Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => General Fishkeeping advice => Topic started by: fruitbat on April 26, 2016, 05:27:00 PM
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hi guys, i have just noticed i have some baby platys, i have put a few of them in a separate isolation thing within the tank, is there anything else i should be doing . thanks
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That's all you can do. Fed them on the same food as the adult fish, just crushed up fine so it will fit in fry mouths. Don't leave them in fry container too long or they'll get stunted.
If you have lots of plants, real or fake, some fry will survive. And don't forget the mother will have another batch in around 4 weeks.
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hi, i think they are mollys now looking closely at them, will wood shrimp eat them too :fishy1:
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The same applies for molly fry as for platies.
They should be OK with wood shrimps (aka bamboo shrimps) as they are filter feeders, eating tiny particles in the water rather than larger things like cherry or amano shrimp. Fry should be far too big for filter feeding shrimps.
From http://www.petshrimp.com/bambooshrimp.php
Scientific Name: Atyopsis moluccensis
Common Name: Asian filter shrimp, bamboo shrimp, wood shrimp, fan shrimp, flower shrimp
The Asian Filter Shrimp itself is totally harmless and is not even capable of hurting the smallest fry or other, smaller shrimp
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hi, i have 6 babies now about 2 weeks old, they growing well but when should they be let out with the big fish?. biggest ones are mum and dad which are mollys .. would they eat them as they still a mouthful .. thanks
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At the beginning of this year I had some surprise variatus platy babies. Due to tank numbers and wanting to segregate the female from the male I ended up putting the mother and babies in a tank together. I left them in that tank for a few months, basically until the babies were so big the mother started nudging them out of the way when there was food around. At the point where I put the babies into the communal tank they were around 2cm, and they have been fine in the big tank.
Hope that helps. :)
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hi little fish, i don't want to go down the multi tank syndrome just yet so these will have to stay in the tank with the big boys at the moment .. they are growing quickly just don't want them to get eaten , saying that if they all grow to adults it will prob mean its over stocked and will have to start with another tank ! :yikes:
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I gave in to MTS as soon as I started keeping fish last year. It has got slightly out of hand, but I'm loving it. ;D
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i must admit i would like a bigger tank littlefish :fishy1: i love keeping fish but had a few disasters in the last couple of years but first time keeping fry alive past a week makes it worth while, would love to get them to adult hood :cheers:
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Yes, it's lovely to watch them grow. :)
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I gave in to MTS as soon as I started keeping fish last year. It has got slightly out of hand, but I'm loving it. ;D
There are a lot worse things you could be doing. Also, it's a very rewarding hobby. It also helps the rest of us, who don't have the space / aren't in the position to have more tanks, to feel as though we're "part" of it ie if we can't give in to our MTS, at least we get to hear all about others' experiences/tanks which is the next best thing, so thanks for that!
:fishy1:
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I agree, I call it MTS by proxy, with a dash of envy. Love hearing what everyone is up to with their tanks and the progress with new ones.
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I agree, I call it MTS by proxy, with a dash of envy.
Brilliant, Anne - you've "hit the nail on the head".
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So I'm not just doing this for my own benefit? ;D
I'll explain that to the bank if they ever ask what I'm spending my money on. :-[ ;D
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Think of it as helping the less fortunate, those without spare tank space. I am sure they will understand.
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Many years ago I remember explaining to my bank manager that the reason that Wales lost the 5 Nations Rugby (yes, that long ago) was because he wouldn't loan me the money for a trip to Dublin. Wales had won all their matches that year, with the exception of the Ireland v Wales one.
I have raided my building society savings for the most recent purchases. O:-)
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Think of it as helping the less fortunate, those without spare tank space. I am sure they will understand.
Absolutely.
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hi guys, just an update .. all my molly babies have grown up now,all 6 of them , great watching them grow up but now they are having babies ... seems like another tank or a bigger external filter ... :fishy1:
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Great to hear that your molly babies have grown up and are doing well.
Not for the first time would we wish that someone would invent little fishy condoms to avoid continued baby-making in the tank, but the joys of fish keeping never cease to make us smile.
More babies on the way :cheers:
Start looking at tanks and filters. :fishy1: :fishy1: :fishy1: :fishy1: :fishy1: :fishy1:
;D
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An already impregnated female molly will have fry for several months even with no male present.
When I kept endlers, I took any fry that started to look male out of the female & fry tank and into the one with all males before they got fully mature. That way the female fry were never impregnated, and only the adult females that had been in a tank with a male ever gave birth.
Male fry look like females at birth. At puberty the anal fin started to change. The first ray started to elongate, then the rest of the fin shrank until it was a gonopodium. If you can catch the males as the first ray starts to change and separate them from the rest you'll keep the fry population down to cope-able amounts.
It does take a lot of staring into the tank with a magnifying glass with fish the size of endlers ;D
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I had to do the same with my v. platies, I put the male into another tank to avoid too many offspring. :)
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hi, i now have 9 molly and 6 molly frys swimming about with my other fish, i m going to get an external filter to cope with extra bio, so its a 60l tank ,would i be best with a fluval 106 ( does up to 100l) or 206 which does 200l. would the 206 be too big or too strong a flow for a 60l tank.. :fishy1:
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Do you have plans for getting a bigger tank at some point in the future? Ever?
If not, go with the 106. But if there is any chance of upgrading, get the 206. You can regulate the flow on these filters so the 206 would be OK.
Molly fry are quite big for fry, but if you find they are at risk of being sucked into the filter, cover the end of the tube that takes water out of the tank. The preferred method seems to be a cube of sponge with a slit cut in it slid over the end of the tube, but even a knee high sock tied on (the things that look like the bottom chopped off a pair of tights) would do the job - that's what I used in my 50 litre to stop baby shrimps getting sucked in.
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hi, yes I'm considering a 125 l tank but if i change thanks i will prob have to empty water out of one and and put in the other and fill it up over time, would that be ok or stress the fish out
:fishy1:
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Upgrading to larger tanks is something I've done a few times over the years - 60 to 125 litre, then 125 to 180 litre. It is easier to do if the bigger tank is not going in the same place as the smaller tank but it is still do-able if it's going in the same place. The secret is planning in advance. If you know what you are going to do and have everything ready before you start, it won't take nearly so long and the fish won't get as stressed.
With a bigger tank it is so tempting to rush out and fill it with more fish, but you do need to take it slowly or the bacteria won't cope.
Rather than go through it all now, let us know when an upgrade is imminent and we'll talk you through it.
When you get the external, the simplest way to change filters is to put all the media from the current filter into the external and fill the gaps with new media. A bit in each basket would seed the new media faster. Wait a month, then remove a bit of the old media, replacing it with new media that you had to leave out. Wait a month, then replace a bit more. And so on till all the old media has gone. You will lose the bacteria on the the casing of the old filter but there are lots more all over the tank. Just keep an eye on the ammonia and nitrite levels for a few days, and again every time you remove a bit of old media to be on the safe side - and do a water change if you do get a reading above zero.
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ok, will let you know when and if i do it, on the other hand how long approx to do a fish less cycle on a 125 tank, just in case i find another place for it ,
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It is impossible to say how long a fishless cycle will take, there are just so many variables. Anything from 4 weeks to a couple of months.
However, because you already have a tank with a mature filter you can speed things up quite a bit by taking up to a third of the media from the current tank and placing that in the new filter. If you change to an external before getting another tank, I would suggest waiting till all the old media is removed from the external, or maybe get a new tank just before you remove the last bit of old media so you can use that to seed the bigger tank's filter.
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ok sue, thanks ,