[Sabina88]

So if you read my earlier post you would know that I got a mollie. Well after relising that I shouldn't have gotten her after we got home I planed to bring her back this weekend. ive only had her since Last Sunday.
So today I came home and started taking the plastic wrap off of the small tanks. I opend up hers and was supprised/ shocked to see little tiny fish swimming around....
So now I have fry...... Was not expecting that. Im surprised at how many I have, I have no idea if she eat any but considering she was in a 2 gallon kritter keeper with them she was wasn't making a big effort to try to eat them. All in all I have around 17 babies. I saw 5 what I think are eggs, and 2 very underdeveloped babies who most likely died during birth. And sadest of all was a underdeveloped one. This little on still had its egg sack but it was almost where it needed to be. It could wiggle its tail but its tail fin hadn't developed yet and all it could do was stay on the bottom and not move, I unfortunetly had to euthanize the little baby since I new it wouldn't survive long.
Anyways after a long process of moving fish around so I could get the babies out both them and mom are sharing the 2 gallon (the babies are in a breeder net). I would have put them on the 40 gallon but I guess I felt like it would be easier and to me safer to care for them this way.
I still plan on bringing mom back to petco this weekend but what should I do with the fry? If I had known she was pregnant I would have brought her back sooner but she didn't have a gravid spot and since I had nothing to compare her size to I thought it was just common.
Im deffinitly not bringing the fry back to store, they wouldn't make it.
Im considering asking my Aunt and Uncle if they want some mollies for their kids, and maybe ask my brother if he would take any but I have a feeling that it would be a slim chance.
I am going to most likely ask my brother if I can borrow his 10 gallon if he still has it.(they had fancy goldfish in it for my nephew, they didn't know any better) so I can have that as a grow out tank.
As for food for them luckily I still have frozen BBS from my baby betta and betta flakes so feeding them isn't to much of an issue.

So sorry for rambling. I would really aperecate help ASAP.

 

[Kiara1125]

Not all livebearers have gravid spots. She probably had the fry from stress. You can use the 10g for the fry and feed them crushed flakes and BBS. Put some java moss in there and you'll be set. They're not hard to take care of. Usually, if I try to keep my platy fry, they die, but if I leave them alone then they live.

Fill up the 10g halfway and put some live plants in with them. Feed them BBS at first and then start feeding them crushed flakes. Once they're about 1/4" long, fill up the 10g fully. Let them grow until they're almost an inch and ask if any places can take them. If not, see if your family can take them.

 

[AmbiantNight]

What type of molly are they? I have a 50 gal that has become dedicated to Mollies. I may be willing to pay the shipping costs and take them off your hands once they reach an inch depending on what type they are.

 

[Sabina88]

Since i don have an extra tank, i put them in a 7.5 steralite tub. So far ive only lost one since moving them on saterday. So i have 13.
Luckily one of my friends is goimg to take some, but i still have to find homes for the rest.

Im not sure what kind they all are,
All i now is mom is a black lerytail molly and dad is unknown.
Most of the babies look like their black mollys and possibly some silver, dolmation and maybe a yelow. Those ones ill have to wait for them to grow up to now for sure.

 

[AmbiantNight]

Even with mom's genetics that would work with my set up. Send me a message when they are an inch long and we can set up shipping. We don't have lerytail in my area so it would be nice to get some of those genetics in my molly tank.

 

[Sabina88]

ok I will have to think about shipping them though, ive never done it before and am kinda nervous. But I guess their a first for every thing. Ill defenetly message you when the time comes and let you know

As for dad, she was housed with other black mollies, silvers and either yellow or orange mollys.

 

[AmbiantNight]

They will still have the right genetics. If I'm careful about it I should be able to get some true breedings out of the babies.

 

[Kiara1125]

Shipping is really easy. Just go to the pet store and ask for some bags. After getting the fish bags, bag up the mollies (divide them between 2 bags) and have it to where there's 1/3 water and 2/3 air. Put them into a small USPS flat rate shipping box (you can go to the post office and grab a box and walk out), add a heat pack if needed, tape it up, go to the post office, grab a label, fill it out, slap it on, and pay $6 for shipping. Tell them to put "fragile" and "liquid" stickers on it, and write "LIVE FISH" on every side of the box. The fish will arrive in 2-3 days and are usually always fine. If the temperature is in the 60s or less, add a heat pack. I forgot to add one and all 17 of my tropicals died. Only my 5 goldfish lived. :-( So be careful! If you have any more questions on shipping, feel free to ask me.

 

[Sabina88]

Thanks so much Kiara1125,

Im more worried that ill do something wrong with packaging and cause them to pass away during their trip to their new home.
Luckily by the time their 1" it will be nice and warm around here. It already got up to the 90's on Monday, then back down to 50-60. Sigh if only the weather would make up its mind lol.

Ill make sure to keep updates on them so you can see how they grow up and what they look like the they get around 1". Exciting news though, they will be one week old tomorrow. I didn't think I would be able to keep the fry as well as I have so far. Fingers crossed.

Also I did loose another fry on Monday so im down to 13. I did have a little scare and thought there was a fungus infection in my fry tank since it looked like the dead fry had some white possibly fuzzy spots on it. But I didn't make any sense since non of my other fish have that so I wasn't sure how they got it. So I took every body out, dumped the water and refilled. And I haven't lost anybody since.

These pictures are from a few days ago. They look about the same as they did when I took these pics, but the few lighter ones have started to get some color especaly that little clear one in the first photo. I cant wait to see what they look like when their bigger.

 

[AmbiantNight]

I think dad might have been dalmation. Another nice genetic that isn't in my area. Starting to get excited about this. If you don't have a filter in there you will need to do every other day partial changes. In my experience the babies can be picky on that. But you don't need a great filter either. Just a sponge will do just fine.

 

[Kiara1125]

I would suggest putting a sponge filter in there and getting a gang valve (to adjust the strength). Put it on low and raise it as they get older. As they grow up, have the sponge filter on full blast. This way, they'll have strong caudal muscles and will hold their tails high and proud. I learned this with guppies. If you do with with guppies, the males that have super long fins will have them fully splayed out and won't act like their tails are too heavy to hold.

 

[Sabina88]

I dont have a filter on it, so ive been doing water changes. They seem to be doing ok with that so far
Fingers crossed.

Ill upload some more pics today or over the weekend

 

[AmbiantNight]

considering I'm the one getting them if you can't get a sponge filter by the first I could always send one to you by then. When I get them they come in bulk so I always have extras.

 

[Sabina88]

Thank you for offering but its, im going to see what they have next time i go to petco or petsmart

 

[Sabina88]

Update:

So the fry are a week and a day old today I still have all 13 at the moment. But I unfortunately might loose one of them. This one can still move its tail and move around but it cant really move much. Its not because of sickness as far as I can see, I think he just didn't end up finding food, he looks really skinny compared to the other fry. But after taking them all out to intpect them which I cant do in their container, I gave every one some BBS in that cup so hopefully he actually eat something and he will make it.
Just in case so I can keep an eye on him and make sure he has easy access to food I put my breeder net box on the side of their container and put him in. Fingers crossed that he will pull through.
I also put one other one in there since it seemed like that one, although he could swim well enough tended to be at the bottom. He swims around but stays at the very bottom of the tank. So hopefully close monitoring and easy access to food will help him quickly recover.
Other then that the other 11 are doing well and happily swimming around :-D

Color wise, as far as I can tell for now I have
2 greys (possibly dolmations)
2 clear
9 black

Im really interested to see what their coloration turns out to be.

I also took some more photos. They aren't the best since of coarse I decided to take them at 10:00 at night when the lighting isn't great. Also excuse the flakes stuck to the outside of the cup in the photos.
Ill try and find a good clear container so I can get some good side shots of them.

 

[AmbiantNight]

I'm so glad to see they are getting along so good. And you can be sure when they get here I'll be posting lots of pictures of them so you can see how they grow up. Right now I just have gold dust mollies in there as that is all we have in my area.

 

[Sabina88]

I love gold dusts as far as i now we dont' have any around here
Im excited for pics of them growing up too

So unfortunetly i lost the two i put in the breeder net. But luckily the other 11 seem active and healthy.
Hopefully im not doing anything wrong.

 

[Kiara1125]

Maybe the one at the bottom is just weak or deformed. Survival of the fittest.

I'm expecting several dalmatians (not dalmations or dolmations) and some creamsicles. The blacks are just blacks, but they might have some spots of white as they get older. As for being lyretails, you can tell if they are whenever they reach about several months old. So, AmbiantNight will probably watch them turn into lyretails before you do, Sabina. Whenever you start seeing males become mature is wen the tails will start growing their extensions.

 

[Sabina88]

Thats interesting. I never new that

 

[Sabina88]

So I haven't done a update in a while and since I did/was doing a larger water change on their tank I decided to finally take some more pics.

Today my molly fry are 2 weeks and 3 days old Im currently down to 10 fry and possibly 9 depending on what happens with one of them. Sigh, hopefully this one will get better or at least no more will pass on after this. Fingers crossed.
On a better note here are some updated pic of the little guy. It looks like I should have at least one yellow or orange one. And 1-2 that could be yellow or orange or they could end up being grey.

Oh also sorry the pics aren't great, I was using a temp holding container that's a bit dirty, and for some reason in that room of the house its never bright enough to get good pics.

This pic shows the different colors best, the furthest one back is one of the ones that im not 100% sure of what the color will be. This pic is also the best one I got of the lightest one, I really hope he makes it I cant wait to see how he turns out.


This one is of one of the black fry, the little clear one decided to join the pic to lol


This is one of they greyish ones though he looks pretty dark in this photo.