Best Ratio For Mollie Breeding

[smellie92]

hi all,
i currently have 3 male and 3 female silver mollies, all the same size. It wasn't planned that way though, when i bought the first 3 mollies i was told by the people in my LFS that 1 was male and 2 were female. It turns out that they were all males!! so i bought one female mollie (making sure it was definitely a female) then thought it was unfair on her so i bought another 2 females to make it even. so i was just wondering what the best ratio actually is, if nessercery i can take 2 males out and put into a different tank.

so once again, just wondering what the best ratio male to female would be for breeding?

cheers.

 

[Suleika]

I think 1 male to 2-3 females is ideal

 

[Cazgar]

+1
1 male to 3 females is best if you want to breed & have space for all the fry

 

[OldMan47]

You are best off with at least 2 females to each male but you can do what I am presently doing. I bought a trio of very nice sailfin silver mollies at a convention 1200 miles from home and one died soon after I got her home. Now I have simply a pair but I have them together with no other fish in the tank and am watching them closely. So far it is working out OK so I intend to try to leave them that way. If things get bad, the male will find himself in my big community tank while the female stays behind to drop her fry. I would rather keep them together as long as it does not become a problem though.

 

[smellie92]

i would like to have pairs but i think the males are hassling the females too much as i think there all pregnant (early stages i think). would 1 male to 3 females be okay? As i aslo have some young black mollies and 1 dalmation molly in a smaller tank, i managed to save the fry from LFS before they were eaten plus they were free, so eventually they will be introduced into the same tank. but for now i just need to know if 1 male to 3 females would be okay cheers.

 

[OldMan47]

An ideal ration is more like 5 females to each male if your objective is mass production of the resulting fry. A single male can readily service 5 females in a pure breeding situation. I prefer a more equal number so I often go with only 2 females to each male. It is enough to reduce breeding pressures on the females and gives me lots of males to admire.

 

[NeonNeptune]

I have a male dalmatian molly with two gold dust mollies, and he could probably handle 5 more! I really think i need to get them a separate tank for them but don't have enough space unfortunately. For now he stays busy eating algae.