Thread: New Fry

I have molly fish in a 20 gallon tank. I think I have 4 females and 1 male. They had babies last night. Now there are about 50 babies in the tank! I can't tell which one is the mother fish...I think there may be 2 having babies. Any thoughts?

If you want to see the baby grow up I'd definitely get a fry enclosure and for when they're a bit bigger plenty of thing in the tank they can hide in and around. I had Molly's for a long time and they are reknowned for eat there off spring. To be honest, it's sad but circle of life, if you have about 50 babies, at best you'd expect to see no more than 20 making it adulthood, but having a little fry encolsure and plenty and hiding spaces will up your odds.

What Adam says is spot on. Firstly they will pump out hundreds of fry over a year, so unless you have a plan to pass them onto a friend or a pet shop you either better get a bigger tank or let the 'circle of life' continue. In my experience most will get eaten in the first few days and those that don't, usually make it to adulthood where of course they will add to your problem! The good news is that they are not the longest lived of the fish! I have a tank with loads of the little blighters in and they are many generations old.

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