How's it goin everybody. New to the site. Just a little over a week ago, one of my Mollies gave birth overnight to 50+ fry. All of them survived and I was able to get about 3/4 of them out of the main tank and into a smaller tank that i purchased the morning I found them. The problem is that it has taken a few tries to get these fry out of the tank and I keep thinking that the larger fish are getting really stressed from me running around the tank with a net. Is there anything I can purchase to possibly catch/trap the fry so i can get the rest of them in the smaller tank? Something similar to a minnow trap that you would put in a lake or river (but not that large... haha)? I would really like to get them out but dont want to stress out the fish anymore. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I am not familiar with the size of live bearer fry,but with my bettas I can use a piece of rigid tubing attached to airline and siphon them up when cleaning the bottom.They are small enough to fit in there for the first week after hatch.I dont mean to get them its more of me cleaning and them going to it like"ooh whats this?ahhhhhhh help!"lol

All I can say is next time place the mother in the smaller tank for birth.Once shes done remove her.

Oh forgot,I used to use a turkey baster to catch them from the bucket and add back to the fry tank.

And welcome to the forum!

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I would have put her in one of the breeder contraptions that I have, but I read that they can get real stressed being in one of those, so I dont use it. I've only had the fish for three or four months, so I am pretty new at it and wasnt really sure if she was pregnant or just bloated. I have some platys as well and two of the females got real big, but never gave birth and eventually became thin again.

I see.Yes the breeder traps are very stressful for them.But if you take the fry tank and add some nice plants to it and a place for her to hide,she should be ok,just long enough to give birth.All my fry tanks have bare bottoms and plants for the parents to be comforted as much as adding hiding places for the fry or female.

Some people just leave the fry in the adult tank and add a nice clump of moss for the little guys to hide in until they are big enough to not be seen as food.

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Thats one thing thats wierd as well..... none of the other fish bothered the fry after they were born. They were left alone completely. I have 4 Platys, 8 Mollies and 5 Neon Tetras. None of them tried to eat them.

If they are leaving them alone, leave the ones that are still in there.

I thought about that, but I only have a 30 Gal bowfront tank. So the tank would get a bit crowded once they are full grown. I still have about 15 fry in there.

Have you ever seen those home made minnow traps made from bottles ? I would suggest you make one except make the hole smaller so only the fry can get in, I believe their is a video on YouTube explaining how to make one for that particular reason, a quick Google search should yield you the results wanted.

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I actually did make one out of a liter bottle. I tried it with the cap on and had it sitting in the tank for a couple hours with no results at all. I then took it out of the tank, took the cap off, and then put it back in. With in half an hour or so I had all but one or two fry in the bottle.

Here's my new attempt at a fry catcher. It has worked alright so far. The larger fish havent figured out how to get in it yet.

did you make that or buy it ?

The bigger box and the two smaller pieces, I bought. Then I pieced it together. I just used a dremel tool and cut a hole in the lid of the big box, super glued the smaller pieces together and glued them onto the lid of the bigger box.

If you have adult mollies in the same tank as the fry, the fry will most likely get eaten. When the fry are new they are great hiders, but when they get a little bigger they get braver, and when they come out for food, the adults will gobble them up. It's best to have a tank dedicated to the fry if you can. I have a fry tank that had 8 platy fry and 8 molly fry until today. I took 4 of each to the LFS.

Read up a little further. They havent bothered them at all. The majority of them have survived. The ones that are in the tank still are actually swimming around with the full grown ones. I do have a tank that is dedicated for the fry. That is the reason why I am trying to catch them, so I can put them in the smaller tank.

I have the same problem with seperating the fry. Where would you get your fry catcher from? I havnt seen one here ( uk). I am also a newbie.

I made it myself.