Fighting Dalmation Mollies :( *pics*

[Kellie]

Hello all! Well I got my tank a few weeks ago and one of my first fish were two dalmation mollies. The PetsMart girl said one wa female and the other one was male. The male (which is darker) def has the "anal fin" that def looks like a male. But the ligher one is more of an iffy, its exactly like my femal Lyretails but its not like the male dalamtion either. Recently they been fighting ALOT. She gets really aggressive when I feed like chasing the other fish away and eating there food. But now she has been fighting with the other dalamtion molly and I have to keep breaking them up by sticking the net it. Im scared Im going to come home one night and one will be dead Any suggestions on what I should do??

Here are some pictures of "her" (she also has these weird orange speks on her, they look like its her scales, the people at the fish dep told me she looks she is just a cross with an orange colored molly as well)

Black Dalmation Molly

Both with some of my zebra danios (have 3 of those and 2 Lyretail Mollies) in a 20g

Suggetions will be helpful!

 

[theotheragentm]

It's hard to tell the sexes as the anal fins are collapsed in the pictures. There are a number of reasons why fish get aggressive. Some fish are just more temperamental. Males will chase females constantly trying to mate. That is why females should be kept in a 3:1 ratio to males. Males will fight each other for territory. It really doesn't matter why the fish are fighting. It looks like you have some, but try adding some decorations or plants to block line of sight and allow the fish places to hide. You may have to end up separating them.

 

[MadCatter]

Though I agree that it's hard to tell.. and though I can't guarantee it, I would say that your 'female' is a male, which is probably why they are fighting.

 

[blue_betta]

Though I agree that it's hard to tell.. and though I can't guarantee it, I would say that your 'female' is a male, which is probably why they are fighting.

definately a male i would say, even with the fin closed its almost certainly a male

 

[Annastasia]

Yup, you have two males there. As mentioned above, they will fight for territory, and generally give each other a hard time. What size tank do you have them in? If it's a smallish tank, they would be fighting more, since it's a smaller territory for each.

Just so you know for the future, females have a more rounded anal fin like this:

(from http/www.bbayaquariums.com/black-molly.jpg)

While males, like you have, have the more pointed one.

 

[Kellie]

Yeah because when I got my Lyretail mollies they def have the fin like the picture about, it just sucks cuz I got that fish thinking it was female (following what the rep said, she said it super easy to tell but she messed up bah, haha i know now what it look like but when I got the tank I was very new at this, done a lot of research since). The whole reason why I got the other female mollies was to add up to the 3:1 ratio but now looks like I have 2:2 My friend said the fish looks like it might be a female changing sex, is that possible?

Its a 20 gallon tank, I do have lots of plants they cane hide in to. Problem is, theyre both aggressive so they just both fight it up. It kind of entertaining cuz they raise their fins up and go in to a circular motion and nip at eachother but theyve been doing it like like over and over again so now I'm getting worried, that while im on vacation I won't be there to break them up and some is gonna end up killing they other one

 

[donna123]

hi,
if i were you i would rehome one asap,
there will be an issue that will go on unless you remove one.
females dont change sex, some times a fish is late to develop as all fry look female untill they get the pointed anal fin if they are to be boys.

 

[blue_betta]

i had a molly change sex once, from female to male. she had a couple of broods of young, then she changed, it was weird, she/he was a black molly

 

[theotheragentm]

i had a molly change sex once, from female to male. she had a couple of broods of young, then she changed, it was weird, she/he was a black molly

I don't believe that is possible. I'd be interested to know how this happened if it is possible. Was this sex changing fish the only fish in the tank, where you could isolate it definitively as the fish that gave birth? Most people that think their fish change sex have a late developing male. Maybe it was another fish giving birth in the tank. Still I'm curious to hear about your experience.

 

[ICEEGRL]

I was told by a marine biologist that they can. I haven't seen it yet though. I thought he was kidding. Maybe he was serios after all...

 

[MadCatter]

I know it's possible for swordtails to change sex, however they are usually infertile. Its common for many saltwater fish as well... but I've never heard it for a molly.

 

[rob newland]

Yeah mollies can either be peaceful or absolute psychos that will bully your fish and each other.
Oh an those orange spots - I have seen them on mollies before - they seem to be pretty common but I don't know what causes them...

 

[nmonks]

The science is extremely ambiguous. About the only certain thing is that fish that *appear* to be one sex can turn out to be another in the sense of looking and behaving like one sex but in fact being (usually immature) examples of the opposite sex. There isn't any hard evidence -- even for the oft-quoted swordtails -- that functional females turn into functional females however (or vice versa). In fact, the swordtail sex-change myth has been questioned by science for at least 50 years, see Sexual Differentiation in the Teleost Fish Xiphophorus hellerii, as Modified by Experimental Treatment, Henry H. Vallowe, Biological Bulletin, Vol. 112, No. 3 (Jun., 1957), pp. 422-429.

The interesting thing is that many marine fishes change sex, sometimes to males as they mature (e.g., wrasse) and sometimes to females (e.g., clownfish). For whatever reason, no freshwater fishes (to the best of my knowledge) undergo sex changes.

Cheers, Neale

I was told by a marine biologist that they can. I haven't seen it yet though. I thought he was kidding. Maybe he was serios after all...

 

[HODDY]

you,ve got 2 males there.I would get rid of one and swap for a female.If it were me i would keep the bottom one he looks like mine but mines blue and black.