon tank. I plan on feeding some to my "Jag". He is a 14inch monster of a fish, part Jaguar cichlid and part Dovii cichlid. Some of the platies will always be kept as pets, but when they get too numerous I have a disposal system. My betta lives alone in my office in a 3 gallon set up. I'm not even thinking of putting anything in with him.


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## ForbiddenSecrets (Aug 15, 2010)

I don't have any really good advice for molly babies but I wish you luck  I have a planted betta/platy tank and I just let the fry go 'survival of the fittest'. In the last batch three of the platy babies survived to safe sizes where they hang out with the group now and aren't chased as food.


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## PaulO (Aug 13, 2012)

So update: Right now they are about 20 days old and they have gotten quite big. I will try to raise them to about 3-6 months then adopt them off or give them to a lfs for credit or something. I do have one question do any of you know at what age I should separate them as I would like to prevent any inbreeding :/.


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## Pilot00 (Jul 24, 2012)

The bad thing is that if you give them to an lfs... Who knows what will happen to them?


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## jag14 (Sep 23, 2012)

They would probably make good starter fish for someone just getting into the hobbby.


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## shellylc (Sep 25, 2012)

jag14 said:


> They would probably make good starter fish for someone just getting into the hobbby.


PaulO I would like to help you with your fry, i am a brand new afishiando, and want to adopt maybe 1 or 2. I also live in Cali (Torrance ) if thats near you, you can contact me @ [email protected]. look forward to hearing from you.


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