Mollys Had baby fishes

[scuba_kid]

i am very new at this whole hobby i just set up a 55 sw tank last night and i have had a 10 gal fw tank for a while and when i got home from shopping today i had a bout twenty little mollies swimming around in my tank. so i caught all the babies and put them in a seperate ten gallon tank smart thing to do or not????

 

[julie853]

Yes.When I had fresh water babies most allways the parents and other fish in the tank would eat them.Make sure not to put in a filter as it will suck them up and kill them.I kept mine in a separate tank until they where about half the size of the parents before I would return them to the tank.

 

[scuba_kid]

i just put an air pump with the air rock thing a the end of it and about how long was it untill u put them into the regular tank again ( or untill they were half the size)

 

[julie853]

It usally took about a month maybe six weeks.A air stone is good they need to have air in there. Because you cant run a filter I would do water changes allmost every other day.Mush some of the fish food up into a fine powder and sprinkle it in there for them and believe me they will eat it.I fed mine twice a day.

 

[scuba_kid]

i noticed they were definately eat earlier when i fed them

 

[julie853]

That's good.It's good you found them before they all got eaten up.Hope you enjoy them I allways loved having the babies ther sooo cute. :joy:

 

[scuba_kid]

is there anything that i can do so they continue to have babies and how often can they have them

 

[julie853]

As long as your water quality is good and you feed them a good diet you could have babies every six weeks or so.Mine had babies so often i would have toddlers in the nursery tank and infants together.do you have a male??

 

[julie853]

The toddler babies wont hurt the infants.

 

[julie853]

Mollies are live births so you probaly had purchased a female that was pregnant.

 

[scuba_kid]

yes i was told i have a male and a female but how do u tell because i plan on getting more and like i said i am new at this so wat am i looking at for water quality and a good diet??????

 

[julie853]

Just make sure your parimeters are good do a water change about %20 every two weeks.If your tank is brand new do a water change %30 every week for about a month.The water changes are very important because it's new and easy in fresh water fish to get ich in brand new tanks.I't's been along time since I did mollies my daughter has a couple of females so I'm trying to remember how you sexed them I believe the males dont get as large and if you look underneth them you will see like a little fin that the female dosn't have the fin is flat to there body and straight looking I forgot what they call this fin.

 

[julie853]

As for there diet a good tropcial fish food every day and maybe some brine shrimp or blood worms once a week is a good diet.

 

[julie853]

Mollies are really easy fish to keep you shouldn't have any problems having babies with them they breed really easily and are very hardy fish.There a good fish for just starting out.

 

[sepulatian]

Mollies breed like CRAZY!!!!

 

[julie853]

I know mine breed like mad I couldn't keep up with those little guys.

 

[scuba_kid]

is there such a thin as a fresh water clean up crew

 

[julie853]

Well you could add a pleco the only problem with them is they get really big.Cory catfish eat off the bottom and there are also fresh water snails that will work good.Your best bet for a clean up crew in a fresh water tank would be a pleco,cory catfish,dwarf frogs,and snails.I have owned all of these and they work very well are hardy fish and easy to care for.