Molly Fry Questions!

Hi there!

I am only two months into my own endeavour to keep a fish tank (but I grew up with them) and after buying four balloon mollies from my local pet store chain on Friday last week (23rd), I noticed a single fry on Sunday that multiplied to 10 by that evening, maybe 18 on Tuesday and certainly 24 when I did my water change yesterday.

Now I've done my research and on Monday I got them a little breeding box that is in my tank, got some liquid food for them, and they seem happy enough in there. I've attached some pictures that I took today for reference.

My main question is that I keep finding maybe 3 - 5 more fry in the tank each day when I come home from work; is it likely that my molly mummy (unidentified at present but I have a suspect) keeps dropping only this few this long after the first one? Or a different pregnant one (again, now I know what I'm looking at I have a suspect) giving birth in tiny daily batches? Fry are obviously very hard to count, quick and tiny little things that they are, so I'm not fully sure of my number at any given time. I'm curious as to what the odds are that they're somehow getting out of the box vs one of my mollies still giving birth at this stage but only in little numbers at a time?

Obviously if they're getting out of the box it's not ideal and I'll get a better one; the specialist fish store (not where I got the mollies) said the one I got was fine, but maybe it could be better, honestly not sure. Like I said I'm brand new to this to the point that I didn't even know mollies were livebearers and certainly didn't expect to be dealing with fry! I absolutely want to care for them though, and keep them as safe as possible from becoming dinner.

Thank you in advance for the help!

First of all congrats for the breed!!
The mother can lay fry for some days it's not unusual.
Though there is a case that the small ones might sliping out of the breeding box.
I had in the past two boxes, one I had it modified it for smaller fry but glowing a tight net on the sides where the holes were so as to prevent these from going out and also from preventing the fish from outside to nip any tails that might be hanging outside the box

I have used a nylon mesh box to protect fry. Photo below will illustrate what I am referring to. Provided the top all the way around is above the water surface of the tank, the fry are not likely to "get out," and the other fish unlikely to get in. The first two have soft metal hangers that can be folded over the frame of the tank to ensure a good fit. Never put the adult female in one of these, it is much too small and will stress her out, but if you catch most of the fry when you see them you can put them in this net. And you will have dozens regularly.

Byron said:

I have used a nylon mesh box to protect fry. Photo below will illustrate what I am referring to. Provided the top all the way around is above the water surface of the tank, the fry are not likely to "get out," and the other fish unlikely to get in. The first two have soft metal hangers that can be folded over the frame of the tank to ensure a good fit. Never put the adult female in one of these, it is much too small and will stress her out, but if you catch most of the fry when you see them you can put them in this net. And you will have dozens regularly.

Click to expand...

Hi Byron, yea I have tried that in the past though sometimes small fry managed to get trapped between the net and the plastic frame and died, so I stopped using this