Platy And Molly Pregnancy

[HCpetraitis]

Alright I have a lot to say and I need a lot of advice. I'll start from the beginning. In March of this year I bought three platies. Two male one female. Then about a month later I found out my female was pregnant. I was going to keep the babies and raise them but then a huge case of Ich came. So I treated the tank and the result was disastrous. I used a ich treatment first and ich went away. Then I used a fin rot treatment to treat the fin rot that came in that same few days. So then my water in the tank turned red. BRIGHT RUSTY red. NO JOKE! So I changed filter cartridges and all the stuff and nothing happened so I decided I needed to clean the tank and start fresh so I cleaned it out and found eight baby platy fry in the rocks. I was so happy! Okay and then the mom got pregnant again and then died of a stressful birth. No fry either. So then one of my males died so all I was left with was eight platy fry and one male. Then in the past month one of my fry has gotten pregnant. So I decided I needed to seperate males and females. So me and my friend made a deal. I would give her the males including all the male fry and she would give me some of her female mollies. So it's been working out great. The only thing is that two of the platies died. So today I have six mollies and four platies. My platies are still in the breeder box because they are too small so my first question is should I let the fry free or leave them in the box. My only concern is my filter has a high suction so they might get caught and be small enough to fit in the filter tube or not have enough energy to break free and they might die. Oh and also I just found out one of the mollies might be pregnant. Should I let nature take its course or do I save the fry and then do what I can?

 

[lilfishie]

is it just the mollies in the tank?
generally most will say if the fry are bigger than the mouth of the biggest fish then let them out
if you worried about them being sucked in the filter simply put a very fine mesh/net material around the intake

 

[HCpetraitis]

In the tank I have Five mollies, but in the box I have Four platies and one molly. I'm not really worried of them being eaten, it's the fear of them getting stuck to the filter and not being able to pull away so they die. It's happened twice. THey aren't strong enough and they get stuck.

 

[lilfishie]

if your filter intake is that strong is there no way you could turn it down at all, usually most fry will avoid it

 

[HCpetraitis]

I don't think they can avoid. It's really strong even my big fish get pulled in, but they are strong enough to pull away.

 

[HCpetraitis]

Would anyone like some molly and platy fry? I can't take them. I live in Chicago IL. Any takers? I'll give them for a few dollars!

 

[HCpetraitis]

Does anyone else have some advice?

 

[Kets]

Rubberband a sponge around your intake.