Suddenly we have fry. Panic!!!

Came down this morning to little baby fishes in my tank. Being honest with myself I did think the female, gold dust molly, was pregnant but dismissed the idea.

So now what do I do?

It's a 240L planted rank containing two gold dust mollies, some neon tetras, pearl gourami, gold laser Corey, clown loaches and two blue tiger parrot fish. Plus about 10-15 fry!!!!

I bought a small 17L tank this morning to put them in but not sure if this is the right thing to do or not. Plus they're small and fast and hard to catch!

Any advice would be great.

Hello. If you want some of the fry to survive, then just start feeding a little more and more often. It has been my experience that well fed adult fish show little interest in the fry. The added food will give the fry a growth spurt and energy to avoid the adults that may try to investigate them a little too closely. Mollies are very sensitive to even slight changes in their water chemistry. I would maintain good water quality and change out a bit more water the next time you perform a water change. This will remove any dissolving food and waste material. Other than this, I don't think you need to change a thing.

10

The parrot Cichlids, depending on how deformed they are, may pick off the fry, as will the pearl gourami. Mollies rarely eat their own fry unless they're crowded, and while neons will make short work of guppies and platys, molly fry are larger and might be okay.

With that mix, I would try to remove at least half a dozen. Net them from below - pull the net up under them at the surface. In a chase, they'll win. You've bought a rearing tank, so why not use it?

If you just had mollies, I'd say leave them be, but.

Thanks @10 Tanks and @GaryE I managed yesterday to get about half a dozen out and the remaining 12-13 (if they stayed still I could count them) seem to still be in the main tank this morning. Tomorrow is my normal maintenance day so will do a bigger clean than usual.

BTW- some folks will say that most female live bearers are born pregnant. Not true, it only seems like it is. And they can have the next spawn not long after giving birth. Also, the females can store the male's sperm and produce a number of spawns from it. And then there is the fact that many live bearers reach sexual maturity pretty fast. So don't worry, this is only the beginning.

Bear in mind that nature "designs" things so that how reproduction is carried out has as its primary goal survival of the species. One strategy is for a species to produce lots of offspring, most of which will end up being lunch for something, but enough will survive to keep the species viable. Lievebears do it by saving sperm and spawning often. They are not great parents and do not care about their young.