(please Help) One Fry In My Tank!

Okay so I have a 90 gallon tank with a male and female marbled molly. For a few days I noticed spawning behaviors and my molly got very fat in the next period of time. I have no other male female pairs of the same species in the tank yet there is a single molly fry in the tank. I see no others and my molly still looks like she has quite some weight. I have her in a box in case there is more. Any other opinions on what the next sequence of actions I should take. Please Help!!

 

Mollies will eat their fry so it's important you get the fry out of there if you want to keep him. You can scoop it out with a yogurt cup, and move him to a fry tank or a breeder net. You can feed him some crushed fish flakes once he gets settled in. I'll be back in a minute, just have to do something-

 

Mollies will eat their fry so it's important you get the fry out of there if you want to keep him. You can scoop it out with a yogurt cup, and move him to a fry tank or a breeder net. You can feed him some crushed fish flakes once he gets settled in. I'll be back in a minute, just have to do something-

Well the thing is there is a singular fry hiding in the rocks and plants ad I've tried to get him out but I couldn't so I will keep trying and hopefully get some more fry. It's just that I don't know if she is done birthing or even how old the fry is.

 

Mollies pretty much always give birth to more than just one fry. There are probably some more on the way. If you can't catch the fry, here's some steps to try:

1. Give your fry lots of cover, like putting some loose moss or plants into the rocks near where he is.
2. Sprinkle a little bit of flake food near the rocks for the fry to eat when you feed your other fish. Snails will help to eat the food bits the fry doesn't finish.
3. Once your molly gives birth to other fry, if you can't catch them, they will probably go to live among the rocks with the other one. Just be sure to provide lots of cover for them.

I hope this helps!

 

Unless you want to keep every one of the fry that will soon come along you can just let nature do what nature does. Some of the fry will get eaten but as long as you have lots of hiding spots the strongest ones will survive. If you try to rescue every fry you will soon be over stocked with them unless you have someone that will take some of them.

Some folks have reported still born fry when moving moma to a breeder net/box because she was too stressed. Allowing her to stay where she is most comfortable will be best for her and like I said, If you provide hiding spots some of them will survive.

I didn't see my mollies going after their babies but my Danios did. I wasn't going to try to keep any of the fry when I got my mollies but couldn't help myself so I did catch some of them and moved them to a grow out tank. The fry started coming within 3 days of getting the adults and at that point I only saw 3 of them. Within another week or so there were bunches of babies.

Just give your molly moma time and she will bless you with bunches of them. Right now I have 17 of them in the grow out tank and some of them are already as big as their parents. They are about 3 months old now.

All but 2 of the ones I left in my main tank became fish food but those 2 were strong and smart enough to survive. I won't go out of my way to rescue any more of them since I don't have room for more and no one to give them to so I will just allow the strongest to survive.

 

Unless you want to keep every one of the fry that will soon come along you can just let nature do what nature does. Some of the fry will get eaten but as long as you have lots of hiding spots the strongest ones will survive. If you try to rescue every fry you will soon be over stocked with them unless you have someone that will take some of them.

Some folks have reported still born fry when moving moma to a breeder net/box because she was too stressed. Allowing her to stay where she is most comfortable will be best for her and like I said, If you provide hiding spots some of them will survive.

I didn't see my mollies going after their babies but my Danios did. I wasn't going to try to keep any of the fry when I got my mollies but couldn't help myself so I did catch some of them and moved them to a grow out tank. The fry started coming within 3 days of getting the adults and at that point I only saw 3 of them. Within another week or so there were bunches of babies.

Just give your molly moma time and she will bless you with bunches of them. Right now I have 17 of them in the grow out tank and some of them are already as big as their parents. They are about 3 months old now.

All but 2 of the ones I left in my main tank became fish food but those 2 were strong and smart enough to survive. I won't go out of my way to rescue any more of them since I don't have room for more and no one to give them to so I will just allow the strongest to survive.

That is completely understandable and I knew this, thanks though, but I have 2 mollies in a 90 gallon and I want some more! So I just took apart half my tank trying to save this little guy but he kept getting away. I have elaborate rock structures so if he can consistently get away from me for 20 minutes and then continue eating I'm sure he will be fine. The danios so worry me tho as I have 13 in my tank. They chased my neons the day I got them to the point where one died from stress but the rest are fine now so if the fry can get passes that we should be good.
The more I study him the more I think hes a few days old now anyways. I just got worried that there was only one in the whole tank.

Thanks!

 

I can see how it would be difficult to catch one little guy in a 90 gallon tank after it has gotten a few days old. It is easier if they are caught shortly after being born. I had floating hornwort and that is where they first went and then they went to my sponge filters. The ones I couldn't catch stayed close to the sponge filters. I suspect they were finding food on them.

Since you want more to help stock your tank you may want to just move moma and papa over to a grow out tank and then move them back after the babies are born. That way you won't have to stress yourself or the fry out by trying to catch them. They will grow faster if they are in a grow out tank because they can be fed often enough to help them grow. I fed them at least 4 times a day for the first 3 or 4 weeks. The 2 that survived in my 55 gallon tank are only half as big as the ones I have in their own 10 gallon grow out tank.

I would have recommended moving just moma if I hadn't actually done just that. I moved moma but not papa and she just about refused to release the babies. She gave birth to 2 of them and then finally died. She was huge. I think she was trying but instead of fry she expelled part of herself. It wasn't pretty

I thought I was doing what was best for her because the male would not let her rest. Maybe she needed the chasing to make her release the fry. Guess I'm not a fish whisperer so couldn't hear her trying to tell me I was messing up

A huge breeder net filled with plants to keep her and the future fry safe might be the best route to take if available. That way once born the fry can be moved to a grow out tank.

 

That's actually so sad but hey I guess nature can do things better than we can.

(UPDATE) My single fry is still alive and well after what seems to be over a day. Fingers crossed he makes it! So hopefully in a month I'll have some more and I'll be more prepared!

Thanks All!

 

That's actually so sad but hey I guess nature can do things better than we can.

(UPDATE) My single fry is still alive and well after what seems to be over a day. Fingers crossed he makes it! So hopefully in a month I'll have some more and I'll be more prepared!

Thanks All!

It sounds like you have a strong smart little guy. As long as it can hide out it should soon grow into a full fledged member of your fish world and hopefully it will soon have a bunch of little friends to keep it company.