Molly Fry

[noglet]

Hi

One of my mollies gave birth to 7 (well possibly more, but that's how many I saved!) babies last saturday and I've put them in a breeder net. They are doing really well and seem to be growing every day.

I'm feeding them on liquifry no.2. I also have some no.3 flake food. At what age should I start feeding them this?

Also, their dad is black and their mum silver. One of the fry is almost black with a white speck on it and one is totally silver. The rest seem to be just grey. Any ideas what colour they will be? Will they be dalmation or will they just stay all grey? I've never bred mollies before so not sure how they'll turn out.

Thanks for your help!

 

[lizzy]

congrats on your mollie fry, my mollie has also just gave birth to about thirty little ones.
the fry will eat flake food now if its small enough. put some in a plastic bag and rub it between your fingers,till its like powder then away you go.
Its difficult to say what colour your babies will turn out, so youl have to be patient.
hope this helps.

 

[tstenback]

i agree with lizzy. Give it a go now. Also feed the little ones just a tiny bit but feed them 4-5 times a day and vary their food. they love baby brine shrimp.
Another thing to watch is that if you overfeed and stuff starts to collect in the breeder then syphon it out with a bit of airline tubing. Do this daily if anything accumulates, your little ones will appreciate it and will grow healthier. HTH

 

[balloon molly]

i think those will be dalmations not too sure though congrats on the little ones.if the falke is small enough then you can feed them that.but when my molly gave birth they didnt want it until thier first week

 

[GuppyDude]

no.. they wont be dalmations. some of them may have like lil spots of silver and black but not quite dalmations. im thinking a vast majority of them will be the color of the mother. gl man

 

[noglet]

The baby that is mainly black is getting more and more silver on its belly as it grows. There are two that will clearly be all white and the others are just grey at the moment. They are all doing well and now have liquifry 3 flake food aswell as liquifry 2 sometimes - thought I should break them in. I'll try and get some pics of them on here soon.

Thanks for the advice

 

[kaz petts]

Congrats on the babies.
You seem to be feeding them ok, I used to feed my fry on liquifry until my baby daughter decided that it would be kind to let the trapped fish join the rest in the main tank (needless to say they have all been eaten)
My advice, don't let kids near the tank.
Looks like one of my other mollys is pregnant so I will be a mum again (I hope), this time I will make sure the baby can't get to the fry!!!!!!

 

[[email protected]]

Hi! Congratulations on your new baby mollies!! I just love to hear and chat about baby mollies...
As for your question on what color they will be, I think that it's really hard to tell...I've been breeding and raising mollies for quite some time now, and it's my understanding that you could have a batch of fry from a "father" that "donated" sperm up to 6 months ago...Your female could give birth every month or so for about 6 months with no presence of a male at that time (hope that makes sense). They store sperm for up to that long. So, that's why I think it's really hard to tell if the babies will look like their "father", as that may not be the father after all...
If you want to continue breeding and having baby mollies, my suggestion to you would be to get a second tank. When I first started, I tried the breeder net too. Unfortunately, the problem with the breeder net is that it does not let the water flow freely through the net, and water can become toxic in there to the little ones.)And you can get a used tank cheap if you just look...I just bought two ten-gallons, tops and all, for only $4.00 each at a second hand store... ) I have been breeding and raising mollies with great success, with the exception of my very first batch--only one out of 37 lived--but I was ignorant and knew absolutely nothing then. But learned a lot, and since then, have not had one single baby die after birth--and I've had lots of births. I have two tanks strictly for the babies only, and right now, I have lots of babies--over 300. A whole LOT of babies for just the two tanks, but I do water changes every other day and check my levels often. My youngest babies are about three weeks old--105 of them came from one female dalmation!! And they are all doing great.......So, good luck and congratulations on becoming a "Grandparent"!!
Oh, and I agree, they love baby brine shrimp. But you can also purchase something called "First Bites" by Hikari.....Or you just crush up molly food really fine for the little ones...
Tigger766

 

[noglet]

The filtration and pump in my tank seems to be very good but I'm cleaning out the breeding net every so often. I'm hoping to bring my old tank back from my parents later in the week which has a couple of rummy nose tetras in it so they'll be coming too! I'll then decide which fish to put in there - either the adults and let the babies free in the other tank or the other way round.

The baby that is almost black seems a lot bigger than the others but they are all happy and healthy. Does this matter? Or is it normal for some to be bigger than others?

 

[[email protected]]

Hi Again Noglet! Yes, it's normal for some to be bigger than the others...Just as much, I've noticed that it's also normal to have a runt out of most of the batches I've had. And it seems that as long as they are swimming fine and eating and healthy, then u are obviously doing a great job!!
Feel free to e-mail me and we can chat about the babies and compare notes, so to speak..I love "fish talk" and I'm sure my boyfriend gets so bored with hearing me talk about it!!
Tigger766

 

[noglet]

Update!! One of my mollies has just given birth to three babies!! The other silver female I have had 7 a couple of weeks ago. I rescued the first two and put them in the breeding net but unfortunately the third is deformed. His/her tail is wrapped up round towards its head and it can't swim. It's sank to the bottom of the tank. Not really sure that I can do anything for it??? But the other two are doing fine and have eaten already

The weird thing is is that the new babies seem just as big as the others which have been steadily growing for the past couple of weeks

 

[noglet]

Also, I've noticed that one of the new babies has a red dot on her underneath. Is this a problem??

 

[mari121076]

Help me! i think i have a problem but im not sure. My silver molly has just had 9 babies we bought her pregnant. The nine babies have red cuts on there belly is this normal. im going crazy!!!!

 

[GuppyDude]

gl wit the babys they do grow fast, im a lil surprised that most are grey and not black, userally they take the color uf the mum