Post by parker002 on Dec 26, 2009 23:57:33 GMT -5
This is an off-shoot of another thread.
everythingaquatic.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=sickfish&action=display&thread=1989&page=3
To summarize, we had a problem with algae and/or fungus and removed everything from our tank. By some miracle, we found a live fry during the process - a fry which managed to survived scooping, vacuuming, AND swimming in a tank with over a dozen larger fish despite having zero cover.
During the next week, my daughter and I found two more and we put all 3 in a breeder net and have been feeding them pulverized fish food once a day.
This morning when I went to feed them, one of them was pinned between the net and the side of the tank. Obviously unable to move, I was sure it was dead but as soon as we moved the net, it swam around the corner. We caught it and put it in the net only to discover that it was not one of the three - it was a 4th fry.
In the commotion, my daughter spotted a 5th fry in the rocks below the net. It was at that point that we noticed that our youngest adult female Molly was having babies. I watched her pop one out into the rocks and we quickly caught it as well as #5, bringing our total of fry in the net to SIX.
This was a significant and happy event because Sweet Shot, as my girls call her, is the only adult Molly we have that was actually born in our 10-gallon tank and survived. She managed to survive where all the rest were eaten because she was able to "shoot" so quickly through the open spaces in the tank.
Now, we had to temper the joy a little bit because we knew that we couldn't keep them all. A couple of tears were shed when a newborn fry popped out and, disoriented, swam right into the mouth of one of the tetras. However, my girls understand that the fish are still "wild" even though they live in an aquarium and they understand that it's natural for baby fish to get eaten.
With that, we decided to "let nature take its course" and head to Grandmas for Christmas dinner.
We arrived home about 45 minutes ago to discover that we have a problem of a completely different variety.
In addition to the 6 fry in the net, there are AT LEAST 3 living fry in one of the surface plants. Having watched them in the rocks this morning, I am 100% certain that some could survive in the substrate - we have large, smooth gravel about the size of lima beans and there's large spaces in between them.
It is my understanding that most livebearers like Mollies and Platies can have anywhere from 25 to 40 fry at a time. We have 9 KNOWN survivors, which conservatively puts our survival rate at somewhere between 20 and 30 percent.
Right now, I have (not including the fry):
2 male mollies
3 female mollies
1 female balloon molly
4 female Mickey Mouse platies
1 male dwarf platy
1 female dwarf platy
1 male lyre swordtail
1 female lyre swordtail
1 male fancy guppy
1 female variatus
3 white skirt tetras
1 serpae tetra
5 cory cats
1 oto cat
1 male betta
How many fish is too many? And if there are too many, what do I do?
everythingaquatic.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=sickfish&action=display&thread=1989&page=3
To summarize, we had a problem with algae and/or fungus and removed everything from our tank. By some miracle, we found a live fry during the process - a fry which managed to survived scooping, vacuuming, AND swimming in a tank with over a dozen larger fish despite having zero cover.
During the next week, my daughter and I found two more and we put all 3 in a breeder net and have been feeding them pulverized fish food once a day.
This morning when I went to feed them, one of them was pinned between the net and the side of the tank. Obviously unable to move, I was sure it was dead but as soon as we moved the net, it swam around the corner. We caught it and put it in the net only to discover that it was not one of the three - it was a 4th fry.
In the commotion, my daughter spotted a 5th fry in the rocks below the net. It was at that point that we noticed that our youngest adult female Molly was having babies. I watched her pop one out into the rocks and we quickly caught it as well as #5, bringing our total of fry in the net to SIX.
This was a significant and happy event because Sweet Shot, as my girls call her, is the only adult Molly we have that was actually born in our 10-gallon tank and survived. She managed to survive where all the rest were eaten because she was able to "shoot" so quickly through the open spaces in the tank.
Now, we had to temper the joy a little bit because we knew that we couldn't keep them all. A couple of tears were shed when a newborn fry popped out and, disoriented, swam right into the mouth of one of the tetras. However, my girls understand that the fish are still "wild" even though they live in an aquarium and they understand that it's natural for baby fish to get eaten.
With that, we decided to "let nature take its course" and head to Grandmas for Christmas dinner.
We arrived home about 45 minutes ago to discover that we have a problem of a completely different variety.
In addition to the 6 fry in the net, there are AT LEAST 3 living fry in one of the surface plants. Having watched them in the rocks this morning, I am 100% certain that some could survive in the substrate - we have large, smooth gravel about the size of lima beans and there's large spaces in between them.
It is my understanding that most livebearers like Mollies and Platies can have anywhere from 25 to 40 fry at a time. We have 9 KNOWN survivors, which conservatively puts our survival rate at somewhere between 20 and 30 percent.
Right now, I have (not including the fry):
2 male mollies
3 female mollies
1 female balloon molly
4 female Mickey Mouse platies
1 male dwarf platy
1 female dwarf platy
1 male lyre swordtail
1 female lyre swordtail
1 male fancy guppy
1 female variatus
3 white skirt tetras
1 serpae tetra
5 cory cats
1 oto cat
1 male betta
How many fish is too many? And if there are too many, what do I do?
