Help! Baby Fish?

[Somner]

Help! I've recently set up a new tropical aquarium - in fact I only introduced the first fish yesterday - 2 female Molly's, and 3 female Neon Tetras (I think they're female - the line isn't straight). Also I put in two algae shrimp.
 
I've just had a look in the tank, and there appear to be six small fish! I think they're too big to be baby Neon's (but I don't really know!) I've counted at least 7.
 
What do I do?!
 
I've tried to add a photo but I can't because of the tiny 300kb max file size here.
 
Many thanks!
 
 

 

[JezTaylor]

Help! I've recently set up a new tropical aquarium - in fact I only introduced the first fish yesterday - 2 female Molly's, and 3 female Neon Tetras (I think they're female - the line isn't straight). Also I put in two algae shrimp.
 
I've just had a look in the tank, and there appear to be six small fish! I think they're too big to be baby Neon's (but I don't really know!) I've counted at least 7.
 
What do I do?!
 
I've tried to add a photo but I can't because of the tiny 300kb max file size here.
 
Many thanks!
 
 

 
They'll be Mollies. Mollies (like platies and guppies) are livebearers, so they breed like crazy. If you buy a female livebearer from a mixed tank, it's very likely that she'll be pregnant. The bad news is it means the other one is probably pregnant as well and you're going to see more many more fry in the next few weeks!

With regards to what to do, I guess I'd start by asking the store if they'd take them off your hands.

 

[Ny82]

They will be baby mollies and the mums will have come pregnant from the shop. They can still drop fry every 4-5 weeks for the next few months without a male present. 
How big is your tank? You can either leave them in the main tank or you can buy a breeder trap and keep them in there, doing daily water changes and feeding them a few times a day with crushed flakes. 
 
Edit I hit reply as the first reply appeared! 

 

[Somner]

I've had a good look at them and they look more like the Tetras, their bodies are clear and the shape looks more like that of a Tetra, but then I don't really know!
 
I've just counted.. 13!! There is also one that is black, and not clear at all.
 
I don't have another tank for them to go in. Will they be safe with the bigger fish or will they end up getting eaten if I don't buy a net?

 

[Ny82]

Tetras lay eggs and are hard to breed in a community tank. They will be mollies. Molly fry, like other livebearer fry look like little tadpoles. They are very small and have googly eyes!
 
This is a pic of a newborn guppy fry I found a week ago. I thought there was only one, then found another 16

 
 
This is a pic of my 1 week old guppy fry. Your mollies will look like this in a few days. 
 

 
 
If you leave them in the main tank, and want them to survive make sure you have plants and hiding places. If not buy a breeder trap to keep them in but you need to keep the water pristine in it. I used to hook mines in front of the filter, so that the water was constantly moving. 

 

[Somner]

Mollys they are then! Are they likely to be eaten by the adult Mollys or adult Tetras?

 

[Ny82]

It really depends. There used to be a senior member on this site who was very experienced in livebearers and he always told me that well fed adults are no threat to fry. I find some of it to be true. I caught 17 guppy fry from the main tank a week ago. There are still 2 in the main tank I couldn't get, they are out in the open constantly and the others don't bother with them. 
I believe any fish will look at fry as food. If it's small enough to fit into their mouth, they will eat it. If you want to save the fry get a breeder net/plastic trap. However, fry can move very fast when they have to and usually avoid being eaten. The other side to it is, while you are chasing the fry with the net, you could accidentally cause them to get eaten. If you have plants in your tank, they will use the coverage to hide. 

 

[Somner]

Thanks - I've been watching them for quite a while and the bigger fish don't seem at all interested. I'm going to see how it goes.
 
Any idea why one of them is black, and doesn't swim around in a group like the others?

 

[Ny82]

Thanks - I've been watching them for quite a while and the bigger fish don't seem at all interested. I'm going to see how it goes.
 
Any idea why one of them is black, and doesn't swim around in a group like the others?

 
They don't really group together as such, they are all different and have different personalities. One may be the independent one, I find there are always ones who are the leaders as it were. In the batch I have just now I have some that are bigger than the rest they are more outgoing and bicker amongst themselves. As for the colouring, if your mollies are black then he might be like mum. Again they are all different and will get their colours as they grow, it depends also on which males she's mated with. 
My 2 recent batches of guppy fry have been fathered by my black male, the fry who are 1 month old are mostly half black with the exception of 2 who are grey with black spots. The ones who are a week old are a mixed bag. Some dark, some grey with spots,  some white with spots. It really depends.

 

[Somner]

Thanks. I've got two Mollys - one is white with black spots, the other is a mix of gold and black.
 
Oh and I now have two black baby Mollys! I expect there are more to come..

 

[Ny82]

You're welcome. Your females sound pretty. It's so exciting finding fry. My platy had fry a few days ago. I can never tell with her. She had them in the main tank, I haven't seen any yet. The right hand side of my tank is a jungle so they could just be hiding! 

 

[Somner]

Just an update. I ended up with 14 babies - 2 black and the rest are a silvery colour. The silver ones being a little big bigger than the black.
 
I'm now down to 12, unfortunately I lost two - a black one and a silver one. Not due to other fish, but due to them somehow bypassing the pre-filter sponge on the Fluval Edge, and managing to get in to the filter pipe and up through the filter housing where I'm guessing they were killed by the impeler..
 
They seem to be growing well however. Not sure what to do with them though!