Male molly is mating non-stop

[al398247]

We brought him in just yesterday and since last night I've seen him have just a 10-second rest, other than that he's always doing that one thing. Is this normal, unusual, or what?

[Jnam]

Normal they are randy little buggers.

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

you have a ratio of 1 male to 1 female, your female is going to get stressed with all this "mating" and eventually die of stress.

I suggest getting atleast one but you should get 2 more females so the ratio is 1:3 M:F. That way one female will not get stressed out so much and you have a better chance of all of them surviving.

[mike47517]

i keep 1 male and one female together and do fine but im just a lucky one. you should go atleast 2 females to every female.

[al398247]

I did have 1 male and 2 females but one female passed away yesterday. I still don't know why. She had some white spots on her when we saw her on the tank bottom, but I don't think she was very old. She also recently gave birth to some fry. My Dad's theory is that she was too old, my theory is that my cat clawed her (one day her paws and face were wet after sitting on the aquarium); but we still don't know the true cause. We got the fish only about a week ago. We're planning to buy another female soon, likely tomorrow.

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

Originally Posted by al398247

I did have 1 male and 2 females but one female passed away yesterday. I still don't know why. She had some white spots on her when we saw her on the tank bottom, but I don't think she was very old. She also recently gave birth to some fry. My Dad's theory is that she was too old, my theory is that my cat clawed her (one day her paws and face were wet after sitting on the aquarium); but we still don't know the true cause. We got the fish only about a week ago. We're planning to buy another female soon, likely tomorrow.

White spots mean ich, ich is a common diease in the fish world. You can cure it many ways, the fastest and easiest way in my experience is dosing the aquarium with some liquid medicine. Watch your other fish and see if they have those spots aswell. They look like little grains of sand, little white bumps basically.

I suggest getting 2 more females next time.

[al398247]

We never knew that, thanks for letting us know! We'll look into it and will be careful next time.

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

Yeah, i've lost to many fish from ich and not being prepared, now I always have atleast 3 bottles on hand. I guess you learn from experience.

[al398247]

I read something about ich on the forums but didn't understand what it was. Now that I know what it is I'm a little scared because I think our other female has white spots, as well as some of the other female's fry. I'm worried I won't be able to talk my Dad into buying liquid medicine because he has "old school" views on things. Plus he bought the aquarium, the fish and everything else, AND does all the work, so I have no say in this. But I'll see what I can do.

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

Tell him to not do the heat treatment, he should know what it is since he is old school. Tell him to just get the liquid treatment, faster and safer for all fish.