Suggestions On Fish To Help Control Breeding Molly's

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phoenixbt

Registered Member
Jul 8, 2014
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As I've quickly come to find out, the molly's we got a few months ago breed like crazy :) I have two tanks, a 55G and 35G, and have tried to separate male molly's and female molly's, but the 55G is still being overrun with molly fry.

In the 55G tank right now is one female adult platy, one female adult molly, and maybe 20 or so molly fry and that number seems to keep growing. I'm looking for suggestions on a community fish that won't bother the adults, but will eat the fry as I really don't want an exponentially growing molly force.

My 35G tank has two adult male molly's and 4 adult male platy's. If anyone has suggestions on catfish or some bottom-feeders for either tank as well, I was maybe looking to add those also.

Thanks for the help!
 
Keep in mind even once split up if they've mated females can spit out 2 or 3 batches of fry before needing to mate again.

I had a Betta that was great at fry control, no survivors angelfish worked well too. Had a pair of dwarf gourami they made a dent but never got them all.

What kind of substrate? I've always liked cory's and kuhli loaches for community tanks, but neither do with gravel or other sharp substrates.
 
Thanks for the info, I appreciate it! I have a feeling the numbers are going to keep growing which is why I want to get something in there now to control it. What kind of angelfish would be good? Or for the betta, do I need to keep them in pairs or should one do? I also saw on a few threads people suggested tetra's, but wasn't sure how those would do in the tank.

I have gravel in both tanks and I had two dwarf cory's in one tank before, but they didn't do very well. What would be a better choice with the gravel?
 
You will never be able to "control" livebearer fry with predatory fish. No matter what they are, they cannot eat this many; at least, nothing suitable for your tank sizes will handle it. And more importantly, it is not at all healthy for fish to eat other fish, not in this case. There is a real nutritional problem feeding fry to fish, and this should not be encouraged.

As Squid mentioned, female livebearers once impregnated can produce several batches of young without a male present; this is known as superfetation, and I am not certain of the number but it is several. And if you have fry present, the males can impregnated all the females long before you can even distinguish male/female via colouration, which is why livebearer breeders separate all fry within a few days.

On another issue, acquiring any fish to solve a "problem" is not a good idea, ever. These other fish have specific needs, which may or may not be provided in this particular tank. You could introduce any one or more of several problems and be worse off than you are now. Both betta and angelfish have very specific requirements, and also might not work with your other fish.

On the gravel question, provided it is fairly fine grain and not rough, it should be OK. But corys need a group, no less than five, preferably more. They are shoaling fish and this is a basic need. [This is one aspect of what I meant above by various fish having specific needs.]

Byron.
 
I think when it comes to storing sperm, female mollies will keep fertilizing themselves for up to 6 months or so, if you don't want fry, the best bet will be to remove all fry and females and stick with males.

or, not all livebearers are quite so prolific, or there are many more outlets for their offspring. I don't think all livebearers will store sperm for self-fertilization either.

most goodieds are endangered or extinct in the wild, you could do worse than keeping a CARES species or 2 and do your part for the fish and there will be numerous people who would love to take fry off your hand.

but, if you're going to keep the more common, ornamental livebearers then I'd suggest just keeping males. :)
 
Raphael, Asian bumblebee, or whatever relatively small yet large-mouthed catfish you can find would help.
 
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