Dealing with too many fries

**jeffL** · 7th Jan 2010, 12:28

After 2-3 months in this hobby, my platys/mollies have produced a lot of fries over the months, and my tank is getting seriously over populated. I started with 6 platys & mollies and now i should have easily over 35 fishes now.

How do you guys deal with situation like this, give it to LFS, friends, put in river? My friends all dont want it, and I dont think LFS wants them too. And i think its too cruel to put in the river.

Btw my tank is only 25 litres.

Oh forget i got 7 tetras in there too.

**stormhawk** · 7th Jan 2010, 12:42

You have several choices:

1) euthanise the weaker ones
2) sell to people who need feeder fish
3) give away to people who want to adopt them
4) sell them away cheaply

Do not release into the wild under any circumstances. Some LFS might take them to resell, but they will not usually pay you any $$ for them.

**skaer** · 8th Jan 2010, 23:50

what kind of platy/molly?

**Razorblade** · 9th Jan 2010, 00:19

Give them away here, some of our members may like to adopt them

**Blue Whale** · 9th Jan 2010, 06:48

=) Well now, since you will still be keeping some, you expect some more to be produced. If you release in places like Reservoirs or CCK Long Kang, chances is that these places are dominated by other fish, so your fries may end up as fish food. Discus already became one of the food not to mention molly. I am in favor that you post the picture of both your adult and baby mollies and see if you have people living nearby to you (You will need to highlight collection point) and see which member is interested in adopting them. Remember to ON your PM function so that people can contact you.

**jeffL** · 10th Jan 2010, 14:31

Thanks so much guys for the feedback and advice. My first batch was finally taken by my cousin who himself got few tanks at home so he dont mind reserving some space for these fishes.

My platys are normal orange platys while my mollies are balloon molly (very fat). They just keep giving birth non stop.

I do 10% water changes every few days, add some aquarium salt everytime, some nana and java plants inside the tank. I dont overfeed them. Just thought i post my tank and fish keeping procedure.

**jasmine_yeo** · 10th Jan 2010, 21:38

You should post it for sale/give it away free at the marketplace.

**cyruslaguna** · 23rd Jan 2010, 02:23

I'm on it too! Btw do mollies eat their fries?

**stormhawk** · 23rd Jan 2010, 16:41

Yes, mollies will eat their fry as well.

**Blue Whale** · 23rd Jan 2010, 19:24

Fish tank with fries and big mama, normally the old way is to cover the tank with cloth, and yes the top will need a cover too to prevent lizard from come over to do some hunting. So long the female does not feel threaten, it won't eat the fries. This is one thing that was inherited from my dad. If you need to fish the fries out, make sure you fish the mama out first.

**praxis5624** · 1st Apr 2010, 04:31

Since livebearers can produce countless of clutches off of one successful mating, you may see many more babies in the future. I would try to keep gender only tanks, either males or females to keep off possible breeding.

**cyruslaguna** · 1st Apr 2010, 09:12

Originally Posted by praxis5624

Since livebearers can produce countless of clutches off of one successful mating, you may see many more babies in the future. I would try to keep gender only tanks, either males or females to keep off possible breeding.

I agree with that too; only place them together in breeding tank when I've decided on the strains I want based on selected parents. This can prevent massive reproduction without an objective in breeding.