Help! I discovered their real genders today.

We semi recently upgraded to a 20 gallon tank. We requested 3 of the same sex mollies, which we were told were all female. Well I learned a new trick and now I know there are 2 male mollies and one female. We are in the process of trying to minimize the damage of me overfeeding the fish and I'm learning a not. But im at a loss as to what I should do. We currently have a betta, 2 female platys, a bristlenose pleco and the 3 mollies. It's been about a month since we purchased the mollies, so momma is probably almost ready to give birth. We have a 5.5 gallon tank we could set up but I would hate to sentence a female molly to a life of solitude and probably too small living quarters, but I also don't want her to die from stress from the boys. What do you recommend???

If you can post a picture of the fish we can confirm their sexes for you.

If you have male mollies, I would get rid of the males and leave the female in the 20 gallon tank. When she has babies you can scoop them up in a plastic container (with some tank water) and put them in the 5 gallon tank you have. They can grow up in there and when they are big enough, you can add them to the main tank.

If you set up another filter (air operated sponge filter) in the 20 gallon tank, it can develop beneficial filter bacteria while you wait for the babies. Then you can set the 5 gallon tank up with water and the spare filter from the 20 gallon tank.

here are the pictures. what exactly do you mean by "get rid of" the males?

not sure why it attached so many times. sorry

Tinanewfishmom said:

here are the pictures. what exactly do you mean by "get rid of" the males? View attachment 90373 View attachment 90374 View attachment 90373 View attachment 90374 View attachment 90373 View attachment 90374

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He simply means rehome or sell them. Some pet stores accept fish back or allow an exchange. An alternative would be to take them to another pet store that accept fish. Good luck.

thank you so much for the clarification! i didn't realize that was something I could do, will be looking into it!

The black molly and the dalmation molly (black & white patchy one) in the first picture are both male. Take them back to the store and trade them in for some plants, food or another female molly.

To sex mollies and other livebearers, look at the anal (bottom) fin. In females it is fan or triangular shaped. In males it is long and thin.

I find some mollies take an age to reveal their true gender, I have had some at least an inch long that appear female for many months with the triangular fin that then grow into males, they can be very sly about this, indeed I have bought many that appear to be adult female switch on me lol.

Very interesting about the switching genders! I just read about that last night! I'm just wondering why it's better to rehome the males, I'm assuming bc it's not good to stress preggo momma? Seriously feeling so thankful for the internet today!

Tinanewfishmom said:

I'm just wondering why it's better to rehome the males, I'm assuming bc it's not good to stress preggo momma?

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Read paragraph 3 in post # 7 at the following link. Too many males will harass, stress and potentially kill the female. You have 2 males and 1 female. If you leave them together the female will eventually die from stress.
http://www.fishforums.net/threads/should-livebears-be-stocked-with-both-sexes.451334/

Oh, I should have been more precise! I meant why is it better to rehome the males and not rehome the female. I certainly dont want the males causing undue stress on her

Most people like the idea of their fish breeding and keep the females so they can produce babies, but you can get rid of either. Personally I prefer female livebearers over males but if you want males, then rehome the female.

I must point out that male livebearers are like male humans and male rabbits. If there are no female livebearers to breed with they will try anything in the tank, including other species of fish, ornaments, plants and even your hand when you do work in the tank.