fed mollie fry

[mtc1966]

picked up a couple of mollies yesterday. the male was already s/w acclimated the pregnant female was not so i spent four hours slowly switching her over. and she gave birth in the bag.
so i scooped the fry out and put them in my s/h tank only see two or three still swimming around today. i would say my erectus liked them.
my plan is to house the pr of mollies in my sump to breed food for a once a month treat. anyone else doing something similar ?

 

[Bluemon]

i thought this was frowned upon because of copper.

 

[mtc1966]

using a freshwater tank for saltwater yes never heard of fish.

 

[rayjay]

The problem with that is still the nutrient makeup of the molly fry.
They are still a freshwater fish and don't have the fatty acid profile the seahorses have need of.
If you at least gut loaded the fry with Algamac 3050 it would be better as it provides a lot of DHA the seahorses need.
Better still to enrich live mysids and brine shrimp and use those for feeding once a week.

 

[mtc1966]

actually mollies are a brackish fish sold as freshwater. that is why they convert to sw easily. some of the articles i have read even say the mollies do better in sw then fw. i feed frozen mysis ghost shrimp and now molly fry . they are not intended to be a staple just a little treat once a month.
and why do so many sites recommend them ?

 

[mtc1966]

article from fama magazine



LIVEBEARER FRY
(Newborn Gambusia, Guppies, Mollies, Platys, Swordtails, etc.)

Pros:

Excellent food value: high in protein, lipids, and other essential nutrients -- a complete package of vitamins and minerals.
Available in all pet shops and aquarium stores.
Easy to breed and maintain at home.

Cons:

Poor tolerance for saltwater (except for mollies adapted to brackish conditions).
Not acceptable to all seahorses --refused by many specimens.
Slow rate of reproduction limits usefulness.

 

[mtc1966]

article from fama magazine



LIVEBEARER FRY
(Newborn Gambusia, Guppies, Mollies, Platys, Swordtails, etc.)

Pros:

Excellent food value: high in protein, lipids, and other essential nutrients -- a complete package of vitamins and minerals.
Available in all pet shops and aquarium stores.
Easy to breed and maintain at home.

Cons:

Poor tolerance for saltwater (except for mollies adapted to brackish conditions).
Not acceptable to all seahorses --refused by many specimens.
Slow rate of reproduction limits usefulness.

 

[TamiW]

I would say they're a good treat if you can get your seahorse to eat them. Variety is good. Many seahorses will ignore them though, which is a bummer, they'd be a great supply of easy to breed seahorse food.

 

[btreyes]

My large seahorses go crazy for fry. They'll chase it around way more than live brine shrimp and ghost shrimp.

 

[mtc1966]

oops sorry for the double post.
fishgrrl that was my intention occasional treat. so far it looks like my erectus eat them but there are 3 still swimming in the tank will have to see if they get to big to eat thenremove them .
btreyses what kind of s/h do you have erectus?

 

[btreyes]

I have ingens and erectus. The ingens are the large ones that love fry.

 

[mtc1966]

thanks just looked up ingens 12 inches that is big. my erectus seem to have gone after the fry but i will watch closer after next batch. If they no longer desire them i will just bring the mollies back. guppy fry are smaller but i like the fact that mollies can be saltwater . no need to set up f/w tank.
this is just my opinion no proof but i would think the fry has been feeding of all that good stuff in the egg before being born and should be very nutritious.

 

[Tucson Reef]

thanks just looked up ingens 12 inches that is big. my erectus seem to have gone after the fry but i will watch closer after next batch. If they no longer desire them i will just bring the mollies back. guppy fry are smaller but i like the fact that mollies can be saltwater . no need to set up f/w tank.
this is just my opinion no proof but i would think the fry has been feeding of all that good stuff in the egg before being born and should be very nutritious.

Just a quick note Guppies will also adapt to saltwater, if you take about 2 hours, you should have a 95%+ survival rate.Just dumping in, most should survive.

Used to feed them to Lion's and other canivores, dumped a bunch in and they would get the weak ones first. It was fun to watch, great thrill for the Lion, as the Guppies adapted to the SW, they also got smarter to the Lions method. Some survived for weeks a few even dropped babies, before the Lion finaly snagged them.

 

[mtc1966]

tuscan reef I knew guppy's could adapt but it was my understanding it took weeks to convert them while the mollies took hours.
but if the molly fry ends up being to big for their liking i will give converting guppies a try.
thanks for the input.

 

[TamiW]

You can acclimate guppies to full saltwater. It just takes a little longer. There are wild (feral) guppies living in saltwater in FL.

 

[Allmost]

I feed my mollies and gopys salt water algae, and pellets soaked in marine oils, and htey live in salt water, so I assume they have the salt water proteins growing in them.


adults goto my lion, once in a while, and fry to seahorses ... only my reidis eat them though,my erectus are too young and just ignore it.

 

[mtc1966]

I feed my mollies and gopys salt water algae, and pellets soaked in marine oils, and htey live in salt water, so I assume they have the salt water proteins growing in them.


adults goto my lion, once in a while, and fry to seahorses ... only my reidis eat them though,my erectus are too young and just ignore it.

pellets thats the 1st time of heard of that . what kind of pellets and does one get marine oil? do you think they eat the pellets because they smell the oil?

 

[Allmost]

pellets thats the 1st time of heard of that . what kind of pellets and does one get marine oil? do you think they eat the pellets because they smell the oil?

no no, I soak NLS pellets in lopotiv which is supposed to be a marine oil supplement, and also in selcon.

mollies accept pellets just fine , better than any salt water fish

I use NLS, as it has Vit D. other pellets seem to lack that.

 

[mtc1966]

oh i was confused i thought you meant you gave s/h pellets. so you enrich the mollies that makes more sense to me. i just reread your post and now feel like a idiot . you were very clear in what you said .

 

[charleneatkins]

at one time, I had mollies and guppies in saltwater. The only difference I had was they did not reproduce as often.