Mollie Breeding Setup

[Benakaben]

So ive got a Juwel 60L setup, I have 1 male and 3 female mollies.

ive got a 600L/h internal filter, heater a couple of pieces of bogwood, fine gravel as a substrate, i also have this plastic ball plant thing which allows fry to enter but keeps the parents away, im waiting on a load of real plants to arrive.

I also have a air stone in with them, i was wondering if this would effect them breeding, would it be to much current flow?

 

[kevin82]

my friend has a tank which sounds just like your setup and his mollies breed like a room full of rampant rabbits. he also has rock from the beach stacked which forms small caves and they are forever swimming through them which may or may not help

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to our forum Benakaben.
Mollies enjoy good water flow. My most amusing setup for mollies ever was a 120 gallon tank with two separate power filters. In that tank the mollies chose one of the power filters and went to its return flow path over and over again to ride the water slide that it produced. Don't worry much about the flow unless your adult mollies simply can't swim where they want to in the tank. The air stone is not needed with that monster filter flow, but if you like it go ahead and keep it. Once you have a female getting close to a drop, move out any fish not needed in that tank or move the female to another small tank for her drop if you want to maximize your fry production. If you are not worried about how many fry you get, your arrangement should give you at least 15 fry surviving from each drop.

 

[Benakaben]

thanks for the info, my live plants have just turned up. i have a small plastic tank i was thinking about using for the fry, i used to use it as a cricket keeper when i had my bearded dragon, the small plastic tank has tapered sides so i cut the lid so that it fits about half way up the tank. This lid has small slot in it which the fry will be able to fall through. Ive never really kept fish before but they all seem healthy enough.

Also when i recieve fry and stick them in the small tank will i need anything else in there other than a heater, as i understand they eat algi at first?

 

[OldMan47]

Fry need to be fed quite frequently. They can scavenge a bit of food in a mature tank setting but a fry tank seldom fits that description because you are constantly cleaning up everything in their tank. Fry tanks are usually run bare bottomed so that cleaning is easier since you will be feeding small amounts several times each day. All tanks need either a cycled filter or large daily water changes. It is your choice, but simply placing fish in a warm tank means they will soon experience ammonia poisoning without those water changes.

 

[Benakaben]

I was aware that i wouldnt be able to leave them in just warm water. i will probably just leave the fry in with the parents and take my chances, when i get some money ill buy another filter and cycle my new tank for future fry to come.

This is my tank as it stands...

 

[XFiSh_CichildX]

nice tank there btw tht plant you in the corner near the wood elodea ??? if so it grows like crazy ha

 

[Fishy friend2]

Great tank!

 

[Benakaben]

The more over grown the plants the better, more places for fry to hide. is there any downsides to too many plants?

Ohh and does anyone know the name of the plant in the right hand corner, i am not familiar with many names of plants.

 

[OldMan47]

That is anacharis XFish_CichlidX. It is decent enough fry cover but I prefer a more dense cover like java moss or guppy grass/najas grass.

 

[Benakaben]

Im just about to order 3 rocks covered in java moss.

 

[Fishy friend2]

Cool!

 

[Benakaben]

just looked in my tank this morning and i see 2 baby mollies!

 

[Fishy friend2]

Awesome! Good luck with the surviving fry!