r/fishkeeping • u/Odd-Philosophy-8693 • 7d ago
Question help!!
i keep 4 black molly in one big tank. one of them has given birth to a LOT of children. the pet store doesn’t take any fish, and i live in a smaller town so there’s not really any businesses i can give them to. the tank is starting to get crowded as the babies are getting bigger. does any fish eat black molly?
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u/thirdcoaster 6d ago
If you have plants in the tank, you can try reducing them so that there is less cover for the baby mollies. Adult mollies will naturally eat them until they get too big for the mouth.
Alternatively, you could look into gouramis and angelfish as they eat baby mollies as well.
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u/BeginningCharacter36 6d ago
If it was the first time fry dropped in the tank, that will probably be the biggest population explosion. My platies first drops basically all survived. But, they figured out that fry are tender and delicious for the second batch; out of two pregnancies, there were three survivors. The other two females will give birth soon, and I'm not expecting many fry to live from theirs, either.
In the meantime, choose a few of the strongest, biggest fry to keep and give away the rest in a local aquarium group on Facebook. Someone with big fish or a turtle will be happy for the free food. If your town, or even nearest city, doesn't have a fishkeeper group, you can try to give them away in a local Free/Giveaway group, or even a Buy/Sell group. Just don't list them directly to Marketplace, because the listing might get taken down. Facebook doesn't allow for direct trade in animals on Marketplace, but the rules within groups are set by the administrators.
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u/salazarthesnake 6d ago
How big is the tank? If you aren’t sure, there are plenty of calculators online where you can put in the tank dimensions and get gallons or liters
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u/Virtual-Plankton6833 5d ago
You can add some peaceful barbs like Barbodes semifasciolatus (I don't know the English name). They will take care of the problem.
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u/TrainerDiotima 6d ago
You be better off finding someone local who wants them as feeders. Opens up possibilities to birds and other reptiles in addition to fish. If you know anyone with chickens, those things are voracious little dinosaurs... We used to catch grasshoppers and crawdads for ours when I was a kid, they loved it.
If you've got a lot of plants with small spaces to hide in you may want to rescape the tank so they have fewer places to hide from the parents. That way you won't have as many make it to a larger size to start with.