Pregnant Molly?

[hughessomefish]

she doesnt want to let go of her fry! she's looking extremely square now!

Congrats in advance There are gonna be loads and loads of fry judging by her size

good,good luck

 

[Coco the Clown Loach]

She's finally dropped! there's about 40 odd i think! She had them overnight and in the main tank and the clever little fry managed to get themselves into the hatchery or just above it! Some are a bit advernturous and swimming out on their own. Should i try to put them all in the hatchery or just let nature take its course and let them be free? I've left the tank light off and put a leaf on top of where they all are.

 

[OldMan47]

A lot depends on the amount of room you have to grow out the fry. For 40 fry you will need at least 50 gallons of water for them to grow up in if you keep them until they are 2 inches long. If you have a place to pass them along sooner, you might get away with a 29 as a grow out tank. It sounds to me like you have a fairly peaceful tank if there are that many survivors without any intervention so you might just leave the fry where they are and expect to lose not much more than half with no help from you at all. It would certainly be an easier number to deal with.

 

[Coco the Clown Loach]

Thanks, I thinki will leave them in there for the time being, i dont think any of the other fish have eaten any, they have a bit of a chase but thats it. Only problem is is that I am due a water change and fear that doing one will be harmful to the fry or suck them up with the gravel cleaner

any tips? or am i worrying too much!
Thanks

 

[OldMan47]

If you are due for a water change just do it. I work the siphon in an open area of a fry tank so that I can watch in case one of the fry is not cautious enough. I also use a light colored bucket so that I can spot any fry that I suck up and just net them back into the tank.

 

[Coco the Clown Loach]

Fry are doing well in the main tank all are alive still! They love their food just like their mum. They started off staying at the top of the tank but now have ventured out in all levels of the tank I can even notice some of them getting bigger and its only been 4 days!

 

[OldMan47]

Congrats Coco. I love to watch a new fry drop in any of my tanks. If the fry are growing well, they will soon be too big for any of the other fish to really notice them. Mollies do not have the largest of fry but they are much larger than swordtails, guppies or platies so they are fairly safe right from the beginning. My goodeids have fry that are about twice the size of even molly fry but I never try to keep them in a community tank so I don't know how they would do there. In a tank with just their own kind, I get almost 100% survival. A newborn goodeid that is under about 2 cm is the runt of the litter.

 

[Denil]

pregnant indeed!