What to Do With Too Many Mollies

Last Updated on June 27, 2022 by cmoarz

Mollies are prolific breeders and it is not uncommon for aquariums housing them to be overrun with fry in a short period of time.

While some aquarists enjoy raising fry as a hobby, others find themselves with more mollies than they know what to do with. If you find yourself in this situation, there are a few things you can do to reduce the population of mollies in your aquarium.

Separate males and females into different tanks

Separating the sexes is the most effective way to prevent fry from being produced.

One thing to keep in mind is mollies can keep genetic material for months, so even if you only have males and females together for a short period of time, you may still end up with fry.

This is one of the reasons why mollies are so prized as feeder fish; they are easy to breed and produce a lot of fry.

If you want to keep mollies but don’t want fry, the best thing to do is to set up two separate tanks, one for males and one for females.

This way you can still enjoy watching your mollies interact without having to worry about fry being produced.

Sell the excess mollies to the local pet stores or online

Many local pet stores will be happy to take any excess mollies off your hands.

This is a great way to thin out your population while also making a little bit of money in the process, or in some cases, store credit which you can use to expand your hobby.

There are also a number of online forums and websites dedicated to buying and selling fish where you can find someone interested in your mollies.

If you have too many mollies and can’t seem to get rid of them, why not give some away to friends or family members?

Another option is to sell them online through classified ads or forums dedicated to aquarium hobbyists.

This can be a great way to connect with other hobbyists who may be interested in purchasing your mollies.

Use the excess fry as feeder fish

There are 2 options for using excess fry as feeder fish. You can either try and sell them online or at a local fish shop as feeders, which is an option a lot of people choose.

The other option is to use the feeders for yourself for your own larger fish or amphibians.

Stop keeping your fry safe in the first place

When most of us see our fish give birth, our first instinct is to try and save the fry by scooping them up into a breeding trap or net.

Or maybe we add extra plant life so the fry can hide from their cannibalistic parents.

If you find yourself swarming with too many fry, it might be time to let nature take its course.

While it may be hard to watch at first, your fry population will quickly dwindle if you stop trying to protect them and let the parents and other fish in the tank do what they would usually do.

Speaking of other fish, There are many species that will easily control your fry population for you.

Some common examples are barbs, danios, tiger barbs, and clown loaches.

These fish will quickly decimate a population of fry, so if you have too many mollies and can’t seem to get rid of them, consider adding one of these fish to your tank.

Never flush them down the toilet or release them into public ponds, lakes, or rivers

This should go without saying but please, never release your excess fish into the wild.

Not only is it illegal in many places, but it is also cruel to the fish.

Releasing non-native species into the wild can cause all sorts of problems for local ecosystems, and the last thing we want to do is harm our environment.

Flushing fish down the toilet is also cruel and can cause problems for your plumbing as well as the environment (Zebra mussels have been a big problem infecting people’s tanks these days, which they clog pipes as they repopulate).

The best thing to do with excess fish is to either sell them, give them away, or use them as feeders.