What do you do with the babies?

[Atlantis Child]

Well, as everyone knows, livebeaers are really good at baby-making. So what do you do once you got them? Raise them and sell? Sell? Give away?
Something else...? :confused:

I personally plan on raising and sellling my dwarf sunset platies. They aren't terribly common, so I might be able to sell them to a local. family-owned petstore.


- Atlantis

[cocoa_pleco]

you can sell them, or use them as feeders

[Nikita706]

We have 14 Dalmatian Balloon Mollies right now that are 1 week old. We're planning on selling them once they're big enough. I would find a local pet store. They seem to be much more likely to buy the babies from you. But yes, if you don't want the hassle of having the breeder tank, you can always just let the fish give birth in your tank and the fish will probably all get eaten (as horrible as it sounds). We just gave away our male Molly because the breeding was turning into an endless process.

Let us know how everything turns out!

[Atlantis Child]

Platies only take 3 monthes to mature, which isn't bad. Fish food isn't that expensive, and I've got lots alrready. I think petstores around here would be more likely to take them if there's mature.


- Atlantis

[Nikita706]

Yeah, we got to thinking about it and if we have to keep our fry for 2 months while they mature, and our female gets pregnant approx. every 30 days, we'll be needing a lot more tank space than we have. So we finally opted to get rid of our male Molly (sadly).

[ruecole]

I've currently got 3-5 day old zebra danio fry that I'm hoping to exchange for store credit when they get big enough. I dunno if I'll be successful, but since I've got them, I figure I should at least try! :sbiggrin:

Rue

[nanaglen2001]

Normaly I just leave them where they are born, if they survife fine for them, if not, my other fish had a nice snack.

Sometimes I just take a look at my surface of the big tank and check out the Molly fry, if there are some babies with yellow spots or yellow heads I catch them out, and try to raise them in my Endler Guppy tank.

I keep them for myself just to keep my Molly number more or less the same, cause the one or other Molly dies of old age or whatever.

Selling Mollies which are mixtures, forget it.

[Nikita706]

We must have a generous pet store, lol. They were pretty laid back and said they would buy our Dalmatian Balloon Mollies, no problem. I don't know what we'd do if they wouldn't take them. :confused:

[Dave66]

Nothing. I don't keep livebearers anymore, because I was always up to my nose in fry. And seeing as I'm 6-7, that's a LOT of fry. . .

Dave

[Drumachine09]

Lol, dave.


I, sadly, still have a livebearer tank. My mom wont let me get rid of them, because she likes the babies, so I take a few babys out every week and put them in my 55 with my severum. Needless to say, they dont last long in there, lol.

[Dave66]

Though I gave a bunch to friends and shops, I *shhhhhh* fed a lot of them to a group of leaf fishes I was trying to breed *shhhhhh*

Dave

[scruffy]

Since I've been keeping livebearers, I've had a separate tank that is mostly for babies and sometimes for fish that aren't feeling well. I've given away a couple batches of baby mollies to the petstore, but didn't get anything for it. I'd been giving them about 6 wks before giving them up, but I'd like to give them more time to develop color and for the males to get their gonopodiums.

I have kept several of the mollies as pets and I since I've not had as much luck with guppies and platies, I've decided to keep them, so far.

[*Sarah*]

I plan to give mine to the lfs. I've also done a trade with someone Platies for Mollies :) I love having the babies...and if I don't want them I just let them become food.

[crackatinny]

My 1st couple of batches of convict fry, I swapped for other fish at our LFS, but now when I walk in the guy shudders, and says, "no more convict fry" LOL

[Nikita706]

I plan to give mine to the lfs. I've also done a trade with someone Platies for Mollies :) I love having the babies...and if I don't want them I just let them become food.

I wish I could've just let my mollies keep breeding in the tank and let the fish grub on the fry. But I would cry if I glanced over and saw a baby get eaten. I'm too much of a wimp, so I just had to give our male Molly back.

[Atlantis Child]

I wouldn't like to let babies born under my care become feeder food. I love the colorful and perky nature of the adults too much. There are uglier fish that can be used, or the culls I guess. Still don't like the idea much, probably cuz I'm a vegetarian.

At least when they're fed to other fish live they get a quick death though (hopefully...)


- Atlantis

[CAF]

I sell mine at auctions, LFSes, and online. Or if it becomes too much of a hassle (depending on the species) I just let Nature take her course...

[squirt_12]

Yeah well i try to save atleast a couple and then i leave the rest in the tank for the fish to have a little snack. I don't give them live foods.

[kirk]

at the moment i have 20 guppies and 11 mollies in my fry tank if the lfs doesnt want them i jsut give them to my neigbour who has a pond.
PS i live in AUSTRALIA they can live in ponds ova here

[MeganL3985]

I'm not trying to say your wrong, b/c truth is i just don't know....but how are ponds in australia any different than ponds anywhere else?

[CAF]

I'm not trying to say your wrong, b/c truth is i just don't know....but how are ponds in australia any different than ponds anywhere else?
They don't tend to freeze depending on which province they are in... Pretty much the same as here. I wouldn't want them in my pond as it will pretty much freeze solid...

[MeganL3985]

Yeah but rain water is typically acidic right? How would guppies/mollies survive in that type of water?

[CAF]

Yeah but rain water is typically acidic right? How would guppies/mollies survive in that type of water?
Mollies and guppies were orignally all caught in lakes, stream, brackish, etc. It would all depend on the local water table and minerals in the area. A lot of the breeders in Asia and Florida breed their livebearers in ponds.

[kirk]

it has neva snowed here and gets no were near freezing point if in the middle of winter.