i have 4 white and black mollies and only one that has produced fry. the other 3 females dont get pregant and im wondering why. could the other breeds of fish be pestering them that they stress them out and dont get pregnant. its a 55gal tank with tiger barbs, platies, some small shark looking fish. i dont ever see the barbs or sharks bother them, tank temp is 78. 4 female mollies to 6 male. im thinking of putting the mollies in a separate breeding tank. thanks
only 1 molly keeps getting pregnant, why?
- Thread starter txgunner
- Start date
In the fish world the females should outnumber the males when it comes to breeding. You should have 2-3 females to one male. The male will constantly harrass the female to keep breeding which of course will stress her out literally to death. If there are more females then males the male will not always pester the same female. It will spread it out to have more females in the tank.I would consider getting some more female mollies in the tank so all of the molly fishies are happy.I also would not have tiger barbs in the same tank with the mollies. They are notorious for being fin nippers. They can get nasty about it and do it at night when the other fish are sleeping. Of course this also adds stress to the breeding females in the tank. What kind of shark fish? Most sharks grow way to big for a 55 gallon tank.
Marinemom
Marinemom
My males are very very 'gung ho' about getting the females pregnant, but they also only go for specific females. I have 2 white males and 3 white females, one black female, one dalmation female, one sunset female, one orange dalmation female, and one black and gold female. (So 2 males:9 females). The males only go for the white or black females. I think it's becauses these are the biggest and therefore 'sexiest' females? I'm thinking of getting an orange male for the two lonely orange/sunsest girls. The dalmation female is just s**t out of luck, as she had and recovered from cotton mouth, minus a pair of lips. She is definately not sexy. She deals with this by chasing many of the other females.
Who needs tv when I have a soap opera 5 feet from my computer??
Who needs tv when I have a soap opera 5 feet from my computer??
another question about mollies - is it possible for a female to not be pregnant, and instead just be really really fat? I'll try to post pics later tonight.
I don't have mollies, but I found the very same thing that phaedraeos mentions with my guppies, i.e. choosing certain kinds of females and leaving the rest alone. Take out a male for a while and then put him in with only one female. He'll be all over her like there is no tomorrow.
One male to one female will KILL the female! Of course then there will be no baby fry. Please do not do this. It is a bad idea for the female in the tank.
Marinemom
nice read in this thread as my newly introduced Black Molly's just gave off some fry and have been noticing the larger male has been sort of aggressive with the others flashing his top fin always.
I assume the males are the ones with the big fin flashing it always with the white strip on top part of it.
I will have to get some more females as I believe one of the other 4 molly's is a male also and he has gotten aggressive sometimes toward the other one; really going at it sometimes. So 3-4 more black molly females will do good I guess.
So far I have found 3 fry and will post pictures later of them in my dual fish breeder floating tank in my 125 gallon.
Edit: here are some quick shots i took
Oh yah one more thing is it ok to have my water temp at 78F or should I set it at something else?
Dont worry about the flake food in there as I will clean it all tomorrow and most of it falls through and flows out.
I assume the males are the ones with the big fin flashing it always with the white strip on top part of it.
I will have to get some more females as I believe one of the other 4 molly's is a male also and he has gotten aggressive sometimes toward the other one; really going at it sometimes. So 3-4 more black molly females will do good I guess.
So far I have found 3 fry and will post pictures later of them in my dual fish breeder floating tank in my 125 gallon.
Edit: here are some quick shots i took
Oh yah one more thing is it ok to have my water temp at 78F or should I set it at something else?
Dont worry about the flake food in there as I will clean it all tomorrow and most of it falls through and flows out.
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