Hi there!

A friend of mine just called under an hour ago with a few questions. I was able to answer some of them but I thought I'd ask for more info here since I don't know much about mollies.....

My friend bought 2 mollies on the 4th and said this morning she found some fry in the tank. It sounds like she sucked most of them up yesterday while cleaning the tank out, not knowing they were even there.

She has, I think she said, 4 or 5 fry right now in a fish bowl. I recommended she buy some fry food but said I also heard she could crush flakes into a fine powder for them (I read that on a topic around here somewhere). I also said since they were in an unfiltered fish bowl, the water needs cleaned at least once a day.

From there, I only had guesses for her.....

Should the fry be kept seperate until they double in size, like guppies?

On average, how long does it take for the fry to become young adults and be old enough to sex them?

How big do mollies get and how much space do they require (-_- she's not the kind of person to look into things before buying *sigh* she has the 2 adult mollies in a 10 gallon with some faintail zebra danios and a single male guppy right now)

Are they safe to be kept with the guppy? I heard they can interbreed but never found out if it's a good thing or not.

Any other info would be appreciated! I'll pass it on to my friend she can can take better care of the fry and her other fishies.

- Jennifer

I love mollies! I really want some, so I'm curious about the space requirements as well

mollies are bigger than guppies when grown, but it depends on the different strains of it. im not too famaliar with them so i wouldnt know much. but a bowl is fine as long as the water is clean.

Unless the stores changed them, the mollies are just plain mollies. Nothing fancy. I read they get 3-5 inches or so fully grown and that they prefer brakish water and they like to eat algea or something LoL I didn't have much luck looking earlier because of my computer problems -_- Thing keeps rebooting itself when I try and browse around most sites

mollies if i remember dont eat their young, so it should be ok to put them in the tank again. keeping them in a bowl will be too cold for them. add some extra fake plants for coverage. what size tank are they in now? and what other tank mates if any?
its only the sailfin mollie that absolutely need salt in the tank but normal mollies can live in fresh water but they do appreciate some salt especially tonic salt with the added minerals.
mollies need lots of space for swimming and to be honest i wouldnt keep them in anything less than a 3 foot tank.

okay ive done some research and best sake of raising molly fry are to have a breeder's net for them. so if they require net, then this means the adults would surely eat them. it says on a particular site that: 8adult females should be in a 40gallon tank. so space is very much required.

they also require a good amount of salt as well as good water quality for the fry to grow up. i believe mollies were once salt water then changed to brackish. 3females to 1male.

heres additional siteS:
http://fishprofiles.com/files/profiles/mollies.xml
http://www.aquariumfish.net/information/ra...g_baby_fish.htm

Yeah, I remember seeing something about them not eating their young, however she has other fish, especially the guppy, that probably would LoL.

I did tell her the more plants she has in there the better cover there will be for the young. I don't know if she really will get anymore though -_-

She has them in a small 10 gallon long tank (the adults). I did mention to her that is a bit to small for the fish she does have in there. She has a spare 10 gallon no being used and hopefully she will get it going so she can place the mollies in there.

I don't remember exactly what all fish where in there, but I do remember she said she had 1 male fancy guppy and a few fantail danios. I coulda sworn she said she had 1 or 2 other types of fish in there but I really cannot remember what she said. I hate saying it about a friend, but she really doesn't know what's she'd doing half the time -_- Her hubby is the kind of guy that thinks he knows everything so he's partially to blame -_- *sigh* Wish they'd look into things before just buying something and coming home with it. LoL

Raith:
Thanks for the info! I'll mention the breeding net to them. I did see some at Petco last time I was there so hopefully they can get one rather than using the small bowl.

Heh, I passed on both of those links to her, and 2 others I found (but I forget the links already) but they all basicly said the same little bits of info. LoL

I don't know if she has test kits or not... they used to for her parents tropical tank... They do a pretty good job with water changes though

I did tell her about the 3:1 male/female ratio already I knew that about livebearers She didn't know how to sex them though and didn't know she had a female until she found a few fry LoL.

Thanks again, and I'll pass this info on to her today

ive never had troubles with tropicals, its always my goldfish! :[!! so i think she would have very very good luck with them, although test kits are pretty good if she does engage into trouble.

molly requires a lot of salt, just remember to tell her that.

Haven't had a chance to call her up yet. She doesn't got off work for almost another hour *sigh* LoL

I did send her a yahoo message in case I miss her, but I'll let her know about the salt and such

Last I talked to her, I know she did have at least a ph test but they were out of ammonia. I'm not sure about the others. LoL

Yeah, I had more trouble keeping up the goldfish too. I kept the water nice and clean, but only with 2 almost 50% changes a week LoL. ON average, I'm doing only 1 20% change or so a week for my guppies and the water is crystal clear, although with the babies coming, I've been keeping up with the 5-10% change every other day and then the larger one on saturdays

I'll try and call in about 2 hours and pass the info on to my friend, otherwise I'll catch her tomorrow. She tends to have thursdays off

best of luck to you and your friend.

Thanks She wasn't off work when I tried earlier She's working late *sigh* She has tomorrow off so I'll catch her though and pass the info on.

If she has some questions I can't answer I'll post back, or maybe try and get ahold of my grandma. I forgot she raised mollies for awhile. Not sure if she had any "plain" mollies but I know she had a pair of sailfins

Thanks again!