My nine baby fish (six mollies and three plecos) are almost ready to join the 55-gallon community tank again. It won’t be long now. I’ll probably give them another week to grow before I turn them loose in there.

There is at least one remaining baby pleco in the big tank. I couldn’t catch them all because catching such wee ones was so dicey — even my littlest net could have squished them, so I caught the few that I could get safely.

The mollies were easier to catch because they were swimming at the top of the tank, not attached to the sides like the baby plecos were, so I managed to save six of them from the bigger fish before they all disappeared. (I think there were about fifteen or twenty mollies total by the time I spotted them. I didn’t remove them right away because there were plenty of hiding places for them in foliage — or so I thought, until I was proven wrong!)

The pleco babies never were very plentiful. I only counted about 12 at one time. Usually plecos have lots and lots of babies, but perhaps Moby Dick (their dad) didn’t fertilize all the eggs.  He sure was a good protector, though. (The males care for the fry when they hatch.)  He’s up in a tower again, so he may be watching over another batch.  I’m on the lookout for his reappearance so I can start looking for his babies and see if I can safely get some more of them out of the tank so they can grow large enough not to get eaten.

I have one fish in there who is a giant in its species (whatever that is). It’s almost the size of a good-sized goldfish, but I didn’t buy any goldfish. It has a lyre-shaped tail and is about four inches long.  I haven’t seen it try to eat anything alive, so that’s good. It could certainly eat a neon tetra if it were so inclined, and they’re all still in there, so I think the baby fish will be fine  in its presence. That one fish is my only concern when it comes to putting them back in. The other fish are too small or not  predatory.  Lisa saw one of the ghost shrimp eat a baby pleco, but that’s when they were eensy weensy.  The babies now are nearly as big as  adult ghost shrimp, so that won’t happen when I put them in the tank.

       One baby pleco on wall inside lighthouse 

(These images are true-to-size.)

             Two baby mollies above lighthouse

I didn’t intend to become a fish breeder when I started this hobby but, because I provided a healthy environment, good nutrition and (apparently!) fish who like each other (a lot!), nature took its course so here I am, a fish breeder, nursemaid, and mother hen all at once!

C’est la vie!