Fish Fry!

msuitepyon

Not the cooking type...



Unbeknownst to me, a few of my mollies have spawned some fry in my tank. I want to isolate the fry from the rest of the tank before they become snacks but I'm unsure of how to do so without harming the little guys.

What kind of setup should I do? I was thinking of a small 5 gallon tank with a few plants pulled from my main tank, though I'm not sure about filtration and heating. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Jasconius

Damn.

I was going to say.

Zattarain's Lemon Pepper


but not. no that will not help here.

or WILL IT?

Ego

When my mollies spawned, I went to the pet store and picked up this little basket thing that just hung in the tank with the babies in it. Not as fun as setting up a second tank, but it only cost ten or twenty dollars.

see317

If not a breeder basket (cause it's hard to catch tiny fish with a net) then get them something they can hid in from the larger fish. More plants, possibly a chunk of lava rock or something.
It won't save all of them, but it'll give them a chance.

msuitepyon

The fry are doing a pretty good job of hiding in the plants and around the rocks. The breeder baskets seem like a good idea but I'm not sure how I could convince the fry to go into the basket--it seems that you're supposed to put the fish in before they spawn.

Kochikens

Net for the fry then put em in a little breeder basket. Or you get a lot of top-floating plants (foxtails, duckweed) and the fry will usually hide themselves pretty nicely.

minirhyder

They look quite big already. You could just let them be and see what happens. Chances are if your Mollies reproduced, they will do so again in a matter of months and you will get another batch of fry. Most will get eaten, but a few will survive and live long lives.
The thing to look out for is overpopulation. You do not want to stress your fish by adding more residents without expanding the size.
I know having first fish babies is exciting, but they can be quite a blight if protected too much.

I have a tank full of Platies and I let nature take its course. My tank is not heavily planted at all, and I've had at least three fry survive and grow up to full size out of every batch.

My tank:

If you're really dead set on helping them out, go into any pet store and pick up a breeder net, like others have mentioned.

msuitepyon

They're pretty big and they're doing a good job hiding in my plants and rocks so I'm thinking I'll let nature take its course. Last count had about 12 live fry.

As for the overpopulation, that's kind of why I'm thinking of a new tank. They're all in a 26 gallon right now, but 5 full-size mollies and 4 otocinclus plus an additional 12 mollies is definitely not going to work.

Plus the proud papa is apparently already trying to tap that fish booty again so I'm also thinking of separating by sex.