So, my female Dalmatian gave birth to about 50 little fry. Right now they are by themselves (other than the Otto) in a planted 10g tank and are doing fine. So what happens when they start getting bigger? Pretty soon, they will hugely overstock the tank.

I want to give away most of them but I can't see anyone, including the LFS, wanting them when they are small. Do I have to set up 4 more 10gs just to get them up to size? Umm, not sure that's gonna happen. Heck, if I did that, I'd sort of be in the fish breeding business and I'm a show-tank kinda guy, not a breeder. Oh, and my beautiful Golden Lyertail Mollie in the show 10g is super preggy too. I'm tempted to put her in the cage in the fry tank and let give birth as well. In for a penny, in for a pound.

Can I just use some 20g plastic containers with bubble filters and frequent wc's? Dang, then I'd have to buy at least 2 heaters for those (another 60 bucks!)

My wife just loves having "little baby fish" swimming around like fireflies, so what she wants, she gets. (at least as far as fish go ;-) So I can't just feed them to my Cichlids.

Sometimes, in this hobby, I blindly take paths I did not intend on taking. (African Cichlids for example)

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60g tall, all artificial plants, Rainbow tank; 55g for African Cichlids. 20g long for fry; 20g hex, 2 black Angels at my desk; 10g planted, with 50 Molly fry; 10 gal, 2x 13w cfl lightning, planted; 2g hex for "Buddy the Betta"; Wanting a 200g +, MTS getting bad.

LOL, you're now at the point that most people that buy livebearers don't think out to. Everybody likes babies in their tank, but thought of how to deal with them in the long run isn't really something initially given to. Not sure if you fall into that category or not.

You can raise them, but as you can figure they will outgrow your tank. The good thing is Mollies don't generally grow that fast so you have plenty of time. I think a Molly is similar to a Platy in it's speed of growth, which is full grown at the 1yr point. I have 1 Dalmation baby in my tank (baby to me anyway) that is about 5 months old and is just now over 1" long. He is very fat, but not near the length of the 3 adults I have. I have 200g of nothing but livebearer fish. I remember a while back I had a Swordtail that gave birth to about 85 babies and she was so huge I put her in a breeder cage. When I thought she was finished I removed her and took about 75 babies and released them in my 75g because I thought that since it was very densly planted they would have a fighting chance to survive (I wasn't going to put them in their own tank) and what it turned into was a feeding frenzy and that was not intended and I was hurt by the whole thing. Only 5 survived that. The Mother continued to have about 10 more babies and I think I now have 12 or so teenage Swordtails in my tank from that. I didn't like what had happened, but realized that had it not my 125g would probably be approaching being overstocked. It was a good lesson for me. If I buy a fish nowadays and it's a female I don't try to pick prego ones like I used to.

The one thing I suggest to people on here is to let the births happen in your normal tanks. It sounds cruel if you think some may be eaten, but I think it keeps my population levels under control. I know I loose probably 10% every time there is a birth of whatever fish it may be. If you separate you're only left with what you have....50 fish that you're not sure how to deal with....and another soon to create even more angst. You have to be completely prepared for their eventual growth or there is a problem and some people will euthanize their fish just to keep populations down.

I would try to give them away to friends after they are 3-4 months old. You could post on Craigslist even. Shipping fish is not that difficult if you wanted to offer out further, but does require overnight shipping. Hard to say how long they'll be okay in that size tank. 2-4 months maybe? May require contant checking of water parameters down the road.

Instead of getting a couple of 20 gal tubs just get one about 40 gal. Use a couple of sponge filters in it. This time of year unless you keep your house below 70 I wouldn't worry about heaters. Do water changes every couple of days and you will be amazed at how fast that they can grow.

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220 Tank build
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I was worried about this myself. Both of my females are preggo and I'm wondering what to do with all of them. I'm fairly certain that my ABF will eat any that come to the top and if I don't get a filter sponge or something that my filter will be clogged with them. My CAEs will probably eat the rest, but I hope a few will survive as my tank is a little empty.

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29g Tall FW: Many Swordtails: 1 lemon, 6-8 neon/pineapple, 1 Gold Tuxedo, ? fry; 1 Clown Pleco; 3 Otocinclus Cats, and MTS.
Planted: Amazon Swords.

The only place where success comes before work
is in the dictionary.

I have to agree. I tried to manage the first birth from one of my platys but it was chaotic. I quickly decided to let nature take its course and put some hiding areas in my 29G for the babies. I have three fry now who are big enough to swim with the big fish -- they are tough little critters who earned their place in the tank. If you work in some rocks and driftwood with moss or other dense plants as a refuge the babies will have more than a fighting chance.

Also, maybe it's psychological for my benefit, but when I notice one of my females dropping fry I turn the lights off in the tank and rest of the room to give the fry more of an advantage to find a dark safe place to get established. Just a thought...seems a flashing movement of darting fry would trigger the adults attack instict. Dunno.

We've been in much the same situation for over a year. Two days after we got three mollies for my daughter, we found ourselves with 26 babies. When you're facing explaining the circle of life to your 6-year-old, you quickly decide that you've got to do something else, even though you can't save every one. We ended up getting an isolation breeder similar to the one I linked to. It's easy to clean, and the floating feature is nice so it stays at the same height in the tank as water evaporates, etc.

Over the past year, we've had well over 150 fry from our original investment of three. As they are born, we put them into the isolation breeder (we now have a 20g and 10g tank, and one breeder in each tank when we have fry). We keep them in the breeder for a couple of months to get them thru the initial growth period. Once they're large enough not to become food for the others, we'll usually let them free. After they've grown a bit more, our LFS will take them back (and occasionally give us credit on food, etc. in the store). The last time we donated fish back, we dropped off about 50 that were about 1/2 to 3/4" long. The LFS told us that most of the mollies in the metro area are probably from our offspring, since we've donated over 100, and we've got another 30+ in our breeders now.

As the mollies grow, we've handled it in the tanks by doing more frequent water changes and general tank upkeep. We try to balance them across the two tanks so neither is too over-populated, etc. When the fry get to the point that you think they're ready for donation, call your LFS a week or two out to let them know that you're interested in donating so that they don't have more fish coming in and thus no room for your donations.

At the rate we're going, we'll never have to buy another mollie in our lives.

Also keep in mid,in nature,the babies who get eaten are usually weaker than they should be.Grant the adults have an advantage over them,but then again,they themselves are tiny so its easier to hide.

You can get fast growth by upping the water changes too.

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"Come to the dark side....we have cookies...and filters/heaters/and water changes!"

Thanks everyone. I have decided not to get into the baby business. I'll try to find one big container, put some floating plants in it with a bubble filter, or maybe even one of my extra hob I have about the house (might take a little cutting) put the container somewere it's easy to do wc's and go from there. This of course, after they overpopulate the 10g.

According to my buddies, the LFS's will take the fish once they are big enough to sell. My wife thinks they should buy them "While they are still so cute!" but we'll see. After this, I'll let nature take its course and if a very few survive I'l find a place for them.

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60g tall, all artificial plants, Rainbow tank; 55g for African Cichlids. 20g long for fry; 20g hex, 2 black Angels at my desk; 10g planted, with 50 Molly fry; 10 gal, 2x 13w cfl lightning, planted; 2g hex for "Buddy the Betta"; Wanting a 200g +, MTS getting bad.