New Fish Gave Birth! Please Help!

[speck]

hi,

yesterday I bought 3 new fish. a black molly, a white molly, and a yellow guppy.

this afternoon i noticed that there were two little black baby fish in the tank. i assume that the black molly gave birth. i have been keeping an eye out all day and keep noticing other baby fish, some not black though.


a couple hours ago i noticed the white molly fish acting sluggish. it is laying on the bottom of the tank barely moving. when it tried to swim it kinda flopped and sank back down.


i need advice/help on:

1. what do i do with the babies that are in the tank. keep them there? or do i separate them?

2. what do i do with the mother?

3. what do i do about the white molly?

and any other general advice would be great!


i really need help i don't want any of them to die!

thanks!

 

[5teady_2012]

hi,

yesterday I bought 3 new fish. a black molly, a white molly, and a yellow guppy.

this afternoon i noticed that there were two little black baby fish in the tank. i assume that the black molly gave birth. i have been keeping an eye out all day and keep noticing other baby fish, some not black though.


a couple hours ago i noticed the white molly fish acting sluggish. it is laying on the bottom of the tank barely moving. when it tried to swim it kinda flopped and sank back down.


i need advice/help on:

1. what do i do with the babies that are in the tank. keep them there? or do i separate them?

2. what do i do with the mother?

3. what do i do about the white molly?

and any other general advice would be great!


i really need help i don't want any of them to die!

thanks!

Here is the anser to your questons buddy.

1. Put the babies in a breeding trap (if you do not have one get one asap)

2. Make sure the mother is well fed after giving birth as she will be weak. (if hungry she may eat the fry)

3. The white molly sounds to me like it could be ready to drop its fry, or could be stressed due to ben in new surroundings, get some stress zyme and add this, also add it when adding more new fish, they love it.


If your concerned about the fry getting eaten before you can get a trap, then if you have some plants, bunch them together (if you have some). if not, catch them in a net and try to place the net as deep in to the water and rest the rim of net on the glass ledge, the fry will be fine in there until u get a trap (do this as a last resort)

Other than that, write down in a diary the dates of the fish that gave birth and you can next time know roughly when they will drop again, allowing you to judge the time to put her in a trap, most livebearers drop fry every 4-6 weeks.

Be sure to get some fry food, liquifry is good but i blend up loads of flake so its all mashed up nice and fine for them to eat, babies and small fish have a fast motabelism <--- spellcheck lol. so feed them every few hours 3-5 times a days


If you need any more help m8 or have any more questions, id be happy to try and answer them.

 

[OpalHeart]

Do you have plants for the frye to hide? If so, they have a better chance of surviving, but mollies are cannibals. My mommy Molly will eat one baby while giving birth to another.

Do you want to save them all? If so, you may want to separate them in a breeder net for now. Mollies take FOREVER (up to 8 months) to get full size and at I would say 3-4 months not to be snack sized for their parents.

However, I think frye do better in their own tank because they can be fed more often that way.

As for your sluggish molly, she could be sick. Is she eating?

 

[Mikaila31]

Did you cycle the tank before adding fish?

 

[speck]

ok thank you thank you so much.


yes my tank has plenty of plants and the babies seem to be hiding in them and down by the rocks, only swimming around sometimes.


the white molly was find earlier today, eating, swimming around perfectly fine, just recently it has been just laying around. do you think it gave birth to the white colored babies?!


also, the black molly has been having long strings of waste, is this normal? could she be delivering more babies?!

i am stressed about this because i didn't expect any of this to happen!

 

[5teady_2012]

ok thank you thank you so much.


yes my tank has plenty of plants and the babies seem to be hiding in them and down by the rocks, only swimming around sometimes.


the white molly was find earlier today, eating, swimming around perfectly fine, just recently it has been just laying around. do you think it gave birth to the white colored babies?!


also, the black molly has been having long strings of waste, is this normal? could she be delivering more babies?!

i am stressed about this because i didn't expect any of this to happen!

ok m8, dont stress it will be fine, if you have plants they will be ok.

The black molly probably was hungry after giving birth, and will eat anyhting it can find thats why it will prbably be producing a lot of waste, also it may still be dropping more fry, turn the light out in ya tank and dont turn it bk on til u have a trap to put the fry in.

The white molly probably had the white babies yes.
The black mollies will have had the black ones
If the guppy dropped fry as well, the fry will be much smaller than the mollies fry and thinner.

Few tips..

Only keep your tank light on 6-8 hours a day

Keep the fry well fed.

Add some stress zyme when adding new fish.

Maybe some watersafe to.


Check water every week by doing water tests - nitrate, nitrite and ammonia are the 3 most important ( all i do anyway) for these type of fish.

Always keep a breeding diary.

Do a 20% waterchange everyweek (use some watersafe to treat the new water)

ermmm, thats all i can think of at the m, any one lese feel free to add.

 

[speck]

ok thank you thank you so much.


yes my tank has plenty of plants and the babies seem to be hiding in them and down by the rocks, only swimming around sometimes.


the white molly was find earlier today, eating, swimming around perfectly fine, just recently it has been just laying around. do you think it gave birth to the white colored babies?!


also, the black molly has been having long strings of waste, is this normal? could she be delivering more babies?!

i am stressed about this because i didn't expect any of this to happen!

ok m8, dont stress it will be fine, if you have plants they will be ok.

The black molly probably was hungry after giving birth, and will eat anyhting it can find thats why it will prbably be producing a lot of waste, also it may still be dropping more fry, turn the light out in ya tank and dont turn it bk on til u have a trap to put the fry in.

The white molly probably had the white babies yes.
The black mollies will have had the black ones
If the guppy dropped fry as well, the fry will be much smaller than the mollies fry and thinner.

Few tips..

Only keep your tank light on 6-8 hours a day

Keep the fry well fed.

Add some stress zyme when adding new fish.

Maybe some watersafe to.


Check water every week by doing water tests - nitrate, nitrite and ammonia are the 3 most important ( all i do anyway) for these type of fish.

Always keep a breeding diary.

Do a 20% waterchange everyweek (use some watersafe to treat the new water)

ermmm, thats all i can think of at the m, any one lese feel free to add.

Ok thanks so much for your help. We'll keep an eye on them. Hopefully everything will be alright over-night!

 

[5teady_2012]

yes hopefully it should be if you follow the advice.

Good luck m8, any more problems im sure myself or others can help

Take care buddy.