New fry (first time)

[katierakel]

I got fry last night from a prego yellow lyretail molly I bought yesterday. I have a lot of hornwort they're hiding in now - will it be sufficient? I have a 55 gallon with 9 neons, 4 mollies, 1 platy, 7 guppies, 1 male betta, 3 zebra danio. Or....I have a 2.5 gallon I could transfer them to?

[aquasteph]

that depends on how you feel. and how many fry you have. if you want to keep all the fry, then I would pull them and put them in the 2.5. They could easily get eaten by fish or sucked up the filter. if you now have a ton of fry that you don't know what to do with, you could leave them be in your tank and leave it up to survival of the fittest.

I personally, have had 5 pregnancies in my tank. They were mollies & mickies.

I usually pull them from the tank and put them in breeders until they are big enough to not get sucked up the filter.

My Mickies had three batches in one month, so I had three different sets of fry. I kept them separate for a while and then mixed them all in one large breeder. Once they all got a little bigger I released them all at once into the tank. There were 35 of them, and now I have only 6. Two from the first batch, three from the second, and one from the third.

I never once saw any of the fish eat the fry, but it obviously happened. But now I have the strongest of the babies and it's not over populating the tank.

Really up to you! Good luck.

[katierakel]

Thanks for the reply! I caught 16 with the turkey baster...

I filled the tank with water from the 55 gallon, but what else does a fry tank need? :)

[Jaster]

Not really a lot. Some say to have no substrate just a clear bottom tank but honestly I set mine up like a would any other tank. Compelete with decorations and such. It's really up to you. I think even though the fry are the only fish in my tank, they like to have places to hide out.
One suggestion though, depending on the type of filter you have (like a HOB style) you might want to cover the intake with nylons or filter media to keep the fry from getting sucked up the intake tube.

Good luck with your fry! thumbs2:

[katierakel]

I ran to the petstore and bought a fry basket. I pulled off a piece of the hornwort and stuck it in there. I also bought the "first bites" - I also caught a few more of them; we're up to 20!

[katierakel]

It's been over 2 weeks and all my fry lived! One of the guppies had about 5 babies 2 days after these guys were born. I just released them all this past weekend and they're all doing great. No one has become lunch :) The guppy fry seem to be looking more like guppies faster than the molly fry looking like mollies.

[Mith]

I'm new to the baby game, but I prefer to have no decor in the tank. This way I can keep better btrack of the fish and see their growth better.