Too many Males?

[Sasha]

My 29 gallon tank has 7 black mollies. Only one is a female and the remaining six are males. What a weird combination I have! The female, Beauty, doesn't see affected with all the males around her. They rarely bother her, all exept one. Ralphie, one of the male mollies, is constantly around her. He never wanders too far from her side and I'm starting to wonder if Ralphie and Beauty are married or something. Whenever another male molly swims toward Beauty, Ralphie is right besides her protecting his girl against the others. It looks like Ralphie is trying to impress her because he often circles her with his back fin held erect and high. What is this strange behavior?

 

[pondfreak4365]

hi Sasha,
Ralphie has claimed Beauty as his woman! The dorsal fin 'flashing' is his way of saying "Look at me, aren't I beautiful and big?"

 

[Sasha]

Thank you so much for solving my question! Should I get more females to put into the tank?

Merry Christmas!!!

 

[leck85]

more females couldnt hurt.... ralphie might like a good ol 3-some lol

my male guppies do that too...

its kinda weird lookin

i donno how to describe it



its kinda like having a seisure

 

[Sinuhe]

It's usually recommended to have 2-3 females per each male, but that would get your tank overstocked pretty fast. You could remove the female altogether and just leave the males by themselves. Just an idea.

 

[Aqua_Princess64]

Aww... he's flirting!!! At least that's what I think. That's what my male molly used to do with his mate

 

[Sasha]

I have a couple pictiures of Ralphie impressing Beauty. He has his back fin erect and Beauty is ignoring him. She's looking into the camera. I guess she loves having her picture taken and she might be curious about this strange object. Thanks for the advice. Once I set up my new tank, I might put some of the black mollies in since it's getting a little crowded.

 

[guppymonkey]

With livebearers the largest male usually tries to lord it over all the others. I don't know if its true with mollies but my guppy males are always racings around the tank and displaying at each other. Its like high school jocks showing off.