Questions About Molly Fry *pics Attached

HI Guys!

One of our balloon mollies has given birth to 6 new fry.

I have some floating plants in the tank as well as a little tank I made that I attached to the side of the primary tank to put the fry in.

A new fry seems to appear about every hour yet the mom seems just as big as she did yesterday. I have yet to witness a new birth despite watching out for one throughout the day. Will she she deliver more fry? About how many fry will she have over what period of time?

One of the fry seems deformed. She only has one eye, poor thing. Is that normal? Another died shortly after putting him in the side tank. The other 5 seem very healthy.

I don't want the fry to be hungry so I fed them the same flakes I feed the rest of the fish. Is this ok? They don't seem to be eating yet.

The fry seem to swim to the bottom and hide in rocks and gravel. I thought they would swim to the top and hide in the floating plant but only one did. They're hard to catch and I don't want to hurt them but I don't want them to be eaten either. Any ideas on how to catch them?

We currently have lights on the tank to spot the new fry but I noticed the fry come out to swim around more in the dark. Should we keep the lights on or off?

I hope we'll be seeing new fry but we haven't for about two hours now. The mom still has her gravid spot, her abdomen is dark (she's yellow) and she's as large as ever.

I've attached some pictures

Thanks so much for your help!

 

HI Guys!

One of our balloon mollies has given birth to 6 new fry.

I have some floating plants in the tank as well as a little tank I made that I attached to the side of the primary tank to put the fry in.

A new fry seems to appear about every hour yet the mom seems just as big as she did yesterday. I have yet to witness a new birth despite watching out for one throughout the day. Will she she deliver more fry? About how many fry will she have over what period of time?

One of the fry seems deformed. She only has one eye, poor thing. Is that normal? Another died shortly after putting him in the side tank. The other 5 seem very healthy.

I don't want the fry to be hungry so I fed them the same flakes I feed the rest of the fish. Is this ok? They don't seem to be eating yet.

The fry seem to swim to the bottom and hide in rocks and gravel. I thought they would swim to the top and hide in the floating plant but only one did. They're hard to catch and I don't want to hurt them but I don't want them to be eaten either. Any ideas on how to catch them?

We currently have lights on the tank to spot the new fry but I noticed the fry come out to swim around more in the dark. Should we keep the lights on or off?

I hope we'll be seeing new fry but we haven't for about two hours now. The mom still has her gravid spot, her abdomen is dark (she's yellow) and she's as large as ever.

I've attached some pictures

Thanks so much for your help!

Catching them is gonna just be really difficult because they are so little, and stressful for them. I would add some hornwort for them to hide in. The hornwort also provides micronutrients for the fry to eat. You can buy food specifically for fry, but you can also grind up fish flakes you have to feed them with! Once they are a little bigger and stronger, you can move them to another tank.

 

Catching them is gonna just be really difficult because they are so little, and stressful for them. I would add some hornwort for them to hide in. The hornwort also provides micronutrients for the fry to eat. You can buy food specifically for fry, but you can also grind up fish flakes you have to feed them with! Once they are a little bigger and stronger, you can move them to another tank.

Adding on to what you said, crushing up fish food into a fine powder is much more cost effective than buying special food just for fry. I used a spoon and "rolled" the bottom of it on the fish food and that worked well. I also agree with having the hornwort, but most fine-leafed plants will do about as well.

 

Is she going to birth more than 6 fry?

 

Is she going to birth more than 6 fry?

She probably did, but its likely that many of the fry were eaten, as adult mollies like to snack on their fry for some odd reason. 10-35 fry seems to be the most common range of fry birthed at once, but 100 fry has been reported.

 

I've heard they can deliver for days or weeks. Is that true?

I doubt she's delivered all her fry yet because she looks the same.

 

I had guppies in a heavily planted tank.

A few fry survived every hatch with platy, mollies, gouramis in the tank.

They lived behind the sponge filter, at the top in the hornwort and in and amongst the swords.

Seems after they survive a week or 2, they come out more.

 

We found some new fry. We now have a total of 10!!

Some look bigger than the others which makes me think the mom is delivering slowly over time. She still looks very pregnant. It's confusing.

How long do mollies deliver for? I heard sometimes they give birth to new fry for days or weeks at a time. Any explanation as to what's going on would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

I’m more familiar with guppies but they are livebearers too.

I’ve seen 50-60 fry overnight, or a few every few days.

And this is after the tank mates have had their fill.

I wouldn’t try to anticipate, jut react to what you have.

HirakI First Bites are great for livebearer fry but if they are in a tank with other fish, just crush some of the flake very small.

 

We are up to 18 fry now!

We catch 2 or 3 new fry every day!

All of the fry look like they're in different stages of development so I'm not sure what's going on

We have two pregnant mollies in the tank so maybe they're both giving birth?

Any thoughts?

 

Yes.

And they can drop a few everyday.

 

Yes.

And they can drop a few everyday.

Thank you! That clarifies things