Should I have fry by now?

[ScottishFish]

I have got 6 mollies in my community tank at the moment, 3 jet black females, 1 silver female, 1 orage/black female and the stallion of the tank 1 jet black male. All the blacks I added together around 8 weeks ago, and the two others around 6 weeks ago.

The lfs I buy from does not seperate males and females (he does with guppies but not mollies, wierd) so they all came from mixed sex tanks.

I know livebearers usually are giving birth every 4-5 weeks but so far I have no fry, I have watched the male mate with other females, he has been doing it since the day and hour I got them. I do have a very densly planted section of my tank with a micture of elodea and cabomba, which to me is a haven for fry.

Problem is I have yet to see a single fry. I have got a few of ideas to why this might be.

1. I have a big healthy very peaceful but very hungry firemouth.

2. My khuli and weather loaches love hanging around up in my cabomba and elodea and are therefore dining on them.

3. They are getting sucked into my filter (doubt this though)

4. The male is sterile so no babies. (but they came from mixed tanks so I thought there might have been one that was pregnant)

5. My bolivian rams are eating them.

I did buy them with the knowledge that most probably will get eaten but with 5 females I have not seen a single fry, like not even a glance at one. I would have thought there would have been at least 1 fry survive. Any ideas anyone?

Cheers, ScottishFish

[MLBfan]

I have got 6 mollies in my community tank at the moment, 3 jet black females, 1 silver female, 1 orage/black female and the stallion of the tank 1 jet black female.

Did you make a mistak , is there a male in the tank?

[ScottishFish]

My bad, correction has been made, cheers for noticing

[Lady Hobbs]

Could be you have had wee babies and they got eaten.

[ScottishFish]

I think so, but from 5 females I would have thought I would have at least seen a fry before it got eaten.

[Goes to 11!]

Is it possible to put more cover in the tank? Fry are VERY prone to being snacks if they do not have enough hiding places.

[ScottishFish]

I have a really well planted back wall, all with fine leaves. My loaches hang out all the time in the plants though, would khulis and weather loaches snack on fry?

[Dennis Bissett]

My guess is they're being snacked on - the mothers will actively hunt their own fry, not to mention the other fish, I have 12 adult platys and rarely get more than 1 or 2 fry survive past a couple of days

[ldoerr]

For a while my platys would have babies but I would never see them. It has just been in the last week that I have been finding babies in my tank. My tank is also densly planted. You have a lot of fry eaters in that tank. Eventually you will get one that will survive. After that one survives to adulthood you will have more than you know what to do with survive to adulthood in your tank despite your best efforts to not let that many of them live. (TRUST ME). I started out in June of last year with a couple of females and a male. Eventually I had 5 babies from the same batch that survived to adulthood. I gave away 2 of them. A couple of months ago I had 2 babies that made it to adulthood. Now I am having to find homes for all of my platys except 1 (I have grown attached to her, even though she is constantly pregnant).

Morral of the story is that soon you will have more than you know what to do with. Give it time. If you want babies to survive, then get a breeding trap. Put a female that is do very soon in it and you will have lots of fry. You can then transfer those fry to a seporate tank and raise them until they are big enough to survive in the main tank. Good luck.

[homemadepopcorn]

Loaches and dwarf cichlids are both... playful to say the least. I'm not surprised that you haven't seen any especially if the loaches hang out in the only place that the fry could hide.

You could create a corner full of plants where the loaches can't get in but the fry can. I've done it in my tank with some rock and anacharis. I'll post the picture when I get home if I remember lol .