Molly Fry -> live food?

Hi All

Woke this morning to 50+ dalmation molly fry in one of my tanks. Nowhere to put them, noone wants them. LOL!!

Would they be alright in the Axo tank as live food. As in, if they get eaten they get eaten, if they don't, they don't.

Pros? Cons?

Obviously if they survive to grow up I'd have to watch for gill nipping, but I'd hazard a guess that the Axos would eat them pretty quick?

What do you think?

I'm pretty sure you can lump molly's in with the acceptability of guppies. Most people don't have any trouble putting guppy fry in with axolotls, but some people have observed gill nipping as well. I'd watch the gill nipping, but your probably fine

I think they will be fine.
Feeder fish are good for axies, but when you buy them you have the risk of introducing disease. But when you breed your own, all is good. I would put some in, just watch for gill nipping.

Did you know Mollies are brackish fish?

Mollies (All types)
Are brackish water fish, which means they must have some salt in their water if they are to thrive. They are found only in coastal regions and even enter full saltwater occasionally. Without salt their health will suffer in the long term, and apart from salt they also require a high pH 7.8 to 8.4 and hard water. These are the conditions that DO NOT suit most other community fish, and because of this they should not be kept with other fish that require almost opposite water chemistry.

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aren't guppies brackish as well though?

Yep. Mollies and Guppies both prefer salt in their water. However, it's possible for both to breed, thrive, and survive in water with no salt. My grandmother has had guppies for the better of 20 years, most of which were from her own personal breeding. No salt at all. Not even a lick of water conditioner. (Not saying it's right, just that it's what she's always done. XP)

Guppies are crazy breeders, they are like the underwater version of rabbits! I'm pretty sure mollies are the same, but we haven't had any of those for years.

Yep, both mollies and guppies are basically bred these days in standard freshwater. My mollies have always been in freshwater with no salt, unless I need to treat the tank for something.

If you ask at the fish shops they'll tell you they only add salt to reduce the risk of disease. At least that's what mine does.

So far I've had two friends put their hand up for a "few" fry each. So I may actually be able to giveaway about half of them if I'm lucky. LOL!! My last batch of fry were about 4 months ago and I managed to giveaway most of those, kept about 6 for myself, only because the kids kicked up a stink. They don't seem to care this time, they're happy for them to be Axo food if it comes to that.

I'm sure your LFS will like some, they might give you store credit for them (yay store credit)!

Nah, none of my LFS's want them. They have too many already. LOL!! So far I have three friends taking some. If there are any left...live food treat for my Axols!!

let me know if you see any gill nipping. I'm considering breeding some guppies to stick in my axie tank, but I'm still on the fence about whether I want to risk the gill nipping.

I think it's one of those "chance" things with the nipping. I had 6 juvenille mollies in the Axo tank to cycle, but the first day I introduced the Axo's they nipped their gills so I took them out.

However, I have a friend that has mollies in with her Axolotl and has had no gill nipping.

Thought I'll add axies are super fast when they want to be.
I had two suckers that were cycling the tank for me, they are SO FAST I COULD NOT GET THEM OUT when I was finished. So I was like, too bad.. be eaten, just whatever..
Anyway, I didn't think they would get eaten as they were so fast. Well, one day Banana didn't eat all of his dinner - there was only one sucker fish left.
Must have been so fast, or just waited for the right moment anyway.. but have you ever tried to net these fish?
To end the story, I did end up catching the other one - he now lives happily in a community tank.

Banana said:

yay store credit!

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Oh, how I love store credit, what would I not do to get some

Yo, mollies will be fine (i used them instead of guppies because they are bigger fish), dont know if axies will go for fry tho as very small (depends on the size of the axie i guess) I've read that this brackish water thing for mollies is a common misconception they can live just as long and healthily in freshwater tank.

Ive used moutian minnows, guppies, zebra danios and mollies as feeders for axies with no gill nipping whatsoever, theres no way a little fish could get that close to an axolotls head without being munched (unless you have a very slow old axolotl)! I saw one scary moment but the guppy actually picked out a bloodworm that was stuck in gomez's gills so was doing him a favour, I think the problem lies when keeping with larger fish like goldfish with an axolotl, a goldfish would destroy an axolotls beautiful plumeage in seconds!! a little guppy would keep its distance, the boys can be boistrous and get abit close but never seen any behaviour that even resembled the slightest threat to the axolotls!

This is my personal experience and to be honest I have never read about probs with these small fish the issues ive read about concerning injury's or death are with goldfish, plecos and other catfish! Fish big enough to do damage or that have spines!

Bear in mind though that fish are very messy and can easily ruin a nice spotless axolotl tank, this is the reason I have removed the fish from mine, I got fed up with the mess on the sand! This time round I am using cherry shrimp for the axolotls instead!

Just realised that my last post made it seem like there is no risk whatsoever (me and my exclamation marks haha), you are always taking a risk keeping fish with an axolotl, it just goes that ive had no problems whatsoever. You might not be so lucky, always keep an eye out for nippy fish and remove straight away! There is nothing quite like seeing an axie catch its own lunch tho, it all happens so quick in a huge cloud of sand!

ed, just so you no and don't get intruble but feeding live food with back bones is ealegal in the uk

smily sam said:

ed, just so you no and don't get intruble but feeding live food with back bones is ealegal in the uk

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Sam - Ed means the spines that stick out from some fish/plecos etc that can damage an axies insides

Its not illegal as such its just a very grey area, the fish were all bred by me specifically for the purpose of being food. You cant go and buy feeder fish in the u.k that would be illegal. But what you do with them is up to you as long as it does not endure any suffering. Very grey area, read about it abit and still no conclusion.

sorry about mix up, its just when I bought my turtles I asked about live fish as food (when i was doing research I found info on what to feed them on american sites) the person said it was ileagal to feed them any thing live with a back bone, i still keep fish with my turtles though (five zebra danimos and one pleck)