Calling a SOS need HELP with Sick baby BN Pleco

[MollyMomma]

I do indeed think it's something to do with genetics! The male fish above is still all spiky looking, but acting completely fine. He has a yellow brother whose scales are perfectly normal.

Right now in my 20g I kept 9 brightly colored fry. Many of them are now maturing & are Also from the same parent fish. 2 are displaying raised scales & the other 2 are displaying raised head scales only. 1 has normal smooth scales. 

How do I make sure they do NOT breed any further? Usually I bring fry to my LFS but if they are malformed then it would be impolite to sell them or give them away. Would you cull? I think I've had enough of breeding.

[Hobbit]

If you have room to keep them and you’d like to keep them, then I’d say keep the males and potentially cull the females. If you have an all-male tank, they won’t be able to breed and they can live out their natural lives.

That said, I’m not sure how many females you have that these guys have impregnated. The other option is to put them in with an angelfish or something who will eat any new fry.

I agree with you that selling them is probably not a good idea. My LFS will take malformed fish for his clients that have turtles, so perhaps that’s an option?

[MollyMomma]

On 4/10/2022 at 12:15 PM, Hobbit said:

If you have room to keep them and you’d like to keep them, then I’d say keep the males and potentially cull the females. If you have an all-male tank, they won’t be able to breed and they can live out their natural lives.

That said, I’m not sure how many females you have that these guys have impregnated. The other option is to put them in with an angelfish or something who will eat any new fry.

I agree with you that selling them is probably not a good idea. My LFS will take malformed fish for his clients that have turtles, so perhaps that’s an option?

Thank you, well maybe I can call my LFS when they open tomorrow & explain. I have 4 tanks going, and there's mollies in EVERY one from them breeding. They don't seem to eat the fry anymore & it's just becoming overwhelming. They are a nice bright orange, so they looked good against the plants, but Livebearers just want to breed non stop. & now were seeing ill bearing marks.