Rainsong

I had two mollies. Had. One of them dropped babies, then one died. Then the other dropped... and died. My fault, and I regret it, but I have been doing my best for those they gifted me with.

As far as we can figure, the first set of fry dropped around early to mid April. The second set dropped in the first week of March at the latest. There's only six of the little guys left- four or five from the first batch, one or two from the second. They get a tank cleaning and water change every other day at least- sometimes it's everyday.

All but one are still black. The one that isn't has a name already- and he is my absolute favorite. He started going grey very early on, and is still more grey then black- it's amusing.

These guys are not very big, and I'm starting to worry that maybe I've messed up and stunted their growth? Compared to their newly born "siblings" not long ago, they were over double in size- I'd guess the older fry to be about 1 centimeter long. Even the younger fry left isn't too horribly much smaller, and they're all big enough the bossy preggo platy in there pretty much leaves them be.

How fast do Molly fry grow? When do I need to start worrying about splitting these guys up to avoid a population boom??

Wolfgang8810

i think you are cleaning the tank too much unless it hasn't fully cycled yet. I believe it takes atleast 8 months to a year before they fully mature.

Rainsong

I'm not doing full water changes. Just suctioning out left over food and poop now. I've read that fry do better with 20% daily water changes.

Wolfgang8810

ok Just make sure the water is close to the same temp.

Richard

Molly fry really only need waterchanges once a week.. but they do need to be fed more often than adults, three times a day at least.. over the years we've been breeding live-bearers, we've fed in the morning, (and with our work hours) in the afternoon as soon as we get home from work, and then again later that night.. what we feed our fry is Ikari First Bites ( powdered fishmeal for fry) for the first month or so, and then crushed flakes.. that, along with a weekly waterchange will see them growing quickly.

Oh yeah, if you get hooked raising batches of fry like we did, you'll need to introduce a new female ever so often to add new blood and avoid inbreeding.