You can always keep one of her babies to remember her by, but yeah that is an intense situation. I had this with guppies once but my tank became so over run with guppies I started selling them all off because thy were stressing me out. One would die and 20 would take it's place.
yea the only thing that I know about guppies is that they breed like crazy. I dont know if I will have the room but I probably will try to hod on to at least 1 fry. The one thing that frightens me is as was burying marble I noticed red around her gills so I hope it was just from her trying to protect her fry from the other fish and not septicemia. If it is I just have to cross my fingers and hope that the fry escape this omen. If anything goes wrong I'll probably just try to save the fish but might end up tearing down the tank bleaching it, let it sit empty for a month then do a fishless cycle, and finally putting my bettas in (with a divider of course) like I had originally planned to. But like I have said before if anyone has had any experience raising any fry particularly fry of live bearers and even molly's or platy's, please share your experience and ideas. I am planning a 5.5 gallon to hold the fry and let them get maybe 6-8 months old before I start passing them out.
Reading all this i got a tad bit confused in regards to the species that overruns your tank: Guppies or Mollies?
If it is mollies i am find it strange that that you have been finding small batches. I have seen a molly giving birth to 100+ fry in 2-3 continually labor hours... OFC one of mine gave birth to three and that was it. Well technically 2 since one was kinda of a stillbirth, it was an egg!
Anyways if you got past my rumbling heres something useful:
For mollys:Feed small amounts of powder flake about 8 times a day, keep temperature about 78 - 80, add 1 tablespoon of aquarium salt per 5 gallons, and do water changes DAILY (add salt to new water when added).
I also feed hard boiled egg yolk. Just hard boil an egg and take the yolk out, add water to it until it becomes a paste. Next use a toothpick to scrape out SMALL amounts (avoid chunks) of paste and then swirl it in the water. Protein clouds will form and they will swim though and eat it. This will trigger fast growth. Feed this 2 -3 times a day in SMALL amounts.
You can also feed shredded lettuce one they grow a bit.
In about 4 - 6 months they should be an inch or longer.
For Guppys: Hard-boil an egg, put it in to a resealable container, add some water then squish it all together. Feed the formula twice a day. Be careful not to feed to much because it is very high in protein and makes them to grow faster. Baby Brineshrimp is also a good fry food. As they get older start feeding them Bloodworms.
Mollies are the only species that I have in the 10 gallon. Anyway I have set up a 5.5 gallon as well as an airstone and pump (kept on low flow with valve) I managed to rescue 11 fry but I am sure that is not all of the ones that were born. I should have put the mother in the empty 5 gallon but I wasn't thinking ahead. Next time I'll probably buy a breeder with that floor that the fry drop down into. As for food I have some hikari first bites I think is its name and they seem to be enjoying it. Water fluctuates 78-81 but very gently and the fry seem happy enough chasing ea. other around. If you guys want I can upload a picture to get a better idea.
I have that breeder thing with the bottom for the fry to fall into. It isn't really useful to me with the platy because apparently she can just keep on having "batches" of fry many times even though I separated her from the male.
Once I found just two babies, then about 5 another time, and the last time about 5 more. I just assume all the rest were eaten. But I never know when she will have more.
The mollies I'm keeping are all female so hopefully their "supply" will eventually run out and that will be the end of my problems. The real downer is I was doing a fish in cycle to eventually set up a sorority but now I have to care for these fry (don't have the stomach to throw them in the adult tank) and let them grow before I ask people if they would like some fish. Not to mention the I can no longer put the adults in a smaller tank because it is now the "fry tank".
I have that breeder thing with the bottom for the fry to fall into. It isn't really useful to me with the platy because apparently she can just keep on having "batches" of fry many times even though I separated her from the male.
Once I found just two babies, then about 5 another time, and the last time about 5 more. I just assume all the rest were eaten. But I never know when she will have more.
Yeah i have those still. I had a loach and was trying to suck the fry from the vents. Those are very temporary if you cant relocate them as soon as they are born they wont live in there.
Yea I know its not permanent but my only other options would be leave them in the tank (get eaten) put mother in fry tank (other fry are eaten) get another tank (pointless,cost ineffective, and lack of space) any way I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow, as much as it is a pain ... watching the fry zip around is pretty cool :P and makes up for most of the problems.lol they're lucky, my juvenile paternal instincts are kicking in. Anyway goodnight everyone.
i was in almost the exact same situation, my mollies had babies, all my adult mollies died, and now im left with no more babies. im pretty much positive that it was the fact that they didnt have brackish water, because i lost my last baby about 3 days after his 2 month birthday. but my mollies were also in my sorority so i just netted all the remaining babies and put them in a breeder net box and my girls didnt seem to mind at all. just make sure you put gravel or something in the bottom so the girls cant rough up the babies through the net.
I have a solution for your extra fish. I am raising platies at home in a 30 gallon tank. I plan on feeding some to my "Jag". He is a 14inch monster of a fish, part Jaguar cichlid and part Dovii cichlid. Some of the platies will always be kept as pets, but when they get too numerous I have a disposal system. My betta lives alone in my office in a 3 gallon set up. I'm not even thinking of putting anything in with him.
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