Babies Already! Eeeek

[Trixibelle]

Hi All

Am very new to the whole fish thing. Having spent ages setting up my tank correctly (my brain hurt!) we went out on Sunday and bought three mollie fish (big 27 gallon tank but wanted to start off small). As we left the shop the shop assistant said we had two females and a male. Once we got them home and correctly installed them into the tank we noticed that one female was significantly rounder than the other.

Anyway, to cut a long story short we woke up on Tuesday morning to see little fry darting around the tank. We had bought a plastic fish hatchery. My husband managed to scoop twenty fry into this. I put a piece of carboard on top to stop the light overheating their water. Tank is well oxygenated, filtered, heated and PH/nitrates is spot on.

When I got up this morning one little fry had died and during the course of today so have three more. I am sad they are so sweet. I am feeding them on liquifry. Any ideas whats going on? causing them to die? do I need to remove the dead fish?

Also, in the meantime I rushed around yesterday and set up another tank we have (60 litre) to put the babies in. I washed the stones, filled up, declorinated and put heater in. This has now been on for over 24 hrs and PH is 7.5. When is the soonest do you think I can put the fry in please? am worried about them in that little hatchery. Shall I still put the bacteria in to the new tank at the same time as I add the fry?

Any speedy responses would be so much appreciated, as I'm getting worried. Talk about being thrown in at the deep end!!

Thanks in advance!

Trix

 

[craig855s]

leave the fry in the adult tank and let there be a survival of the fittest method? or you will have hundreds of fry to deal with by xmas. I dont know about molly fry (being a platy and guppy keeper) but there is a pinned topic in the livebearer section saying "mollies need salt"......u may wanna read it

 

[Gr44]

I'm very new to this as well, so take what I say with a large spoonful of salt. But I figure some feedback is better than none while you wait for another more experianced member to reply.

I would recomend taking the dead fry out asap so they don't decay and poison the other fish

Assuming you did a fishless cycle on your main tank then remove ~30% of the filter media from that and place it inside the filter on your smaller tank.

I would then imagine you're best to put the fry in to that tank straight away unless the haterchy provides some other need I'm unaware of. Remove ~10% of the old hatchery water and replace with the new tank water... keep doing that until 50% is changed (10% every hour?) then move them (and the water) across to the new tank.

Just my 2p... like I said, I'm no expert!

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum TrixiBelle.

It seems that you have probably been the victim of typical fish store advice and brought home some fish to an unprepared tank that has only been set up for a few days or has been treated with a bacteria nostrum that is great for generating profits but not for much else. If that is the case, the new tank is as ready for the fry as the other tank but has a distinct advantage. It does not have 3 adult fish imposing a biological load on the tank's filter. Forgive me if you have actually cycled the 27 gallon tank but it seems unlikely. The fry will be fine in the smaller tank with regular water changes to keep them from swimming in their own poisons.

A pH of 7.5 is just high enough for mollies. If you know that your water is rather soft, you will want to raise the mineral content somewhat. If you do not know, it is time to find out if your water is hard or soft. If you find the water is soft, it can be hardened by placing some crushed shells or crushed coral into the filter flow path. That will tend to bring the pH up a bit and bring up the mineral content nicely. Crushed coral or shell is the main ingredient in the sand they sell for a salt water tank so your fish shop will have some. Look closely at the light sand and you will see what I mean. If you have bacteria that somehow has actually worked in a tank, for goodness sake use it in the new tank. The common experience here is that the stuff is totally worthless but I will always be glad to here of a brand that is not. There was once a product sold in the US called Biospira that actually did work part of the time if it was kept constantly refrigerated but it has not been produced for years and any left is pretty well past its useful date. There is also a product available in the UK called bactinettes that sometimes does work if it is fresh enough.

I will assume, until I hear otherwise, that you will be doing a fish-in cycle on both the fry tank and the adult tank. That will mean testing daily for ammonia using a liquid type test kit and doing large water changes whenever any ammonia starts to show up in either tank. I see from your post that you have some method for doing a nitrite test so that also must be kept below detectable levels most of the time by doing water changes. There is a link to a fish-in cycle thread in my signature area that would be good reading for the details of a fish-in cycle.

Feeding your new charges is easy. Molly fry are huge compared to most new fry and they can be fed adult food that you merely grind between your fingertips for a second or two. For mollies, the best choice of food will be one that is rather high in vegetable matter. You can get flake food made especially for vegetarian fish that would be a good main food for mollies. Since they all enjoy and need some variety in their diets, the vegetarian flake most days with some feedings of frozen foods and regular flake mixed in is a good approach. The fry will want small feedings several times each day and frequent water changes even when their water tests good.

 

[Trixibelle]

Thank you so much for all your answers, big help!!
Well four days on and 6 of the original fry have died however all the rest are still alive! I am doing a fish in cycle and all results are spot on. PH is 8 with the help of coral, ammonia, nitrate and nitrites are perfect.

The two males and female doing fine except for as soon as the light goes off at night, the male won't leave the girls alone! men!

For some reason I keep finding the odd fry at the bottom of the hatchery tank unable to get off the ground and they are the ones that die. Any ideas?

I really am so grateful for the advice you have given and so speedy too! Thank you for taking the time

Trix

 

[OldMan47]

I would use an air hose as a siphon to get all of the uneaten food out of your breeder trap or even a separate fry tank. Any uneaten food will cause localized water quality problems as it decays. There is always the possibility that there is excess nitrites causing the fish to be listless and not swim around much but if you are on top of the water changes for a fish-in cycle that should not be the problem.