More fish babies

[iNTeNSeBLue98]

Geez Louise
We had 8 babies left of the first 20, reduced to 3 tonight. (we prematurely introduced them to the main tank). They are about 3 weeks old now. DD and I cleaned the aquarium the best that we could by doing a water change and attempted to clean the gravel. We separated the larger fish to a fish bowl and left the remaining babies in their separate container. The water was still very dirty so I bagged the babies and the mature fish in separate bags until the filter could work through the debris.

After about 30 minutes I decide to take a look at the fish, because I thought I saw babies swimming with the larger fish - weird I think because there were only three and they were in their own bag. Lo and behold there are baby fish (frys) hatching as we peer in the bag!

So here we are again, trying to figure out how to prevent future births - it's really frustrating trying to capture the frys and keep them away from the adult fish. And, what do we do with all of the babies? Hopefully we've learned from the first hatching and more will survive, and maybe the pet shop will buy them when they have grown. In the meantime we need to figure out what to do to prevent the larger fish from mating again.

 

[Cruisin]

What kind of fish do you have?

 

[iNTeNSeBLue98]

Sailfin Mollies

Ours looks similar to this one:
http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/gmolly2.html, though not quite as vibrant in color.

 

[mommytotwo]

If you don't want any more babies, then I would just seperate the fishes.

 

[phillybeth]

I wouldn't bother separating the hatchlings if you don't want any more fish- just let nature take its course.

 

[Cruisin]

I don't think you can stop the adult fish from mating unless you only have one sex of fish in your tank. If you can tell which are male and which are female you could do that. I know with guppies I was told that there doesn't even have to be a male with them, that one fertilization can result in several batches of babies? I don't know how much truth there is in that.

I think the best you could do is leave them alone and see what happens, some of the babies will probably turn into "fishy treats", maybe you won't have to worry about having too many.

Oh by the way........... anybody want any guppies