Baby Mollies Dying!

[Katie21]

Hi, Ive got a 90L community tank and one of my mollies had 9 babies. I seperated them and put them in a floating fish hatchery, unfortunatly i am only left with 2 now.
I've been feeding them on first bites and they are eating well but I dont know where Im going wrong!
They are arond 3 months old now. Does anyone think I should have released them into the tank? Im afraid they could get eaten or have they got a better chance within the tank.

Please someone HELP!!!!

 

[cferns]

Hi, Ive got a 90L community tank and one of my mollies had 9 babies. I seperated them and put them in a floating fish hatchery, unfortunatly i am only left with 2 now.
I've been feeding them on first bites and they are eating well but I dont know where Im going wrong!
They are arond 3 months old now. Does anyone think I should have released them into the tank? Im afraid they could get eaten or have they got a better chance within the tank.

Please someone HELP!!!!

I had the same problem with my molly fry. They were in the hatching / brreding tank which was in the main tank and started dying. I lost 2 in one day. I decided that I would release them back into the main tank. 4 of them were about a month old and 5 of them about 2 weeks. I have 3 of the month old ones and 3/4 of the younger ones still in the tank and the other fish are not bothered by them now.

I have mollies, platies and pristella (x ray) tetras in the tank. The mollie fry have been back with them for about 10 days and now swim happily with the rest of the community.

Chris

 

[Katie21]

Thanks for that Chris.
In my tank is,
2 Mollies, 8 Neons, 2 Dwarf Gouramis, 5 Pandas, 1 Golden Ram, 2 Plecs and 4 Orange coloured fish that i cant remember the name of!!! These are a little snappy and im concerned for the 2 babies should i release them anyway? There are quite a few plants to hide in!

 

[OldMan47]

The gouramis and ram may be a problem for the molly fry but 3 months in one of those floating breeding traps is way too much. The who knows what orange fish may be a problem too but who knows. By now the fry should be 2 or 3 cm long and would have no trouble with typical livebearers like the molly parents. Do you have anywhere else that you could put the fry? If they have grown at all they are probably very crowded in that thing. At the very least they could make good use of the space in a breeding net. Most of the nets are quite a bit bigger than the floating traps. The net will also allow water to flow through it more freely and might help the fish survive.

 

[liz2]

I have only got mollies in my tank and 2 cories. I left the babies last time and ened up with 4. Someone had about 12 babies yesterday and so far they are fine! fingers crossed!

I never had any success keeping them in a breeding tap i must admit.

 

[OldMan47]

Katie, by now the new mollies should be 2 to 3 cm long and will not have a problem at that size with neons or the adult mollies. They would have no problem with the panda cories when they were newborn. They might still be a bit vulnerable to the gouramis and ram and of course who knows about the unidentified fish. The hiding places in the plants would help the fry survive. Do you have a breeding net or something else that will give the fry more room? The space they are in now is very small for them to still be in. A net would at least let water circulate better and would give the fry some swimming room.