Blue Platies,Dalmatian Molly And Silver Mollies...?

Question

I Got A Dalmatian Molly Yesterday And Its Doing Fine Today I Went To The Fish Store Got Freshwater Salt Added That... They Are All Healthy And Also I Got 3 Blue Platies(1 Male And Two Females)Also Got 3 Silver Mollies(1 Male And Two Females) One Silver Molly Just Got Pregnant Platies Not Breeding Yet...But I Have Them In A 10 Gallon Cycled Tank They All Get Along And Fit Well How Long Does It Take For Them To Have Babies?Is There Anything Else I Should Do And Are These Prices Good I Bought Them For?
Each Blue Platy Was 99 Cents
Each Silver Molly Was 99 Cents
And Dalmatian Molly Was 1 Dollar And 66 Cents
Other Fish Or Invertabres Should I Add?

Answer 1

Wow, your tank may have been cycled for running when it was pooly stock or had no fish at all, but you have just added a HUGE bio-load to the tank and the current bacteria will have to multiply rapidly to compensate. Don't feed the fish for a couple of days (they can go a week without food), and then feed only sparingly for a week after that. It will help keep the bacteria from getting too overloaded if the fish are producing limited amounts of waste. The prices are good, and your fish are capable of interbreeding which will give you a chance of good variety of fry. Expect the female mollys to produce fry every other month, it helps to feed them a lot of vegetable matter - algae wafers, slices of cucumber. The platy's are hybrids and can be a bit sporadic when it comes to having fry that regularly, but you should expect them to produce at least once every three months.
Don't add any more fish to your tank as you will need the room for fry to grow. I would suggest buying some floating vegetation for the fry to hide out in.

Freshwater salt should be added to the main tank once, and after that only to the water you add to the tank when doing a water change as it will not evaporate. You can buy a hydrometer to make sure the salinity doesn't get too high, simple ones are very inexpensive and you don't have to be too accurate as the fish you have are very hardy. Just take a reading when you first add salt to the tank, and try to match that reading from now on (cheap hydrometers are always a little off, but this way you know what you are looking for with your particular hydrometer)
A
PS I live in Canada and the fish you bought would have cost me an average of $2.50 each - on special.

Answer 2

First, get a bigger tank. 10 gallons is not enough. I've bred platies several times, several generations. You need at least a 20 gallon aquarium with lot of hiding places before considering adding other fish. Once the fish start having the babies, there's going to be a lot and they'll need those hiding places plus time to grow (which means they'll need space too).
I suggest plecos or Corydoras catfish to hang out. They'll handle any curious mollies or platies very well and clean up any food that lands on the bottom.

Answer 3

Mollies normally take about 60 days between births. Pllaties dont take quite as long. It depends a lot on your water temperature, the warmer the water the faster the babies. You will want to find some plants or ther shelter for the babies or they may be eaten. Java mos is handy, so are old plastic christmas tree branches. Those prices sound very reasonable. Your tank sounds a bit small to add much else, especially if you want the babies to grow at a reasonable rate.

Answer 4

First of all, you have way too many fish in your tank, even if you weren't thinking of having babies. The rule of thumb is an inch of fish for every gallon of water in your tank. You are going to be WAY over that when your fish are adult size. Also, you shouldn't add so many fish so quickly. You should be adding maybe one or two a week, not six in one day. Unless you can separate the babies (which you do not have room to do), expect them to be eaten by your other fish. With all those fish in there, the babies will not have anywhere to hide.

Answer 5

firstly any live breeders you can put in with them and their cycle is 28 days, but you won't know when they are going to drop as you don't know when they were fertilized, but check the bottom back end of the fish and if it is very swollen then they will be dropping very soon, or if it is not very black then they have just been fertilized, the prices I don't know it sounds reasonable, but then again I stay in South Africa. You can buy some swords, guppies, mickey mouse platties,, black mollie, remember you have to have top feeders, middle feeders and bottom feeders, to have as little waste as possible in your tank, the salt you should use in the tank is course sea salt, and sprinkle it over the mollies they love it, have you got some broad leaf plants, and then when they spawn please have spewning grass, otherwise the adult fish will eat them

Answer 6

I assume you are in the US, here in Australia you are looking at a minimum of $3 per fish and can't usually buy pregnant ones so you got a bargain!!!
And I wouldn't add too many more to the tank until they get settled, though a sucking catfish to keep the glass clean would be an idea. Don't introduce snails coz they often bring disease with them.

Answer 7

Some fish will not breed no matter what you do.

A good ratio for platies is 3 females to five males.

78 degrees is the ideal temperature.

Have salt at .20 %

Lots of live plants, like mondo grass.

Yes, that was a good price for them.

Answer 8

Add Something That Eats Unnecessary Capital Letters!