What to do about amorous mollies?

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mrzap

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Feb 3, 2004
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206
Location
South Florida
This is the second set of mollies I've owned. The last set met with a tank disaster and passed away :(

The last set gave birth twice, but by the time I got home only one or two offspring were left uneaten.

Question is...should I try and save the offspring? Do fish that breed die quicker than non breeders? I know salmon die after spawing etc, but I am not sure if thats because of the rough trip upstream.

I usually get males and females because the pet store says 2 male to 1 female ratio is beneficial to their happiness :)

The female in this new batch has become very much pregnant and I am not sure what to do about it. Suggestions?
 
Mollies breed like rats. The males, sailfin, lyretailsetc. are pretty fish and do ok without females. If you want females, get at least 2 or 3 per male, otherwise they get chased to death. They will eat most of the fry if you leave them in the tank. You can give the extras to friends, otherwise be prepared to buy another tank :p
 
The only way to avoid this is to keep males and females separately, but the females will actually store sperm and can drop another batch or two of fry in the absence of males. I tend to leave things alone, as long as I have enough females per male, as mentioned above, and usually enough get eaten that there is not a huge population explosion. It can get out of hand, though, and your tank can get overstocked before you know it.
 
Psyhampster said:
BASSNMAN said:
You can give the extras to friends, otherwise be prepared to buy another tank :p
Ah, the glory of Livebearers...

So true...my trio of orange-gold sailfins just dropped 60 fry, and I will probably see another 50-60 in 15 days or so....potentially as many as 200 by New Years.
 
Just keep some Java Moss in the tank for the fry to hide in. Natural selection will sort out the smart ones from the not so lucky ones.
 
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