al398247
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
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?
Male molly is mating non-stop
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FishCrazyBenBOMB
Aquarium Advice Addict
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.
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
Aquarium Advice Addict
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
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
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
Aquarium Advice Addict
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
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
We never knew that, thanks for letting us know! We'll look into it and will be careful next time.
FishCrazyBenBOMB
Aquarium Advice Addict
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
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
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
Aquarium Advice Addict
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.
al398247
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
I believe he doesn't know what the heat treatment is. By "old school" I meant that he has simple views on everything. Dead fish - no biggie, just buy more. White spots - no biggie, they'll go away. White water - no biggie, it'll filter out. Etc, etc. I wish I'd know what the correct term for that is.
FishCrazyBenBOMB
Aquarium Advice Addict
Well I would consider that thinking, a hippie haha. 
Old school is what I consider my parents, how it was in the old days. Old school to me is when everything was being learned. Now that everything has been learned we know right from wrong from experience and research.
I just consider your dad has a simple thinker. Doesn't take much of a challenge. Hey rather have a good looking tank instead of a good caring tank, that grows into a good looking tank in time.
Old school is what I consider my parents, how it was in the old days. Old school to me is when everything was being learned. Now that everything has been learned we know right from wrong from experience and research.
I just consider your dad has a simple thinker. Doesn't take much of a challenge. Hey rather have a good looking tank instead of a good caring tank, that grows into a good looking tank in time.
mgamer20o0
Aquarium Advice Addict
lol they do that all their lifes lol
Try the heat treatment yourself he wont know, ben and i may be at a disagreement on which treatment is the safest. IMO heat is less stressful on your fish. And easier too. Turn your heater up slowly about 1 degree every few hours is fine. When the thermometer on the tank reaches 86 stop with the heat. Let the tank run at this temp for two weeks. Even though it seems that the fish are better in just a few days let it run at the temp for two weeks. Thats the key part is time. Heat is prolly cheaper (depending on heater size) than the medication as well.
FishCrazyBenBOMB
Aquarium Advice Addict
Well in my IME, the heat treatment killed all my ottos, 2 of my tetras, plus it didn't cure the ich of the fish that had it. So I stick with the liquid stuff since it cures fastest and doesn't effect the fish that don't get it. That's just my experience though, everyone has different thoughts and such, but lets stay on topic.
How are the mollies doing now?
Sometimes it goes that way, I guess trying to change nature is never 100% predictable.
Either choice you make it does sound like ICH, maybe explain the cost o treatmen vs cost to replace. Tell your dad that each fish costs what $4-5USD so if you lose 2 mollies to ICH thats about 10bucks and then 3 corys thats about 15 bucks so we are at 25$. Ich medication is maybe 8$ or heat is what 14 days or 336 hours on a 100w heater 100w = .1kWh so thats 33.6 kWh at what 5 cents an kWh so thats 1.68$ roughly so yeah either way is certainly cheaper than replacing your fish...
I dont know how the heat method or the medication method will react with your fry. Let us know how its going though.
Either choice you make it does sound like ICH, maybe explain the cost o treatmen vs cost to replace. Tell your dad that each fish costs what $4-5USD so if you lose 2 mollies to ICH thats about 10bucks and then 3 corys thats about 15 bucks so we are at 25$. Ich medication is maybe 8$ or heat is what 14 days or 336 hours on a 100w heater 100w = .1kWh so thats 33.6 kWh at what 5 cents an kWh so thats 1.68$ roughly so yeah either way is certainly cheaper than replacing your fish...
I dont know how the heat method or the medication method will react with your fry. Let us know how its going though.
FishCrazyBenBOMB
Aquarium Advice Addict
My ich medicine was only 5 bucks, and I keep in mind that if us people get sick, we don't just go natural, we give ourselves medicine. So I take it the fish should be pretty much the same deal, if they get sick they need to be treated
Also I had some tetras with ich when my molly just release the fry and the fry were still swimming in the tank before I removed i treated with ich and it effect none of them. That's ime though.
Also I had some tetras with ich when my molly just release the fry and the fry were still swimming in the tank before I removed i treated with ich and it effect none of them. That's ime though.
FishCrazyBenBOMB
Aquarium Advice Addict
Haha, I guess it's all in the method you use really. Whatever works, works.
al398247
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Oh man, something's crazy going on... one of our female mollies died a couple of days ago, today the other one jumped out from the tank and Dad noticed her on the floor just in time before she dried up. She was recovering all day and just jumped out of the tank again a couple of minutes ago. It seems she wants to commit suicide badly... but why?!
We bought another female molly today and she seems young and energetic although not very eager to mate with our male molly is feeling a little lonely. But I'm sure they'll be fine.
Jnam, I completely agree with you and FishCrazyBenBOMB on the medicine. But you see Dad wouldn't even let me do a heat treatment! He'd be like "Why are you always changing the temperature? Have you nothing else to do?! Blah blah blah..." Plus he's an idiot. If I told him that the fish look sick and that it'll be cheaper to buy liquid medicine (since one molly costs $9.99+HST here in Halifax and I think liquid medicine can't cost much more than that), he'll say something like "Oh come on, I always had fish and this never happened... they should be fine... this is weird but they should be fine, just like all my other fish before them."
We bought another female molly today and she seems young and energetic although not very eager to mate with our male molly is feeling a little lonely. But I'm sure they'll be fine.
Jnam, I completely agree with you and FishCrazyBenBOMB on the medicine. But you see Dad wouldn't even let me do a heat treatment! He'd be like "Why are you always changing the temperature? Have you nothing else to do?! Blah blah blah..." Plus he's an idiot. If I told him that the fish look sick and that it'll be cheaper to buy liquid medicine (since one molly costs $9.99+HST here in Halifax and I think liquid medicine can't cost much more than that), he'll say something like "Oh come on, I always had fish and this never happened... they should be fine... this is weird but they should be fine, just like all my other fish before them."
