# dalmation mollies not growing?



## 91sw20 (Feb 21, 2008)

About a year ago I found three dalmation mollie fry in the tank. They grew a bit and had some babies of their own, but the original 3 have only grown to about half the size of their parents and the latest babies, that are actually about 5 months old, are still tiny. each generation of mollie seems to grow to half the size of its parents and stop. I have 2" mollies 1" mollies and 1/2" mollies, and none of them have seemed to grow in the last few months.

I guess my question is: how long does it take for a dalmation mollie to grow to normal size?


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## Sounguru (Jul 14, 2008)

The size of the tank determines how big the fry will get the bigger the tank the larger they are... The molley fry in my 29 are about 3/4 of the size of the ones in my 55


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## CrimsonKeel (Jul 12, 2004)

sounds like classic case of over crowding.
your tank maybe getting full so the fish dont grow to there full potential.


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## robbob2112 (Oct 7, 2007)

If the water conditions are pristine the tank size has nothing to do with how big the fish get. How big fish have the POTENTIAL to is pure genetics. 

People saying that a fish will grow to the size of the tank is incorrect. What is usually happening is the fish grow and the nitrates increase and it stunts the fish.

I've kept Dalmatian Mollies for a long time now and the breed like there is no tomorrow. I have several generations in the tank. Given enough food and the right water conditions they will grow to full size in about 12 months. At 3 months out they are reasonable sized, maybe 1/2" long then they seem to slow down and take a 12~18 months to get to adult of 1~2.5" size.

Mollies are algae eaters and should never be fed regular tropical flakes if you want them to reach their potential. I feed mine "TetraAlgea" crisps, sinking algae wafers, seaweed sheets in the veggie clip, and the occasional blanched zucchini.

In my opinion the right water conditions are very hard water with high GH and KH with a PH around 7.6 or higher and kept at about 78 degrees with nitrates less than 40ppm, lower the better.

I add marine salt (instant ocean) to get a specific gravity of 1.003 which doesn't hurt the plants or the filter, but does make the Mollies very happy and pretty much bullet proof. It takes about 1 tablespoon per gallon to achieve this. MANY people with differ about that, but it is what works for me.

In a heavy planted 46 gallon I have 1 large male and 9 adult females. With that setup I have a new batch of 30~50 fry born ever 3~4 weeks.

That same tank has 2 adult male, 2 adult female swordtails. They have a batch of about 20 fry every 2~3 months.

I like the Mollies and Swordtails and so do the Cichlids in the 75 gallon who look on all the fry as "tasty treats that swim".


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## 91sw20 (Feb 21, 2008)

Well it sounds like my mollies are right on track then! My water is a little different but not far off from your description. Slightly hard water with a pH of 7.0 kept at 80 degrees.

Thanks for the info!


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## robbob2112 (Oct 7, 2007)

One more bit of reading for you about Mollies.. very informative and from someone who knows what he is talking about..

http://wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/mollies.htm


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## OverStocked (May 26, 2007)

Sounguru said:


> The size of the tank determines how big the fry will get the bigger the tank the larger they are... The molley fry in my 29 are about 3/4 of the size of the ones in my 55


Science please?

If I wanted to I could get an oscar to reach full size ina 10g tank. Happily, NO. 

IF you are lacking on your maint, water changes, and filtration, then yes, you will stunt their growth. But no, just putting them in a smaller tank will not make them stay smaller.


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