Too many fish!!!

Hi, almost 2 months ago my platy gave birth to what I estimated to 15 fry and my molly to what I estimated to be 70 fry. Now that the fry are larger I decided to count and see how many I actually had. And I was way off I counted 99 mollies and 21 platy. The fry are currently in a 50 gallon and are doing fine but when they are older that will be a mess. I also have a 45 gallon with 3 adult mollies 6 platy, 6 female bettas and 2 brittle nose plecos. So, how should I split up my fish? With the 50 gallon and 45 gallon that leaves 95 gallons I’d like to split up the males and females so I don’t have more fry. How many fry can I keep? I’d like to keep all my adult fish in the 50 gallon and add some of the fry in there then keep some of the fry in the 45? How many should go in each tank? What can I do with the unwanted fry as I can’t keep a 3rd tank running due to time issues? Thanks

This is what inevitably happens with livebearers when females and males are present, or from females previously impregnated. Even if you separate the males/females now, the females can still deliver a batch of fry every month (roughly) for several months. They won't all get eaten, and you are going to have to euthanize them, give/sell them, or buy dozens of tanks. Fry must have space as they grow or they will be seriously compromised in their development and then no one will want them. The fry will begin to breed too, they develop early.

If you keep any, only keep males. There is no other way to not have fry by the dozens.

I have had the same trouble in the past, I had black mollies that had so many fry that made it to young adulthood that I had to use 2-10 gallon and a 20 gallon until I gave away most of them to friends and the lfs which gave me some fish food in exchange. @Byron is right. They breed like rabbits

I also had the same problem with chiclids, guppies and even red eyed tetra. I like seeing fry. Wish my other tetras would have fry like mollies.

I suppose you could look into getting a fish that likes to eat fry to keep the numbers down. I am not sure what fish that would be best. A circle of life sort of thing.

Retired Viking said:

I suppose you could look into getting a fish that likes to eat fry to keep the numbers down. I am not sure what fish that would be best. A circle of life sort of thing.

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Byron said:

This is what inevitably happens with livebearers when females and males are present, or from females previously impregnated. Even if you separate the males/females now, the females can still deliver a batch of fry every month (roughly) for several months. They won't all get eaten, and you are going to have to euthanize them, give/sell them, or buy dozens of tanks. Fry must have space as they grow or they will be seriously compromised in their development and then no one will want them. The fry will begin to breed too, they develop early.

If you keep any, only keep males. There is no other way to not have fry by the dozens.

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I’ll look into local stores for the unwanted ones. About how many can I keep before it becomes too much. As I said I’d like to keep all my adult fish ( The 3 mollies, 6 platy, 6 bettas and 2 brittlenose) so how many fry can I keep in 95 gallons. As you have said I’ll keep just males

I tend to keep my numbers down and keep small tetras and guppies. For my 55 gallon tank I keep it around 30-35 tetras which are 1/2 the size if not smaller than full grown mollies, It also depends on how heavy your tank is planted and how much "stuff" you have in it. I would think 20 each in your 55 and 40 gallon tanks, Here a picture of my 55 gallon tetra tank (sunken forest) currently I have 32 tetras in it. It is not crowded, I like to give my fish plenty of room.

Platysrcool12345 said:

I’ll look into local stores for the unwanted ones. About how many can I keep before it becomes too much. As I said I’d like to keep all my adult fish ( The 3 mollies, 6 platy, 6 bettas and 2 brittlenose) so how many fry can I keep in 95 gallons. As you have said I’ll keep just males

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You have two tanks, a 45g and a 50g, this makes a difference. You really only have space for one brood, because they will need all this space as they grow up to a size where you can sell/give them away, maybe (no idea what the market for livebearers may be). And 20-30 fry would crowd out a 45g in a matter of weeks.

I cannot see any option for you but to get rid of the females and soon. Or be prepared to euthanize the fry as they appear.

The 6 bettas are those females?

Retired Viking said:

The 6 bettas are those females?

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Yes

They are not exactly community fish, people usually keep a betta sorority by them selves since they can become aggressive. On the subject of the fry, I did lose several fry over time, most in the first couple of weeks just something to keep in mind. My guppies fry-I never seem to loose any