Male Sail fin Molly harassing my female fish

[adelsmith]

I just upgraded to a 20 gallon tank and got some new fish. My sail fin Molly will not stop harassing all the females in the tank. He is especially physical with one of my balloon belly mollies. He is quite relentless. He won't leave her alone. He follows her everywhere. She will sometimes escape and hide, but he just goes on to harassing the other females. But when he is harassing my balloon belly Molly, it looks like he is biting her behind. I feel so bad for her. Is there anything I can do besides providing many hiding places? Is there any way I can calm him down so he'll leave them alone. I followed the rule 1 male to 2-3 females. The other male fish in my tank are not harassing the females like he is. I don't know why he won't leave her alone!

I also have 3 tiger barbs and there is one that is bigger than the others and he is quite mean to the other two. I am not sure how to sex tiger barbs, so I don't know if he is trying to mate. I know tiger barbs can be aggressive, so I have lots of plants and decor for them to hide in.

And one last thing, I have a sword tail and she is definitely pregnant. (*this is kind of gross*) Although, she has poop dangling from her a lot of the time, I am guess she's constipated, is there anything I can do to help that? I feel so bad for her. Also, is there anything specific I have to do when she gives birth? Specifically because I don't want a lot of fry. I already have all the fish I can for a 20 gallon.

 

[trash.binh91]

I just upgraded to a 20 gallon tank and got some new fish. My sail fin Molly will not stop harassing all the females in the tank. He is especially physical with one of my balloon belly mollies. He is quite relentless. He won't leave her alone. He follows her everywhere. She will sometimes escape and hide, but he just goes on to harassing the other females. But when he is harassing my balloon belly Molly, it looks like he is biting her behind. I feel so bad for her. Is there anything I can do besides providing many hiding places? Is there any way I can calm him down so he'll leave them alone. I followed the rule 1 male to 2-3 females. The other male fish in my tank are not harassing the females like he is. I don't know why he won't leave her alone!

I also have 3 tiger barbs and there is one that is bigger than the others and he is quite mean to the other two. I am not sure how to sex tiger barbs, so I don't know if he is trying to mate. I know tiger barbs can be aggressive, so I have lots of plants and decor for them to hide in.

And one last thing, I have a sword tail and she is definitely pregnant. (*this is kind of gross*) Although, she has poop dangling from her a lot of the time, I am guess she's constipated, is there anything I can do to help that? I feel so bad for her. Also, is there anything specific I have to do when she gives birth? Specifically because I don't want a lot of fry. I already have all the fish I can for a 20 gallon.

First of all, your tank is overstocked. Sailfin Mollies and Swordtails will grow to 6 inches in length. I recommend you get around a 33-gallon tank for your mollies and swordtail and your tiger barbs can stay in the 20 gallon. The barbs also need 6 in a group. The only fish that can live in your tank is the tiger barbs. Also, your water parameters?

 

[adelsmith]

First of all, your tank is overstocked. Sailfin Mollies and Swordtails will grow to 6 inches in length. I recommend you get around a 33-gallon tank for your mollies and swordtail and your tiger barbs can stay in the 20 gallon. The barbs also need 6 in a group. The only fish that can live in your tank is the tiger barbs. Also, your water parameters?

So I can only have tiger barbs in my 20 gallon? I shouldn’t add any more? Also my water parameters are 7.0 ph, 20 nitrate, 1 nitrite. I have not been able to get my nitrite and nitrate levels down. Any suggestions?

 

[NickAu]

What is the reading for Ammonia?

1 nitrite.

This is toxic to fish, You need to do 2x 80% water changes back to back to get this down. Make sure the water is dechlorinated and roughly the same temperature as the water in the tank,

What water conditioner are you using?

I have not been able to get my nitrite and nitrate levels down. Any suggestions?

Is the tank cycled?
Have you tested your tap water?

 

[Colin_T]

Male livebearers (mollies, guppies, swordtails & platies) will always try to breed with female livebearers, even when the females are pregnant. The best way to keep livebearers is in separate sex tanks, (one tank for males and one for females). If you only have one tank then just keep males or females but do not keep both sexes. This way the males won't constantly harass the females.

If you want to keep male & female mollies together, keep at least 4 females (preferably 6 or more females) per male.

Try not to keep sailfin mollies with normal mollies because they are different species and will hybridise. But the bigger male sailfin mollies can damage the smaller males so you are best keeping either sailfin or normal mollies or balloon mollies.

Balloon mollies should only be kept with other balloon mollies. Their bodies are shorter and they have more trouble swimming compared to the normal shaped fish. This means the normal shaped male can easily chase and catch the balloon female and this will stress out the female.

If you want mollies in your tank you could go for balloon mollies but get a group of females and no males. They will breed for the first 6 months but after that they won't have any sperm packets left in them and will not produce any more babies unless you put a male in with them.

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Male tiger barbs have a little red patch on the end of their nose (top lip), females don't.

All barbs need to be kept in groups of at least 6 but preferably 10 or more. This helps spread out any aggression and stress onto all the members of the group rather than just 1 or 2.

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If you feed the fish a lot of food they do a lot of poop. Feeding more plant matter can help if the fish is constipated. You can encourage algae to grow in the tank and the fish will pick at that. You can also use a goldfish food or a vegetable flake/ pellet for them.

The best thing for female livebearers is plants. Have lots of plants in the tank and the female will hide among them when giving birth and the babies can hide in them too. The best plant for livebearers is Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides). It normally grows on the surface as a floating plant but can also be grown in the gravel and produces a lovely light green shrub.

Do not move the female swordtail into a breeding net or trap because it will stress her out. And do not catch her out with a net because the pressure from being lifted out of water can cause them to have a premature labour and give birth to dead babies. If you have to move a pregnant livebearers, use a net to chase her into a container of water and lift her out in the container of water. Keep it covered and move her to the new tank.

If you have a breeding net and some floating plants, you can usually scoop the babies out of the plants and put them in the breeding net with a bit of plant. They will be safe in there and can grow up a bit before going back into the main tank.

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If you have an ammonia or nitrite reading you should do a big water change and gravel clean the substrate each day until the levels are 0. Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

If you are feeding the fish several times a day then reduce feeding to once a day or even every second day. Less food means less ammonia and less nitrite and healthier fish.

Make sure your filter is run continuously and wash filter materials in a bucket of tank water every 2-4 weeks.

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re: your current stocking issues. If you only recently got the male sailfin molly, you could return him to the shop and get a couple more tiger barbs. That would reduce the stress on the barbs and the female balloon molly.