How Can I Slow Down The Breeding Of Mollies

[ttgtaylor]

Help !! I Had 12 mollies and a catfish in my 3ft tank but over recent months i have lost 6 of my mollies ( one of them had a large bite out of her ) and sought advice at my local fish stockist. They said it sounds like my troubles are to do with my catfish and that i should take it out of the tank. I followed this advice but in the last 4 weeks my mollies have produced over 40 offspring. I have given some away but i will soon run out of people at this rate. Has anyone got suggestions to how i can slow this rate of breeding down.

 

[sausagewinkle]

Dont keep males and females together other wise you will always have fry.
Even keeping just females for a while you will have some fry as they store sperm and realise it

 

[ttgtaylor]

Thanks for your reply. Is there anything else that anyone knows of like dropping the temp of the tank to their lower range of 24 puts them off their reproduction as these fish have been kept together for 7 years ( although i only took them off my sister 6 months ago as she was letting the tank go downhill ) and still want them too reproduce just not in the volumes that they are or is my only option a separate tank and introduce the males as i have 2 when the need arises to breed.

 

[GreatGenes]

no as long as you have the males and females together you will always have fry. changing the temp or ph wont help it will just give you fish that arnt as happy or healthy.
you could buy some community fish that are compatable with your mollies and big enough to gobble up fry with ease..or set up another tank let the fry grow to adults then sell them off to a pet store.

 

[OldMan47]

I don't understand what the problem is taylor. I never seem to get any fry from my mollies. LOL

Mollies will reproduce at their own pace regardless of what you may think. BTW, 24C is not at all cold for mollies. They are quite comfortable at around 21C.

 

[Daveypaul]

I don't understand what the problem is taylor. I never seem to get any fry from my mollies. LOL

Mollies will reproduce at their own pace regardless of what you may think. BTW, 24C is not at all cold for mollies. They are quite comfortable at around 21C.

Thats a great pic Oldman47 "Like mother like Fry"

 

[Stephan]

Ditto on putting something in there that can eat the fry. Maybe the cat was taking care of this before. My plan is to save from the first few batches then let nature take it's course. Between an angel, rainbow shark, glass shrimp, and parent mollies I figure a lot of fry will be eaten. Next step if too many survive, free feeders for my nephews oscars.