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What do you feed baby molly fish


How to Care for Freshwater Baby Molly Fish

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Updated April 24, 2017

By Sonia Fernandez

The molly (Poecilia sphenops) is a popular fish for the beginning aquarist. They're attractive and hardy and, given enough space, can get along with others. Mollies belong to a class of fish called livebearers. They don't lay eggs; their young come out swimming. And they are prolific breeders as well.

Molly babies get no protection from their parents. The tiny fish are just as likely to be eaten by their own mother as they are by other fish in the aquarium, so to survive they're going to need a little help.

    Gather the babies. The best-case scenario would be to have the pregnant female in a breeding box or net suspended in the water of the aquarium. In the case of a breeding box, the babies would drop into another compartment of the box and the mother would already be separated. In the case of a breeding net, you would have to scoop the mother out. If you can't get to the gravid female in time, you may need to capture the little ones and separate them from the other fish in the aquarium. Then you can use the breeding box, net or the separate tank to isolate the fry until they get large enough to fend for themselves.

    If chasing tiny mollies around the aquarium doesn't do it for you (it also stresses them out), or if you just want to give the babies a little more protection, add real or artificial plants to the tank. Plants with leaves that float to the top of the tank will give the little ones a place to hide as they feed. Breeding grass also works for this purpose.

    Feed your fish. Baby mollies can eat your regular fish flakes, crushed finely. Live baby brine shrimp are also a popular baby food. Do not overfeed them. In about eight weeks your baby mollies should be large enough to go into the tank with the other fish.

    Things You'll Need
    • Fish breeding box or net
    • Separate tank, filled with water (optional)
    • Fish net, or other means of scooping out fish
    • Plants
    • Fish food

    • Preparation is the best insurance toward successfully caring for your molly fry. Plants should be in place, the pregnant females already separated. It saves you the time and effort of trying to separate the fish after they have been born.

      Mollies are prolific breeders, so to control the population it's recommended that the sexes are kept separate. Males have a gonopodium, a modified anal fin used for reproduction. You can determine a young fish's gender after about 12 weeks.

      Keep the babies' habitat clean. The breeder box or tank will need to be cleaned and its water changed. In a breeding net, the fry are exposed to the same water conditions the rest of the tank is experiencing.

      Cannibalism is normal with mollies and other livebearers like guppies and platys. As fecund as they are, you don't really need to worry about saving every last one.

Related Articles

References

  • FishLore.com: Livebearer Fish Species
  • wetwebmedia.com: The Truth About Mollies

Tips

  • Preparation is the best insurance toward successfully caring for your molly fry. Plants should be in place, the pregnant females already separated. It saves you the time and effort of trying to separate the fish after they have been born.
  • Mollies are prolific breeders, so to control the population it's recommended that the sexes are kept separate. Males have a gonopodium, a modified anal fin used for reproduction. You can determine a young fish's gender after about 12 weeks.
  • Keep the babies' habitat clean. The breeder box or tank will need to be cleaned and its water changed. In a breeding net, the fry are exposed to the same water conditions the rest of the tank is experiencing.
  • Cannibalism is normal with mollies and other livebearers like guppies and platys. As fecund as they are, you don't really need to worry about saving every last one.

About the Author

Sonia Fernandez is a writer living in Santa Barbara, California. Her background is primarily in news, as a general assignment reporter for a local news website, but she also does the occasional magazine feature, Web article, short story or travel piece. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Photo Credits

Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images

Molly Fish Fry Care - How to Care for Baby Mollies?

Molly fish breed easily and frequently, but they aren’t fish that will continue caring for their fry after they’re born. In fact, adult mollies most often end up abandoning or even eating their fry.

If you want baby mollies to survive, you’ll need to care for them yourself by separating them from adult fish and feeding them foods suitable for small fry.

In this guide, I will teach you how to care for baby mollies including how to save them from adult fish, how to feed them and how to maintain a molly fry tank.

How Mollies Are Born?

As live-breeders, mollies spawn completely formed fry that skip the egg stage and are ready to swim and feed in just a couple of hours.

Molly males become reproductive at 12 months, while females reach reproductive age at 6 months. Female mollies carry the eggs for about 30-45 days.

There aren’t any special requirements for breeding, it’s enough to simply keep male and female mollies in the same aquarium and breeding will occur without any further intervention.

The female molly will have an enlarged abdomen and will start looking for shelter in a darker corner of the aquarium as she’s preparing to give birth to the fry.

Spawning usually takes place in the early hours of the morning and the fry of some molly breeds are rather large (e.g. black molly fry).

The fry will hide in the leaves of the aquarium plants and they’ll stay low for a couple of hours until they’re ready to feed and swim.

How to Save Molly Fry?

If your molly fish produced fry in a community aquarium, don’t expect the fry to survive. Adult mollies and other fish will certainly mistake them for a tasty snack.

If you want to avoid spawning to occur in a community tank, avoid keeping both male and female molly fish in the same aquarium.

However, in cases of misidentified gender, it may happen that even against your wishes, female and male molly fish may end up in a community aquarium and breed.

Below, I’ll discuss some of the ways you can salvage the fry when they’re born into a community aquarium.

Ideally, you should have a separate breeding tank for the female molly fish and the breeding tank should match the parameters of the origin tank.

After the female molly fish has dropped the fry, you should remove her, so you can continue caring for the fry yourself and prevent the female molly from eating the fry.

Now, even if you don’t have a separate breeding tank, there are ways to save at least some molly fry:

  1. Use a large plastic container or glass jar to extract the female as she’s about the give birth and keep her separated from the other adult fish in your tank. Once she has dropped the fry, you can remove her and continue caring for the fry.
  1. A second method to separate the female molly fish and the fry is to install a breeding box into the main tank, which is a plastic mesh or container that’s designed to allow water to flow through, without allowing other fish into the mesh.

This method is the easiest if you don’t want to worry about matching the water parameters of the main tank as you would have to do with other methods of separating the fry from the adults.

  1. The third option is less desirable and its success rate in saving the fry isn’t as high, but it can help if you’re caught off guard. Adding plants to the tank such as java moss, hornworts, guppy grass or roots of water lettuce can provide hiding spaces for the fry for a few weeks until they grow large enough to not be mistaken for food by the other fish.

The next step in caring for the fry will depend on which method you’ve chosen from the above. If you’ve chosen to use a glass jar or plastic container, depending on its size, you may need to transfer the fry in a nursing aquarium, where you can offer them the proper conditions for growing.

Likewise, you can’t keep them in the breeding box for too long either.

How Long Can You Keep Molly Fry in a Breeding Box?

Molly Fry in Breeding Box

Setting up a breeding box is probably the easiest way to save molly babies from being eaten by adult fish.

However, you shouldn’t keep them more than 2 weeks in the breeding box, because this will significantly stunt their growth, which is undesirable regardless of whether you’re raising mollies for commercial purposes or as a hobby.

Larger mollies can release as many as a hundred fry at once, therefore, it’s easy to understand how so many fry can quickly outgrow their breeding box.

At about 2 weeks, molly juveniles are large enough to not be mistaken for food anymore and you can release them into the main tank or you can set up their own aquarium.

Feeding Molly Fish Fry

For fast growth, molly fish fry need a diversified diet and require frequent feedings with small amounts of food. These fish are constantly hungry because of their fast digestion cycle.

Since molly babies are so small, their mouth opening is also very small, therefore, you’ll need to procure size-appropriate foods that will fit their mouths.

The digestion cycle of molly fry is short, therefore, they’ll be ready to eat as soon as every half hour. You shouldn’t feed them that often, of course, but you should aim for at least 5 feedings a day.

As with any fish or fry, overfeeding can be a problem. Also, scoop out any uneaten food so as not to foul the aquarium.

If you’re keeping molly juveniles in the same tank with the adults, you can feed them whatever you’re feeding the adults, just remember to crush the flake foods or larger foods, so it will fit their mouths.

There are flakes like First Bites designed for feeding small fry, so you can opt for those instead, especially that they’re rich in protein to sustain rapid growth.

Live foods are another excellent food choice for small molly fry, and you can opt for baby brine shrimp, vinegar eels, daphnia, micro worms. If live food is not available, frozen or freeze-dried can be a good alternative.

Another protein-rich food source that I like to use when feeding small fry is hard-boiled egg yolk made into a paste. It’s easy to prepare, readily available in your fridge, and not to mention very cheap. I add small amounts of the paste once or twice a day.

A varied diet will strengthen the fry and will stimulate their growth.

Molly Fry Tank Maintenance

If you haven’t set up a separate tank for your mollies and you continue to keep them in the same aquarium with the other fish, tank parameters should be kept stable and water changes should be regular as molly fry are more sensitive to high toxin levels.

If you decide to set up a nursery tank for the fry, here’s what you should aim for:

1.

Tank Size & Filtration

Depending on the number of molly babies, set up a tank between 10 and 20 gallons. Add a fry-safe filter system to keep the water clean in addition to performing regular water changes.

Add some plants to the tank too such as java ferns and grasses.

2. Temperature

Aim for a temperature a little above the temperature in the main tank (80 °F maximum). Warmer water speeds up metabolism and encourages the fry to eat more. In turn, this will help them grow faster.

To keep the aquarium heated at the optimal water temperature, you’ll require a heater to ensure consistent temperature.

3. Water Changes

To keep toxin levels low and refresh the water, aim for frequent partial water changes. I recommend 50% water changes twice a week. This will also facilitate the growth of your fry.

Water changes, of course, also depend on the number of fry you have and the size of your tank. Depending on how you stock your tank, you may get away with fewer water changes or you may need to perform more frequent water changes.

4. Lighting

Offer your fry 12-16 hours of light each day and 6-8 hours of darkness for rest. Good light conditions will ensure the healthy development of your fish.

Conclusion

Now that you know more about breeding mollies and caring for baby mollies, you can look forward to breeding your molly fish.

As you can see, raising molly fish fry isn’t particularly difficult, but you do need to take some precautions to save the fry and to maintain optimal tank conditions.

Unlike adult molly fish that are hardier, the fry is more sensible to high toxin levels or sudden changes in water temperature.

I encourage you to familiarize yourself with their requirements before attempting to breed molly fish. Feed them a varied diet, keep their water clean and tidy, and you’ll be rewarded with healthy and active fish.

species, care, maintenance, reproduction, compatibility, food photo-review

Mollies are a small group of viviparous fish from the Pecilia family. This name is historical, due to the fact that they were previously referred to the genus Mollienesia. According to modern classification, they belong to the genus Pecilia (poecilia).

General Details

Very popular and easy to care for fish, the maintenance of which will not cause problems even for inexperienced aquarists. Thanks to selection, a large number of forms have been obtained that differ in color and body shape.

Latipin mollies (Poecilia latipinna) with lyre tail

For mollies, like other pecilia, ovoviviparity is characteristic. It means that fertilization and development of eggs occurs in the womb of the female, and into the world a relatively large formed fry appears, ready for self-catering. This only adds to the popularity of the fish, because getting offspring from her is as easy as shelling pears, even in a common aquarium.

Fish peaceful, rather large and mobile, therefore they will become an adornment of any aquarium with non-aggressive species.

External species

Mollies are very beautiful fish. The natural color of the fish is yellowish-gray or silvery, gray-bluish, bluish-black or yellow-green spots are scattered over the entire surface. The body is elongated and compressed from the sides, the head is not large, the mouth is upper, the eyes are rather large. The fins of most species are short, with the exception of the velifera mollies, which has a very developed dorsal fin. The tail fin is rounded. Females of all mollies are larger than males and can reach up to 10 cm in size. Sexual dimorphism is pronounced: males are smaller than females and have a special reproductive organ - gonopodium. It is a modified anal fin that looks like a tube, thanks to which the male can introduce sexual products into the body of the female. The anal fin of the female is triangular in shape, rounded.

Thanks to the efforts of breeders, a wide variety of mollies with different colors has been obtained: black, yellow, snow-white, etc. Forms with a lyre-shaped caudal fin and balloons (they have a shortened body and a convex abdomen) are very popular.

Mollies Sphenops

History appearance/discovery

First of described species of mollies became sphenops mollies. Description has been given French zoologist Achille Valenciennes in 1846 while working on The 22-volume work "The Natural History of Fishes".

More than 50 years later, the famous ichthyologist-systematist Charles Tate Regan, based on the results of studying specimens in the British Museum of Natural History, described freestyle mollies and velifera mollies.

In 1913 in Europe got mollies latipina.

Active breeding work began in 1920, various hybrids began to appear one after another. This, first of all, was facilitated by the possibility of crossing between the three main types of mollies: sphenops, latipines and velifera.

Fish are quickly gaining popularity among aquarists. In 1925, a black-speckled form was obtained by careful selection of Sphenops mollies in Florida hatcheries. We owe this to the American breeder Jack Bitter. Further selection was continued by a German by origin - Bill Sternke, who immigrated to the United States in 1908. It took him 11 years to get an absolutely black velvet form of mollies. The breed was named Black Molly. It is the most sought after breed to this day. At the word "mollies" most aquarists remember exactly the black molly, this is the most recognizable breed. This fish came to our country 10 years later, the peak of its popularity falls on the 60s. Later, Sternke received albino mollies, called golden ones.

The latest trend has been the appearance of mollies with a shortened body and a convex abdomen - balloons.

Area habitat

Natural the range of mollies is the southeastern part of the USA, Central America, north and eastern South America. You can find these fish both in fresh water and and at the mouths of rivers flowing into the ocean. In these places there is a mixing of fresh water of rivers and salt water of the ocean. But even so, some populations of mollies adapted to the increased salinity without any problems.

Sphenops mollies are widespread in water bodies from Mexico to Colombia. The high-finned species - velifera
- is endemic to the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico). Mollies latipina prefers reservoirs of the southern states of the USA (Texas, Florida, Carolina, Virginia), tends to brackish water.

Unpretentiousness, omnivorous and ovoviviparity allowed mollies to populate vast tropical regions of Central and South America.

As for aquarium forms, they are massively bred on special fish farms, including including in the countries of Southeast Asia, from where they are sold to other countries. In amateur aquariums, fish can be found all over the world.

Mollies sphenops (Poecilia sphenops)

Mollies sphenops has a dense, elongated and laterally compressed body. The caudal fin is well developed and rounded. The fins are small. The mouth is adapted for eating food from the surface of the water and scraping off algae. Body size from 6 to 10 cm, females are larger than males. Anal fin modified into gonopodium.

Natural colors are almost never found in aquarists. The most popular is the pure black form. But you can also find other colors obtained artificially: white, yellow, speckled. The tail fin is often lyre-shaped.

Most valuable specimens are considered to be mollies with black velvet scales, on which there are no any spots. In such fish, large black eyes are practically not visible. Thanks to matte beauty of the body of such fish does not shine.

Mollies sphenops (Poecilia sphenops) in the aquarium

Fish peaceful, active, prefers the upper and middle layers of water. Very bouncy, so a lid on the aquarium is required.

Optimal water parameters for maintenance:

  • temperature - 25-28°C
  • pH = 7.5-8.2
  • water hardness - 11-30 dGH.

Mollies freestyle (Poecilia salvatoris)

This fish long considered a color variation of Poecilia sphenops, but now separated into a separate species. Freestyle mollies live in the waters of Guatemala. It is quite rare in aquariums, but has a rather beautiful color. Body silvery-yellow, maybe with a bluish tint. Has very bright ventral and dorsal fins (black, red or white). The fish is very hardy, does not require the addition of salt to the water. Able to live peacefully community aquarium with non-aggressive fish. Feed should predominate in the diet vegetable origin. Optimal water parameters are similar to mollies sphenops.

Poecilia velifera mollies (Poecilia velifera)

Distinctive a sign of this species is a well-developed dorsal fan-shaped fin in male, which is why the fish is called sailing. Its size can be up to 4-5 cm. One of the largest mollies, reach a length of up to 13 cm, and in nature up to 16 cm. The caudal fin is rounded. Natural body color silver with horizontal dotted lines. Often the front of the body dyed orange. The tail fin is turquoise in color. periphery and orange in the middle. The dorsal fin may have an orange or black edging. The body of females gray-green with dotted lines. Feel good when added sea ​​or table salt in the aquarium.

Velifera mollies (Poecilia velifera)

Due to its size, it requires larger aquariums to keep - from 100 l. It is also necessary to carefully select neighbors. Some fish, such as Sumatran barbs, are able to pluck the fin of a mollies. The fish is very active, so you need a lot of space for swimming.

In natural environment feeds likes to eat mosquito larvae and mosquitoes.

Optimal water parameters for maintenance:

  • temperature - 24-27°C
  • pH = 7.0–8.5
  • water hardness – 8–25 dGH.

Mollies latipina (Poecilia latipinna)

In another way, this fish is called wide-finned mollies. Latipina is very similar to Velifera mollies, being its "reduced copy". The species has a high, dense, oblong body, flattened laterally. On the head is an upwardly directed mouth with rows of small teeth. The high rectangular dorsal fin consists of 12-14 rays. The tail fin is rounded and well developed. Males have gonopodia - a mobile organ for reproduction.

Selection form of mollies latipina

Males in in an aquarium, they reach a size of up to 10 cm, females are usually a couple of centimeters larger. The fish loves bright lighting, it is unpretentious in food.

General color bluish grey. The male has a greenish-blue tint, the sides are covered with whitish shiny dots that form rows. The lower part of the body is painted bright orange. The fins are blue with an orange border, covered with multi-colored dots and strokes.

They live in an aquarium for 3-5 years.

Optimal water parameters for maintenance:

  • temperature - 24–26 ° C
  • pH = 7.5–8.0
  • water hardness - 15–20 dGH.

Each species has color-resistant forms that have established commercial names:

Breeding forms

Golden mollies a feature is the scales of yellow-orange color with a white-blue tint, sometimes with red eyes.

Golden form of mollies sphenops

Silver mollies (Snowflakes)

Varies snow-white in color, often with a silvery tint. Very impressive look together with pure black forms.

Latipin mollies, snowflake shape

Balloon mollies

Characterized shortened body and swollen abdomen. Body size from 2.5 to 12 cm. Body coloration can be the most diverse: orange, white, red, black.

Velifera mollies balloon shape

Internal organs are reduced and compressed. Fish are usually more picky about the conditions of detention, due to the presence of scoliosis (curvature of the spine), their life expectancy is rarely more than 1.5-2 years. However, the brightly colored barrel-shaped fish are able to diversify the aquarium and are very popular.

Lyre tail mollies

Also very popular breeds of mollies with a crescent-shaped tail - lyre. They can differ in the length of the tail rays.

Mollies with lyre tail

Mollies are one of the most unpretentious fish. It is best to keep them in small flocks of 7-10 individuals. In order to reduce intraspecific aggression, it is best to select fish in such a way that there are two or three females per male. The minimum volume of the aquarium recommended for mollies is 50 liters. For velyfers, it is better to choose a volume of 100 liters or more, as they are much larger than their counterparts. Fish love to swim actively, so it is recommended to purchase a classic rectangular aquarium with a lid: mollies often jump out of the water. Fish love bright lighting, the length of daylight hours should be at least 12 hours.

The design of the aquarium can be customized to your taste. As a soil, it is better to use pebbles of a medium fraction of a dark color. You can install several shelters from snags or stones. Females will be able to hide there if they are not ready to spawn. Fish swim mainly in the upper and middle layers of the aquarium.

Mollies and swordfish aquarium

Mollies very hardy fish and able to adapt to a wide range of parameters water. However, it is still recommended to create aquarium the most optimal conditions. Mollies love warm water. temperature 23-28°C. Avoid sudden temperature fluctuations very bad for the health of the fish. Water is suitable for keeping them. neutral or slightly acidic (pH = 7-8). And here mollies do not like too soft water, it is better that the hardness is from 10 to 20 ° dGH.

Many Mollies are able to live in slightly brackish water. Very common in literature it is recommended to periodically add salt to the water in aquariums with mollies (up to concentration 2-3 g/l). For this purpose, it is best to use a special sea ​​salt. But it is worth recalling that this is only possible with a separate keeping fish. In the case of a shared aquarium, this can be unsafe, because Neighbor fish may not tolerate increased salinity well. A must in the aquarium there must be sufficient filtration and aeration. Do not forget about regular water changes: weekly it is necessary to replace 25-30% of the aquarium water with fresh.

Mollies thrive in aquariums with live plants. It will be useful to create dense islands of vegetation, remembering to leave free space for swimming. Mollies love to eat the tender leaves of certain plants. They are also able to scrape algae from the surface of the scenery and the ground.

Mollies in an aquarium with live plants

Mollies are a good indicator of the health of the aquarium. In the event of a lack of oxygen, they are one of the first to rise to the surface of the water, and in the case of accumulation of metabolic products, they slow down their movement and fold their fins, or move in jerks.

Mollies are extremely friendly fish and are usually easy to keep in community tanks. Very rare individuals (most often in large species) begin to pursue other species. It is better to keep the fish in flocks with a predominance of females. When selecting neighbors, choose types of fish that are similar in size. Mollies go well with other viviparous, characin, rasboras, zebrafish, corridors, ancistrus. Mollies are able to get along with different types of barbs, the only exception is the velifera - the long fin in males can suffer. When kept with other fish, it is important to have shelters in the aquarium and a sufficient volume of water. If you want to maintain a pure breed line, you should not plant different types of mollies together in order to avoid unwanted crossbreeding. It is not recommended to keep even large species with aggressive cichlids.

Feeding

Mollies are omnivorous fish. This means that their diet should include both animal and plant foods. The fish are completely picky in food and are happy to eat any type of food: live, frozen, dry. It is highly not recommended to feed mollies only with animal food, because a long-term lack of fiber in the diet will lead to disruption of the gastrointestinal tract. In the absence of plant nutrition, mollies enjoy eating algal growths on the walls of the aquarium (the special structure of the mouth apparatus helps them well in this) or are taken for the delicate leaves of higher aquatic plants. Many aquarists, trying to make up for the lack of a plant component, put scalded lettuce, cucumbers, zucchini in the aquarium. It is worth paying attention to the fact that such products (especially if poorly controlled) quickly degrade water quality.

Fish feeding high-quality dry food is the most optimal, since the food is balanced, contain all the necessary vitamins and are well absorbed aquatic inhabitants. Dry food is much easier to give to fish and store. leader in the production of premium dry food is Tetra. By purchasing the food of this brand, you can always be making sure your pets get all the nutrients they need, vitamins, will be healthy and energetic.

Good choice for feeding mollies will be the following feed:

  1. TetraMin - carefully a selected mixture of 7 types of flakes, for the manufacture of which is used more than 40 types of selected raw materials. Contains all vitamins necessary for fish, minerals and trace elements. The flakes float on the surface for a long time and gradually sink to the bottom, which is ideal for feeding fish with an upper mouth.
  2. TetraPro Algae is a high quality food in the form of chips for all kinds of tropical fish, manufactured using gentle low-temperature technology. Has an increased nutritional value and digestibility. Contains spirulina concentrate for meeting the needs of herbivorous species.

Feed the fish several times a day. day. The portion of food should be such that all the food was eaten in a few minutes. It should be noted that mollies are prone to overeating, so feed them it is necessary to arrange a fasting day a little and weekly.

Dilution mollies are within the power of even inexperienced aquarists and does not require practically no effort.

First of all, you need to choose a couple of manufacturers. This does not cause significant difficulties since mollies have pronounced sexual dimorphism. Males are smaller and have a movable gonopodia - a modified anal fin that serves them copulatory organ (for the introduction of male reproductive products into the abdominal cavity females). During reproduction, gonopodia are used as a trough, along which sex products, also there is a hook on it, which allows you to better be retained during fertilization, greatly increasing the chances of the appearance offspring. Females are larger, with a thicker abdomen, anal fin triangular shape. Sexual maturity in fish occurs at 8-12 months in males, and a little earlier in females - at 5-6 months. Better as producers just select the strongest and most beautiful individuals.

Male and female sphenops mollies

Unlike many other fish, mollies do not lay eggs, but give birth to fully formed fry. The development of eggs occurs in the abdominal cavity of the female. This method of reproduction increases the chances of juvenile mollies to survive. It is worth noting that the sex products of the male mollies can remain in the abdomen of the female for a long time, periodically fertilizing the newly formed eggs. Therefore, only virgin females (raised without males) are allowed for breeding breeding species.

Mollies can breed both in common aquariums and in a jig. But the second one is recommended. an option due to the fact that the neighbors in the aquarium will not mind eating fry. Eggs develop in the womb for 30-40 days, depending on water temperature. You can calculate the approximate date of birth by remembering the time of the last spawning. A female ready for spawning must be placed in an aquarium for at least 5 liters, in smaller containers the fish will experience severe stress. Necessary add a variety of shelters and plants to the spawning ground, which will become a refuge for fry. After all, even a mother will devour them without a twinge of conscience, if she can catch. In a spawning aquarium, there must be aeration, and ideally slow flow filtration. The temperature is best maintained at 26°C.

In females, ready to spawning, several important signs are noted: swelling of the abdomen, an increase a dark spot near the anal fin (badly visible in black species), swelling of the anus and frequent seclusion of females in dense vegetation. The stimulating factor for throwing fry is usually increase in temperature by 1-2 ° C and water change. It is not recommended to rush stimulation - the output may turn out to be an underdeveloped fry.

Female mollies very prolific. Depending on size and age, one female is capable of sweep away from 50 to 350 fry. Spawning usually occurs in the morning. The fry are very large and are able to feed on their own from birth. First time they lie on the bottom and leaves of plants, and only then rise into the thickness water. After the end of spawning, the female should be removed, and the fry should be transferred to 3-4 meals a day with high-protein foods: you can use special food for fry, or grind dry fish food to a state of fine powder. Infusoria, nauplii are also well suited as a first food. brine shrimp and chopped tubifex. If the feed is well matched and the water quality is not deteriorates, most of the fry will survive. Mollies fry do not tolerate poor water quality, therefore it is recommended to do water changes more often than usually. The water in the spawning aquarium can be slightly salted.

If in spawning aquarium poor conditions, fry can be born dead or premature. Often this is observed during spawning with water temperature above 28°C.

Result careful selection work in our time has become a huge variety of breeds, differing in color, body shape, fin shape. An important role in this process plays the ability of the four main types of mollies to freely interbreed with each other.

Mollies fry: care and feeding

Do you have mollies and don't know what to do?

First of all, stop worrying. There are no difficulties in caring for mollies fry. Mollies are viviparous fish and fry immediately know how to swim and eat.

If the fry are born in the community tank, the first thing to do is carefully transfer them to a separate container with water from the community tank. Add an antibacterial drug, such as methylene blue, to the water.

Equip a fry aquarium with aeration and a filter. To prevent fry from being sucked into the aquarium filter, reduce the suction power of the filter and pull a piece of nylon over the filter inlet if it is not equipped with such a protection.

If it is not possible to transplant fry from a community tank, add a thick layer of floating plants like Riccia. Mollies and other aquarium fish eat fry, and Riccia will allow more fry to survive. Ideally, a pregnant female is placed in advance for childbirth in a separate aquarium, where the fry appear. After giving birth, the female is returned to the general aquarium.

At first, the aquarium with fry is illuminated 10-12 hours a day. This is necessary for more frequent feeding of fry, which allows them to grow faster.

In the first days the fry can be fed with mashed boiled yolk or special food for fry of viviparous fish. But the best food will be brine shrimp nauplii. Two weeks later, tubifex and bloodworms are added to the diet of fry, which are additionally crushed in any available and convenient way. The best food for quick rise of fry will be live food or specialized dry food from leading manufacturers: Tetra, Sulfur, JBL, Dajana and others.

How many times a day to feed? Fry are fed 4-5 times a day, which is necessary for the rapid growth of juveniles. Do not feed more food than the fry can eat at one time. Uneaten food leads to contamination of the aquarium, which is fraught with outbreaks of diseases and infections.

Caring for the right way

The fry aquarium should be maintained regularly and kept clean:

  • Regularly remove accumulated debris from the bottom of the aquarium
  • Replace twice a week 10-15% of the water with settled water of the same temperature
  • Maintain water temperature between 27-28 degrees Celsius for faster fry growth

If mollies die, the first step is to check the water parameters with special tests. Maintain the aquarium, remove dirt from the bottom of the aquarium and change the water.

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