Need advice on a setting up a new fry tank quickly! LOL

Hello everyone,
I just joined today but have been getting many wonderful answers from your site for awhile now. I enjoyed finding someone else who has the gemstone idea,it has been fun for me and my son.
Now my delima...I have a 55 gal and it had a few issues at first but is now doing well. Too well I think, because I keep finding new mickey mouse platy fry! I was not intending on raising them but wanted a few to add to my tank. I kept some in the breeding net for awhile then into a small hexagon (2gal?). Problem is one is huge and the others are all graduated sizes from almost ready to add to big tank to still very tiny like a couple of weeks old size?? They are all about 7 to 8 weeks old and there are 10 of them. I bought a 10 gal to set up but I need it quickly as I have a molly ready to pop, also 5 more 2 week old fry. What is the best route to get the babies into the 10 gal as quickly as possible without sudden death or a long cycling period?? I am still a newbie!

Take gravel from your 55 gallon. Add lots and lots of fake plants!! and and decorations for the fry to hide in! they would be best if they were taken from your 55 gallon tank. Then fill the ten gallon up with the water from the 55 gallon tank. (this could be your daily water change) That will help it cycle a lot faster! The fry will love all of the plants. make sure you have a sponge filter in the ten gallon tank, and if you dont, take some nylon and tie it with a rubber band around the part of the filter that sucksa up the water, that way the babies will not be sucked up.

I breed guppies, but i have bred mollies and platys in the past. Please feel free to ask more questions or message me privately.

I hope i have helped. Good luck!

Thanks so much. That is basically what I did with the small aquarium. I do not have enough gravel in my 55 because of the gemstones but I guess I could borrow some to get the tank started. Any ideas on why some of my fry just are not growing and look like they are weeks apart in age??

the bigger ones are probably stealing all of the food. Try this to boost their growth rate..

Boil an egg and take the yolk out, feed them the yolk only! They LOVE this, and it is very very good for them. The adults will love it too. You can also mix their flakes into the egg yolk. Just make sure you do not put to much because it will pollute the tank fast.

You can purchase a sponge filter and put it in your 55 gallon for a while. This allows bacteria to colonize the sponge and since the sponge has a lot of surface area, a lot of bacteria will reside on it so the sponge bacteria will be able to handle the bio load. Since you do not have that much gravel either, you can purchase plants like hornwort and java moss to soak up the bad stuff.(Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates) These particular plants do not need anything special to grow. In fact, these plants survive with minimal condition.

Good luck and hope all goes well!
P.S As for the age difference, maybe some fry aren't being fed enough.