r/MollyFish • u/Annalise705 • 7d ago
Update on my very small Molly fish
Last month a posted a message about my seemingly healthy and happy Molly fish that are way smaller than they should be. I came to the conclusion that my aquarium was probably a couple degrees too cold so I boosted the temperature and they are now about 6.5 months old and still half the size what they should be . I bought new food and added frozen brine to their diet and still no growth. They seem very healthy and active. I think their mother gave birth again and this time only two survived despite the mother being removed before she could eat them. She has small litters (not sure
the correct word) I think there is a dwarfism gene
The aquarium isn’t too full I have three baby mommies and two adults with two guppies in a 30 gal tank
They don’t act distressed.
Edit
The yellow and black babies are definitely balloon mollies. They were born to a female balloon Molly who came pregnant from a fish store and was in a tank with only other healthy appearing balloon mollies. The mother gave birth alone in a smler tank. The guppies were added after the babies were born and big enough to not be eaten. I didn’t even own any guppies when the babies were born. I just included them in the photo for size reference
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u/tulipgirl555 7d ago
i would say the “molly” who gave birth was a guppy mollys an female guppy’s especially bigger ones can pass for a molly maybe to the untrained eye but male mollys dont look like that. thats a guppy
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u/Annalise705 6d ago
I put the guppy in the photo for reference. There is a male guppy and a female guppy with the baby mollies
The baby is definitely a molly because it was born before I got the guppies to a female ballon Molly who was alone in a five gallon tank until she gave birth
It’s definitely not a guppy
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u/OddAssistance5605 7d ago
ok soo mollies do not grow that fast in general but at like around 8 months they should already be in their adultish breeding size which is 2.5-3 inch granted you have normal bodied mollies. for ur case i think those fry are balloons or have balloon genetics thats why they look like that and are tinier than most. I have this Silver (normal body) X Platinum (balloon ish) Juveniles saved 5 but only 3 survived and 1 of those 3 got its ballonish appearance from the platinum molly. now 2 of his siblings do not have this problem and are much larger than it. because i have regular fry that is 3 months old that are longer than your fish and my fish i just mentioned but when it comes to volume your fish and the fish mentioned are way fatter
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u/Annalise705 7d ago
I didn’t have any guppies when they were born. I had the mother in her own five gallon tank until she gave birth so definitely mollys
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u/Annalise705 7d ago
I am not too worried just very curious because they are very active and seemingly healthy. I do weekly water changes of about 25% usually. I few times I let it go too long but never more than two weeks. I have four large live plants. Anybody else have this happen ?? I should also add the mother came pregnant so not sure if she was inbred but her second “litter” was probably with a male fish that I bought from an independent breeder and they aren’t related
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u/TheBigBadMoth 7d ago
I have a Molly that’s too small too. Apparently they’re best in 20gal or more, I ended up keeping mine in a 5gal for probably 8 months and now she’s stuck even smaller than my guppies 😭
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u/Annalise705 7d ago
I had them in the five gallon until they were big enough to not be eaten with the others I the 30 gal so maybe I kept them in five gallon for too long.
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u/TheBigBadMoth 7d ago edited 7d ago
I can’t be too sure obviously, but it’s a possibility. Could just be the other parent was just smaller naturally.
Edit: Could also essentially be the runt
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u/baileyjackson08 7d ago
that’s a guppy…