caring for baby mollies

Question
My Lyrtail Molly gave me a gift of about 30 babies last week. I am trying to raise them in a separate 10 gal. tank but they are dying quickly. I used water from the original tank to start and am doing a 30% change every 2 days. The temp is about 78 degrees. The pH is about 7.2 and I am feeding them liquid fry food and crushed flake food. After six days I am down to about ten fry left. What am I doing wrong?

Answer
Joe,
The biggest issue I see is the constant water changes. In my tanks, there are no changes for the first 2 weeks. Then it is 25% every week. Make sure, when using liquid fry food, to not over feed them. It contaminates the water and will kill fry very quickly. It is also common to lose fry in the first week. If the 10 gallon tank has a filter, and it was not cycled, then that is another problem. Are you testing the water for ammonia and nitrites? If either one are present in the water, that will kill the fry too. Fry are very delicate for the first 6 to 8 weeks and just about anything can cause them to die off.