Molly Behaviour

[fishywishy]

Ok in our tank we have 4 little mollies, i believe they are called pot bellied mollies. Anyway we have 2 black and 2 white, the blacks are female and the whites male.

The white mollies however are acting very strangley, firstly they fought with each other, we inored it as we thought it was just a male thing, getting used to each other, however now they are bullying the females! they seem to be biting at the females private bits all the time, now we thhink the females might be pregnant, might this have something to do with it, or oculd it be that the females are on heat? also i just found a baby fish in the tank but cant tell what it is, might is be the mollies are giving birth???

please help us, it is all very confusing! Thanks

 

[_]im]

I have the same problem with aggression. The males, mainly the potbellied male picks on the female mollies I have, and sometimes on my male white molly. I would also like to know if this is typical.
As to wondering if one of yours is pregnant, my pot bellied molly had fry a few weeks ago now, and I saw a white bulge develop on the end of her 2 days before she had them, pot bellies are fat in the first place but when it looks like their absolutely going to explode and have this white patch on their posterior, from my experience, that is when they're going to have fry.

 

[fishywishy]

yep there are babies everywhere, i have a horrible feeling that the other fish are trying to eat them so have cought a cocple in my fish net and are keeping that in the water with them in, pretty sure they are molly babies but they are huge, cant believe they all came out of that poor female!!!!

 

[Elisabeth83]

I've heard the golden rule is 2 females to 1 male. Especially in mollies. At first I only had 1 male and 1 female and he was chasing her so much. Then I was told on this forum that males need at least 2 or more females so that they don't chase and stress just the 1 female out. Now I have 2 females and 1 male and he goes back and forth to each female and things are a lot better. I also have a 2 month old fry in the same tank who is female so once she grows my male will have 3 females to chase lol

I think maybe you should get somemore females then I think things will be a lot better.

Good Luck!!

 

[skimpy]

I had two male Mollys and 4 female and the white molly ended up going back to the lfs. He was soooooooooooo agressive that he picked on the two white females constantly, especially at feeding time. He bashed one of them so hard that he actually bruised her side. Once I watched him bash her hard enough that she was dazed on her side for about 15 seconds. So that was it he had to go. I have not found the black male molly nearly so agressive although he has his moments. But he has been left with 4 females all to himself, so I think he is quite happy.

 

[fishywishy]

BABIES EVERYWHERE!!!!

how do we look after them??? we are not ready to be parents!!! can we keep them in the same tank??? they eat the same food??
already seen one baby dead and dont want any more

help pls

 

[Elisabeth83]

They will probably eat them unless there is pleanty of hiding places for the fry to hide. I've always taken my fry out and put them in a breeding net because I just couldn't stand to watch them get eaten.

Now though I have a lot more plants and things...so I might just leave the fry and see if they can survive on their own.

Good Luck and Congrats on the new fry!!

 

[skimpy]

Babies - yes thats a problem when your not expecting it to happen. Mollies do eat their babies so unless you have lots and lots of plants and hiding places they will get eaten.

I go Guppy and Molly babies. I expected it to happen in say 4-5 weeks after having the fish because I had male and female. But like you my fish were pregnant when I brought them home and i wasn't prepared.

I went out and bought a breeder trap and fish all the babies I could find, a lot hid in the filter.

My babies are now nearly 6 weeks old. They lived in the breeder tank for the first five weeks of their life and just this week I have moved them to a 1.6 gallon tank I bought for them. (It took a while to cycle it and get it ready).

I started off with approx 20 babies that I managed to save and a few weaker ones died along the way but I am happy to say that I have transferred my 12 remaining babies to their new tank and they all seem really happy. I love watching them as they grow, not knowing if they are Molly or Guppy and eventually seeing what colour they will become.

While I accept its natures way, I found I had to do something because I found it really hard seeing them hide in my main tank, and looking up at me with the eyes that were almost bigger than their body.

Congrats on the babies and good luck with whatever you decide to do

enclose pic of baby tank and babies

 

[fishywishy]

we bought a breeding net today and put a few babies in it, but there are a whole bunch that are still in the main tank and are fine! we also bought baby food for them. we have got rid of one of our male mollies now (went to a friend) so hopefully our females will not be so hasseled anymore! love the babies they are so cute !!!!