Molly Colony Breeding

[Faedother]

Hello all,

Long time since I posted. I mostly lurk around the forums. I have not been on in a while, life has gotten tough. But I am renewing my love of aquariums. I have had my 36 bow front going for about a year and half. It is very well seasoned.

Currently, I have four mollies, Orange, Dalmatian, Black Sail Fin, and a Platinum. Then a small colony of orange neocaridina shrimp, two otocinclus catfish, and three ember tetras. Plus a plethora of snails courtesy of the COOP from the plants I bought. Not that I am complaining. I love snails and was hoping for some stowaways when I ordered the plants. 

 

I will be using one ziss filter and one sponge filter in each tank along with a small powerhead for flow. I will also be adding live plants to each tank for extra filtration. Each tank has a programmable grow light. That is set to eight hours of full light per day. Along with a small CO2 injection for the plants. I will and have been dosing Easy Trio once a week. The temp is kept between 76-78 degrees fahrenheit (24.4-25.5 C). 

 

The tank water is a steady, 8.4 Ph, 249.2 ppm KH (13.9 dKH), 427.2 ppm GH (23.9 dGH), Phosphate 2ppm, Ammonia 0 ppm, Nitrite 0 ppm, Nitrate 20 ppm. 

 

My tap water, once settled and aerated is 8.4 Ph, 249.2 ppm KH (13.9 dKH), 427.2 ppm GH (23.9 dGH), Phosphate 2 ppm, Ammonia 1 ppm, Nitrite 0 ppm, Nitrate 0 ppm.

 

Anyways, I would like to pick the Nerm hive-mind. I want to colony breed the mollies within this and a second 36 bowfront. How many full grown mollies should be kept in each one? Keeping to the one male to three female ratio.

 

Thank you for any and all answers, 

Feadother

 

PS: I am having problems with roots rotting in my substrate. It is a dirted tank with a gravel topper. Could they be experiencing nutrient burn? 

Fish Tax - Please excuse the particles and blue color, I just did a water change and had to dose Ich X because the black Sail Fin male has / had Ich. I am on the third day of treatment.

Edited February 2, 2022 by Faedother

[BLOBfish]

yes,one male to three female ratio worked good for me.

 

[Levi_Aquatics]

One male and three females is a good ratio. You can do almost any number but the more you have the more water changes you will have to do. I would probably do no more than 15-20 full grown fish in the 36.

[PineSong]

That's a nice size tank to have. Are you planning to breed them in order to sell or give away the babies? If you add more plants, whether planted or floaters, you will have a little more leeway with how many fish there are in the tank. 

 

[Faedother]

Right now I am just breeding them up. My brother and I will be starting a breeding program for Sailfins with lyertails. The colorization will depend on what comes out of that breeding process. We also want to try to make them as healthy as possible. Which means the least amount of line breeding as possible. We know that, that means that it will take longer to get a consistent line.

[Faedother]

I think I am going to shoot for 10 mollies per 36. 2 males and 8 females per tank. Then move the babies over to other tanks.

[PineSong]

On 2/3/2022 at 1:17 PM, Faedother said:

I think I am going to shoot for 10 mollies per 36. 2 males and 8 females per tank. Then move the babies over to other tanks.

You will need a lot of tanks, a lesson I have learned the hard way with both guppies and platies this year. 

16 females who have 6 drops per year with 10 fry surviving from each drop = 960 mollies! 

In all seriousness, though, I do not know how many fry mollies typically have, I am just using guppy math 🙂

[Faedother]

That is a very valid point. Right now I have at least 11 fry in the tank. Two of the three females already show signs of being pregnant again. My brother and I will be building a rack system for more tanks. But we know we will have to cull some of the fry.