Are my mollies trying to breed

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Lionfish

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Dec 25, 2023
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I bought them 4 months ago. There r three in the tank- white male and black and orange female. Orange one always stays near white one but now yesterday silver male one was chasing black female. Orange one is also chasing male one little. Should i be worried? I used to hv 3 female but last week that female got passed away
 
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I bought them 4 months ago. There r three in the tank- white male and black and orange female. Orange one always stays near white one but now yesterday silver male one was chasing black female. Orange one is also chasing male one little. Should i be worried? I used to hv 3 female but last week that female got passed away
Usually if there is a male and female molly together, they are trying to breed. :brows:
In your videos however, it looks more like the silver one is just trying to protect a hiding spot. Do you have a lot of plant life ( real or fake) and places to hide in this tank? It looks like no substrate is in there and only a couple of rocks. Need to see whole tank to better judge.
 
Usually if there is a male and female molly together, they are trying to breed. :brows:
In your videos however, it looks more like the silver one is just trying to protect a hiding spot. Do you have a lot of plant life ( real or fake) and places to hide in this tank? It looks like no substrate is in there and only a couple of rocks. Need to see whole tank to better judge.
Actually it's a sw sump so I can't put plants there. Usually, they all stick together but don't know why this behaviour started 2 days ago. I haven't seen any injuries in female for now and I'll try to get a pic of all of them. Only hiding places r carbon pack, 2 rock caves and I used filter to create another hiding place. Don't know why male chases black female all over the tank. I tried to get a video but they started hiding. So should I create more hiding places or should I shift that female temporarily?

Edit- just saw that male is now doing the same with other orange female too. Looks like male is after their anal fin. I am on creating more hiding place and after that I'll share a pic plz let me know if it is alright or not
 
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Usually if there is a male and female molly together, they are trying to breed. :brows:
In your videos however, it looks more like the silver one is just trying to protect a hiding spot. Do you have a lot of plant life ( real or fake) and places to hide in this tank? It looks like no substrate is in there and only a couple of rocks. Need to see whole tank to better judge.
This is the full situation (orange one follows white one and white one chases black one) and full tank shot. I will add some more hiding spots
 
You are not going to get " normal" behavior with these fish under those circumstances. If you want to keep them in SW, I'd set them up in a separate SW tank so that it can decorated properly and the fish have more chances to act naturally. Keep in mind tho that Mollies are not sw fish. Some species of mollies are more a brackish water fish that spend SOME time in the ocean and SOME time in fresh water and SOME time in the intertidal areas so to keep them permanently in SW will probably shorten their lives. ( I've not tried to keep them permanently in SW tanks but I have had them in their to cycle tanks before. (y) )
 
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