# Molly Fry



## Heathie73 (May 15, 2011)

Hi there,

I have a pair of black mollies and the female is obviously pregnant. I have floating plants and many hiding places for them when they are born. Since I hear she can have babies for 6 months, I didnt want to put her in one of those floating breeder containers for that long. She has had babies before and still looks pregnant, then has more later (like days to weeks). Anyway, this morning I saw a fry sitting in the floating plants. It looks so newborn, it could have been minutes old for all I know. I have only seen one other fry in the tank before this and never saw it again. The one today swam out and I caught it and it is in the baby nursery. It looks to have a swollen belly. Is this normal? It also is just sitting towards the bottom. Is this normal? And when she has 1, is it likely she is having more? Maybe they have good hiding places? I hope not all are getting eaten. I have never seen more than 1 at a time. 

Thanks for any help or insight!


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Belly-sliders.

That's the name of fish born too soon which still have too much yolk sac attached and can't swim. ( and also for fry that don't have any air in them and can't swim )

Anyway, this isn't very uncommon. Mollies tend to be a bit prone to feeling nervous and are about the worst at dropping fry prematurely when bothered by the slightest little things. They pretty much never just drop one, though, so you should expect plenty more. They'll likely all be ruined like this one. Oh, well; better luck next batch.
Molly babies are fairly large and most don't get eaten.


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## Heathie73 (May 15, 2011)

Oh, that makes me so sad  Thanks for the info though.. I have him in a separate nursery and feeding him the First Bites. Does he have any chance at all?


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## fish1 (May 24, 2011)

Fry in this conditsone can’t usually swim to the surface of the water in the average size tank any servers will usually end up as Belly-sliders. Always struggling to swim)

It is possible to save premature fry it is always best to gather them all up soon after birth as possible. It is best to put them in your breeders net or a plastic container float it in side the fish tank this will help keep a steady temperature keep water level at about 3” it will make it easy for the fry to swim to the surface for air. Don’t feed them for the first 24 hours, they should use up there yolk sac within 24 -48 hours and start to swim normally. give them a week before putting them back in to the main tank within the next few weeks if you find any that have not fully recovered it is best to discard them they will always struggle to swim. 

Brood size can very it depends on size and age of fish, normally 30 + 

can take 4 to 6 weeks between broods it depends on themp- 
good luck with them.


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## Heathie73 (May 15, 2011)

Thanks for the help. 

I put this fry in a floating nursery container. He swims fine all over, and that sac on his belly is getting smaller. Hopefully he is using that to eat and will be fine. I have looked for more and have seen none. We'll just watch this little guy and hope he will be fine.

We saved 3 from Petsmart that were this small. One died within an hour of bringing him home. One died 6 weeks later and one is huge and in the big tank doing perfectly fine. So hopefully we can get this little guy to grow too. The babies definitely are fun!


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