Fry Hell

[craigers]

Ok so I set up my new 10 gallon tank with some blue gravel (properly washd of course) a 20 gallow bio wheel filter some platic plants and plastic bridge ruins...

I bought a pair of Silver Mollies to cycle my tank with. I also got a bottle of cycle... apparently bacteria accelerator.

Well on to my question: the female Molly had about 10 fry over night the first night. 4 or 5 got killed or buried themselves in the gravel to be safe and got stuck. I left them loose in the tank thinking the biological cycle would kill them because they're so weak, but I did start feeding them Wardley "small fry" food (harhar).

When should I switch to plain old flakes for them too (mom eats them)?
Should I keep all 6? Its only a 10 gallon tank!
Will the store take them back? I don't wanna kill em!
How long do they take to mature? I'm moving in June

And a slightly off topic question: when I move to a 20 or 29 gallon should I keep all of this gravel and water? or will the biowheel be enough to get the biological system going?

And also: has anyone used cycle? It seems to be working I should get the water tested but mom and fry are all doing well!!!

[William]

Well your mollies will keep given you more fry ;-)

The time it takes for the fry to mature depends on what you feed them. You can usually switch to crushed flake food after about a week. The LFS will most likely not accept to take fry back as they donät have anywhere to raise them (they would end up as food).


It is better to mova all gravel etc but if you feel like keeping both aquariums you can move the filter to one and keep the gravel in the other.

[macd]

craig,

Exactly the same thing happened to me with my first tank - got two mollies to help set it up and the next day I thought we had got a very bad infestation - of what I was not sure. (apparently got two "fat" females - I have heard the stress of moving them is very common for them to lay the fry)

Unfortunately all but 1 fry lasted about 2 weeks max. On the "bright" side - they will boost your nitrogen cycle -your tank at this early development would never sustain them all.

You could try to keep the fry by adding boosters and other chemicals - or look at the bigger picture of what you bought the mollies for in the first place - to set up the tank. I - like you at that time tried to help the fry as much as possible. If you are lucky you may have a lucky one or two.

Do not fret too much about this - the mother you introduced would have lot most of her fry anyway - especially if kept at the shop. Secondly as these are commonly used to set up tanks - it is not uncommon for fry to help in this way.

I hope this helps. It is always very difficult for an aquarium keeper to loose any fish - including fry - but sometimes it can not be helped.

MacD