I'm pretty new to this; had some good advice today about the molly fry we acquired a couple of days ago unexpectedly. I just wanted to know how many fish in total we should be thinking of for our tank. It is 30"x18"x15". We currently have 5 red platys, one small angelfish, a male molly and two female mollies (one still pregnant, the other has just given birth to 9 babies - the fry are currently in a breeding nest within the main tank - to save them from the adults). We are new to this as I said and have no previous knowledge about fishkeeping. We're enjoying it greatly (lots better than watching telly! - very calming is fish watching) but need help. Any thoughts?
General Advice Needed
- Thread starter pobfan
- Start date
Tokis-Phoenix
^_^
You will need to buy test kits for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates and test your tank weekly for them, how long has the tank been set up?
Also, mollys can produce huge quantitys of fry, over 100 every 2months on occasion, and the fry take a year to mature so it is not always a good idea to save the fry as if you do so it will make your tank overstocked and you will find great difficulty in maintaining good water quality if you do overstock your tank- you do not currently have the space to raise your fry to the half grown stage. Most livebearer keepers just leave the fry in the main tank to fend for themselves as some at least will get eaten so you don't run the risk of having more fish than what your tank can handle.
Do you have dechlorinator?
Also, mollys can produce huge quantitys of fry, over 100 every 2months on occasion, and the fry take a year to mature so it is not always a good idea to save the fry as if you do so it will make your tank overstocked and you will find great difficulty in maintaining good water quality if you do overstock your tank- you do not currently have the space to raise your fry to the half grown stage. Most livebearer keepers just leave the fry in the main tank to fend for themselves as some at least will get eaten so you don't run the risk of having more fish than what your tank can handle.
Do you have dechlorinator?
The tank's been set up about 2 months and we are cycled and the fish seem very well; the original 5 platys are growing fast. We've had weekly water checks done through the local fish shop and they've been very helpful advising how to proceed with stocking etc. We've now bought our own testing kit and everything was fine when I did all the tests about 3 days ago; plan to do this weekly. We also use "Cycle" as recommended by the shop on a weely basis. I think we'll keep the current brood of fry (mainly cos they are the first lot and its very exciting) but I understand what you mean if mollies are so prolific at breeding. Watching the male molly I guess we can expect lots more fry! No sooner had she delivered her fry than he was chasing her again.
Tokis-Phoenix
^_^
What are your exact stats though? Nitrites and ammonia should be 0 in a cycled tank with no exceptions, nitrates should be kept under 40; water changes with dechlorinator will help lower all harmful stats. "Cycle" is a product that contains beneficial bacteria capable of breaking down ammonia in a suitable filter but it only works properly if it has been refrigeratd during transport too and at the lfs.
The test results were
H = 7.5, ammonia = 0 (zero), nitrite = 0 (zero), nitrate = 0 (zero), which according to the book was perfect. The fishkeeper (very reputable person) advised us to get the nitrogen cycle correct with just a few fish (the platys) and after regular water checks add a few fish at a time (with further water testing). We haven't used a declorinator - just the Cycle. The results I've given are from Monday this week.
H = 7.5, ammonia = 0 (zero), nitrite = 0 (zero), nitrate = 0 (zero), which according to the book was perfect. The fishkeeper (very reputable person) advised us to get the nitrogen cycle correct with just a few fish (the platys) and after regular water checks add a few fish at a time (with further water testing). We haven't used a declorinator - just the Cycle. The results I've given are from Monday this week.
Oppinions and experiences are quite varied in relation to using Cycle. Some people swear by it and others find that it doesnt help them at all. Its designed to help aid a newly cycling tank by adding beneficial bacteria to the new tank to decrease toxins. If you're using it go ahead and keep using it until the bottle is empty. Thereafter, dont bother getting more as your tank will be well established for bacteria.
As for tank size thats approximately 35US gallons. 30X18X15=8100 cubic inches. 8100 cubic inches = 35 us gallons. Thank you Onlineconversion.com. To be safe since you have some deadspace through glass, gravel and other items its probably a 30gallon tank.
otherwise known as 30 inches of fish
As for tank size thats approximately 35US gallons. 30X18X15=8100 cubic inches. 8100 cubic inches = 35 us gallons. Thank you Onlineconversion.com. To be safe since you have some deadspace through glass, gravel and other items its probably a 30gallon tank.
otherwise known as 30 inches of fish
Tokis-Phoenix
^_^
The test results were
0 nitrates could be a problem, i would moniter your water quality very carefully as unless your tank is extremely planted, most healthy tanks will have at least some nitrates as an indicator of a healthy bacterial cycle. Otherwise, all is well
. You may want to consider buying some fry foods for your molly fry like TetraMinfry or "first bites" by hikari, these foods are designed to be easily digested and offer all the nutrition fry need for their first couple of month of life- the breeding neat will only be able to hold the fry for a further 2months at max since molly fry will die off when they do not have enough space.dwarfgourami
Fish Connoisseur
Bowing, of course, to your greater experience Tokis, but would molly fry really develop properly if kept in a breeder net for as long as 2 months? Just looking at my platy fry, and remembering the mollies I used to breed, it seems to me even at 1 month they are so active all over the tank and busily developing social skills, a pecking order etc, it would be difficult to find the space for what they need in a breeder net. I'd be inclined to let them take their chance much earlier than that, maybe at 3 or 4 weeks. Or if I had real baby-eating monsters in the tank (I see there is an angel in this one), maybe set up a tank divider.
Ddraig Goch
Fish Crazy
Tokis-Phoenix
^_^
Lol, i feel all shy now 
) !
Nah, everyone here should be able to express their opinion freely, molly fry are slow developers and keeping them in the breeding net for 2months(i say max because any longer than that and the 9fry will be very crampt) if you want to keep them all is fine, but if you don't want all of them i'd suggest you put them back in the main tank now. Nothing wrong with 3-4weeks in a breeding net, it might even be better, but i've noticed my big female molly will go for fry at only a month old though, although she is a bit of a pig
.
) ! Nah, everyone here should be able to express their opinion freely, molly fry are slow developers and keeping them in the breeding net for 2months(i say max because any longer than that and the 9fry will be very crampt) if you want to keep them all is fine, but if you don't want all of them i'd suggest you put them back in the main tank now. Nothing wrong with 3-4weeks in a breeding net, it might even be better, but i've noticed my big female molly will go for fry at only a month old though, although she is a bit of a pig
.
K
koalaluver
Guest
its 1 fish per gallon so i have 10 gallons so i can get 10 fish so it wont be to full and wen you count your fish for the gallon thing u dont count your cleaning fish
Tokis-Phoenix
^_^
Nope not at all, if it were one fish per gal you could end up with 10 20inch long plecs in a 10gal, which wouldn't be good- and you do include the cleaner fish as they produce as much waste as any other fish depending on what they are.
Your tank filter can only cope with so much waste, the one inch of fish per gal rule of thumb is there to help prevent you get too many large waste producing fish in a tank that cannot cope with their bioload, but its a loosely applied rule that doesn't apply to everything- a 10inch plec would be far too big for a 10gal tank, but 10 neon tetras would not be at all because they are low waste producing shoaling fish. A small group of tiger barbs or danios would also be too big for a 10gal tank because although they do not grow that big, they are very active fish that can be nippy and need alot of space, so the advised minimum tank size for danios is 20gals and tiger barbs are 30gals due to their agressiveness etc etc.
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