Pet Forum / Aquaria / General / June 2004

Up to 70!

You probably had more fry the first and second time, but lost a considerable
number.
One of my mollies had about forty fry, all still born.
Next month about twenty, most survived.

Stress, age of the fish, number of previous successful pregnancies,
overcrowding (even in clean water)
dirty water, harassment from randy father....

These are all reasons why fry can be down in number,
or at least they are IME

Try increasing the amount of plant you have on the water surface for the fry
to hide in/under.

HTH

Dave

<Snip>

Well I can now report that my second female White Mollie has just
given birth. And that this has caused quite some changes around in my
two aquariums.

First of all I thought that I would that I would catch these young fry
and transfer them to the same breeding trap that contains my previous
67 White Mollie fry, now about 25 days old.

This I soon came to realise was not the best idea, when these 25 day
old fry, thanks to my generous feeding, where now over twice the size
to these recently born fry.

Not to mention that one of these fry has always been twice the size of
the other ones. Just a lucky one getting more space in the fishy womb
I guess, but that makes it four times the size of these new fry.

They older fry have now lost their fry colours and they have all
(including the black ones) turned the White colour that gives them
their White Mollie name.

Since these new fry were acting very nervous towards these older fry,
then so did I decide to first catch all these new fry, followed by
releasing the older fry early into the aquarium. Therefore these young
fry would have the breeding trap all to themselves.

Before this could happen I moved my adult White Mollie female back
into my second aquarium with the other adult White Mollies.

Soon after I caught a total of 34 new fry and placed them into the
trap, where these new fry were now swimming about with the older fry
and mostly trying to stay out of their way.

I then began catching the older fry and putting them into the
aquarium. Since my Gold Barb were showing a large interest in these
fry, then so as a precaution I moved these Gold Barb into my second
aquarium.

As one of these Gold Barb could also be pregnant, then I had lacked
the desire to move these in with the larger fish, but better that than
the chance that these Barb could eat my older White Mollie fry.

Catching all these old fry in the trap and moving them into the main
aquarium posed a bit of a problem. When these older fry now try
avoiding the Net meaning that I had to be quick in catching them.

Once I a while I caught one of the new fry, but it was easy enough to
release them back into the trap. When the older fry swam towards the
bottom of the net and the younger fry the top.

After moving most of the older fry into the aquarium, then I noticed
that a couple of the new fry had been killed. This could have been by
the older fry, or maybe I had squashed them with the Net,

Since just before noticing these new fry I had fed these older fry
some freeze dried blood worms, then new fry and bloodworms I guess do
not look that much unalike.

Once all the older fry had been released, then I counted the number of
new fry dead on the bottom of the breeding trap and this total came in
at three.

Also following my release of the older fry I spotted and caught number
35 newly born fry. And with 3 dead out of 35, then the total was 32
fry now in the breeding trap.

And as my previous fry numbered 67 (following the death of number 68),
then 67 plus 32 equals 99 Mollie Fry.

Then I noticed that one of the three Mollie Fry that I had believed
dead was now flapping its fins. And after giving it a poke (without
actually touching it), then so did it swim about 3 cm away and settle
down on the bottom of the breeding trap.

Since this young fry later swim into another corner, then fry number
100 was still alive, even though it did not look too healthy. So I
will be keeping an eye on that one to see if I end up with 99 or 100
White Mollie fry in total.

I guess from this situation I really need to get a second breeding
trap, but keeping fish is always a learning process. I has thought
that mixing these two births together would be fine, but I was not to
know that this pregnant looking female that I had removed from the
others, when I got my second aquarium up and running, was only to give
birth about 3 weeks following.

A long birth in my view. I had even questioned if she was really
pregnant or not, when these fish also get fat. And if I should move
her back in the other aquarium or not.

No doubt I will spot a few more stray new fry over the next couple of
days, when these is always the odd one that you miss. So even if
number 100 soon die, then there could be a replacement.

Provided that my older fry do not hunt them down of course.

Seeing these older 67 White Mollie fry swim all over this aquarium is
quite a sight, when these go simply everywhere. The biggest risk to
them are the Red-eyed Tetras, but since they seem more afraid of them
(remembering their larger family members), then these Fry should be
fine when these Tetras seem more intent on removing each other scales.

This aquarium also contains my three Banded Wood Plecos and two of my
Chinese Algae Eaters. And well since my Plecos eat wood and plants and
the other algae and plants, then they should pose no risk.

Anyway, at this time my two original White Mollies soon expanded to 7
White Mollies, where these two new births is the result of a new male
reaching adult age.

My better water, feeding and plant cover is responsible for these
larger births (this second birth is the first for this female), which
makes my Mollie population currently 107.

You can imagine what things would be like once these fry reach adult
stage and start breeding. As if three quarters of these fry are
females, then and average of 40 fry per female would make a total of
3200 fry being born.

Fortunately, it is my plan to sell these 100 fry to my LFS just as
soon as they start getting their adult markings. As then I will only
have to deal with my 5 adult females and the 2 adult males.

Anyway, I thought that you may be interested in my White Mollies
breeding faster than very horny rabbits on viagra.

Cardman.