why do my fish eat the other fishes babies?

Question

My black mollies had about 15 babies and when I came back from school, they were dead. What can I do to prevent this

Answer 1

When I had sail fin mollies the babies would disappear regularly unless separated but there isn't always enough time in the day to be doing this. Here is the tip for good survival rates in your mollies without spending the time to mess around with separation ( those floating traps can let the small fry though and be eaten anyway) Go to your aquarium shop and ask for 'Floating' weeds. get a good clump of them and keep them in a bunch with some fishing line.

Your baby mollies will hide within this clump in the small sections and the bigger fish can not get to them. Sprinkle small amounts of 'fry' food into the weed and they will not need to venture out with the bigger fish for a feed. When they are big enough to avoid being eaten they will leave the safety of the weeds and come into the community within your tank.

Has worked perfectly for me over many years.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Put the black mollie babys in a different fish tank by themselves.

Answer 3

Black mollies are vegetarians. The parents should not bother the babies. Do you have other species of fish in the aquarium? You can keep Mollies with other vegetarians like plecostomases, cory catfish, white cloud mountain minnows-- just to name a few and the babies should not be eaten.
i'm sorry for your babies.

Answer 4

I had this problem too! That's why I always separate my guppy babies (also called fry) from the adults and even mothers as soon as possible! I have even seen the mothers eat the fry right as i was trying to rescue it, it was so sad. If you can't afford another tank for the fry like me, buy a small breeding trap which you can find at your local pet store. they are like small plastic cages that you put your babies in to protect them. They are only about 6-7 dollars.

Also, it is possible that your fish are not being eaten but rather being sucked up the filter. If you have a filter with holes large enough to suck up your fry, i suggest covering it up with some sort of netting. I use a nylon panty hose, it works fine for me. You should probably check inside your filter right now to see if they are in there. Several times i have seen some fry in the filter, literally swimming around carelessly like nothing had happened. they survived fine, so you should check to make sure they arent in there before its too late!

Answer 5

Ok listen the reason why fish eat other fish is the same reason why crocodiles eat other crocodile babies, the reason is to stop from other crocodiles from maturing, what I mean to say is when a crocodile has a baby the mother, if she comes across other crocodile babies that are not hers, will try to kill them so that her offspring (her children) have a greater chance to survive. The reason why your fish killed the other fish is so that her children or whatever have a greater chance to survive, the only way you can prevent this from happening is to move them into another tank!

Answer 6

Fish in a tank are still fish, and therefore territorial. That means they see the tank as theirs and the baby fish will be more competition for food. They do not know that you will put in more food. They only know that to survive they have to be sure to get rid of any competition they can.
Remove the babies to another tank until they are able to defend themselves.

Answer 7

It's a fishes nature to eat their own eggs/babies, same for other fish in the tank for them its food so they're going to eat it. Thats why if you want to breed your fish you should put them in a seperate breeding tank and after they give birth, move them back to the main tank and let the babies grow up in the breeding tank.

Good luck!

Answer 8

Because they are hungry. They can even eat their own babies at times. What you can do is get gravel so that the eggs fall in between them and the fish aren't able to eat them. Or if you know that your fish is preggy and doesn't lay eggs then you can put her in another tank.

Answer 9

You need to separate the babies and the adults into different tanks if you are wanting to successfully breed Mollies.

Answer 10

i've got started my son at around 7 months with Salmon and he enjoyed it! blended with potatoes, carrots, broccoli etc, a touch of warmth milk ( allowed in cooking) and he asked for greater! Fish is greater desirable than wonderful for toddlers that have been weaned on solids for a jointly as. We supply them meats and animal proteins too! I merely stay far off from tuna until he's older for the mercury content textile, and fish palms too, they are nasty.