Do Mollies Eat Their Babies?

A lot of people are caught between trusting their fish with her fry or separating the bond between the mother and her babies. However, getting the answers to whether mollies eat their babies or not, should help you decide.

So, do mollies eat their babies? Mollies definitely eat their babies. Sometimes, they tend to be very nippy eaters. However, mollies feed on almost everything that fits into their mouth, including their babies.

There are various means of preventing mollies from feeding on their babies. Which I will discuss in this article.

Do Balloon Mollies Eat Their Babies?

Just like most mollies, balloon mollies are livebearers. That is, they don’t lay eggs, they birth their young, by swimming out.

Also, they are prolific breeders – they give birth to a large number of fry at once. Meanwhile, balloon mollies also eat their babies, they are not an exemption to this.

Do Black Mollies Eat Their Babies?

Black mollies are species of Molly fish with their unique beauty. Also, their black coloration is distinct and monotone.

However, they eat their fry as well. Molly fry is usually left unattended to, with no protection from their mothers.

Sometimes, the mother may not even eat the young fish, rather, other adults in the aquarium. Because of this helpless situation, mollies babies are going to need a little help from you, to survive.

Why Do Molly Fish eat their Babies?

The small size of mollies babies contributes to why adult movies feed on them after birthing the fry. Also, their small size makes them appear as the normal pellet food adult movies are usually seen eating.

How to Care for Freshwater Baby Molly Fish

You can separate the babies from their mothers. However, the best way to go about this is by getting a breeding box.

Meanwhile, when the female molly is close to birth, you should place it in a net or breeding box, then suspend it into the water in the aquarium tank.

Moreover, if you are using a breeding box, the fry will drop into a different compartment in the box, while the mother would be removed. Meanwhile, if you are using a breeding net, you will need to scoop the mother out from the net.

Moreover, you can take the babies, and place them in a separate tank for isolation, until they are large enough to survive on their own, or fit into adult mollies mouth.

Tips On How to Protect Mollies Babies

• Adequate Preparation – For you to successfully raise molly fish, you need to prepare safety measures for the babies, even before the mothers’ birth them. Firstly, you need to place live plants inside the aquarium tank, to ease the stress of separating the mother from her babies after birth.

• Separating fry sexes – Mollies are generally known as prolific breeders, as they birth a large number of fry frequently. However, you can curb this by separating the male and female mollies after they are being born. Moreover, you can determine the gender of the molly fry after about twelve weeks of birth. Also, you can easily distinguish them by the presence of the gonopodium. As males have a modified anal fin, and gonopodium they use for reproduction.

• Maintain a clean habitat – Ensure you frequently change the water in the tank or breeding box. Moreover, when you clean the tank often, there is less likelihood that the fry will be infected with the disease. Also, this ensures they grow properly as they should, with no complications.

• Another way to provide safety for molly babies is providing space for them to hide. However, you can achieve this by adding artificial or real plants into the tank. Moreover, ensures the plant is as long as its leave reaching the aquarium top, and floating on the water surface.

Preventing Mollie’s Babies from Diseases

Generally, there are lots of tiny microorganisms that are present in the air. Moreover, these microorganisms harm other living organisms by living in them.

However, these microorganisms are easily transmitted through water. So, it is possible to find some fungi like microbes or parasites present in water. Mollies babies have less immunity, and they are very prone to diseases environmental changes and diseases.

However, one of the major causes of death for mollies is a fungus. Moreover, you need not worry too much, as preventive chemicals like methylene blue can be applied to their tanks. However, only apply chemicals when you observe symptoms of diseases.

Moreover, you can use methylene blue to treat other diseases such as nitrate poisoning, ammonia poisoning, fish velvet, velvet, swim bladder disorder, stress, ick.

Precautions to Note

• Avoid using methylene blue and erythromycin, or tetracycline, at the same time. As this could cause harm to your fish.

• Also, use water conditioners to reduce the presence of redox. Moreover, wait at least half an hour, or 30 minutes, before adding methylene blue to the fish tank.

Fry Mollies Growing Up to Adulthood

Usually, fry mollies begin to completely change to adulthood after about four months of birth. However, during this time, they can get variations of color, as they do not have a specific color yet. Yet, they turn out to be beautiful creatures, especially when you give them an adequate diet.

Also, they can grow to a maximum of six inches. Although, size varies for different species. Also, their average size is between two to four inches. As regards their color, it is not usually as bold and definite after birth. But when they reach adulthood, they tend to have specific color combinations.

However, various color combinations are derivatives of three primitive colors, which include orange, black and white.

Related Questions

There are some related questions that many people have always seem to inquire answers for, concerning mollies. Some of these questions include:

What do Mollies Fry Eat?

Mollies fry are easy to feed, as they require no special diet as their adults. However, it is better if you crush their food into small pieces, to make it easier for them to pick and swallow.

Meanwhile, mollies fry are usually little in body size, plus a tiny mouth. In most cases, the food is often bigger than the size of their mouth.

Although, mollies fry have definite colors and shapes when they are born, proper feeding also enhances their shape and color.

Moreover, some examples of food you can feed them include, meaty food like glass worms, blackworms, blood worms, and brine shrimps. As they will allow your fish to grow quickly and healthy.

How Do I Set Up a Tank for My Molly Babies?

As stated earlier that mollies eat up their babies, as they do not care for them. Also, if you will be keeping the fry with their adults, there is a probability they will only live for a short period.

So, to ensure that the young fish survive, set up a small separate tank for them. But ensure it still follows the same diet, appropriate temperature, and water condition.

However, you can change the tank, if you feel you need to keep more fish. As the number of fish increases, the gallon size should also increase. This will prevent the fish from fighting one another for survival.