mollies protecting babies

[corylover5]

One of my dalmation mollies had babies today and my male dalmation swam next to her while she was having them. Any molly that even came near her my male dalmation Molly would chase them away from her. She isn't having babies anymore and my male is still being extremely protective of her. She will swim near a fish and he chases them away. He is now chasing away any fish that goes near one of the babies. Is it normal for a male molly to protect his babies and my female molly? I don't want him to hurt one of my other mollies.

 

[Salty&Onion]

They don't protect their kids, they eat them.. normally..
They usually eat them as they have no maternal instincts.

 

[corylover5]

That's what I though so I was really confused that he wasn't eating them and he won't let any other fish even come near them

 

[Salty&Onion]

That's what I though so I was really confused that he wasn't eating them and he won't let any other fish even come near them

I'm unsure why he's doing this..
Maybe @emeraldking would know? He's really good with livebearers.

 

[Essjay]

It's most likely becasue he wants to be the first male to mate with her after she's finished giving birth.

 

[Salty&Onion]

That makes more sense.

 

[corylover5]

Is that why he is protecting the babies too?

 

[Retired Viking]

Sounds strange to me too, I bread black mollies years ago and never saw that only the adults going after the fry. Are you going to try and raise the fry?

 

[I nEEd mEnTAl HeLP]

I have never heard of that. The only interaction of mollys and their babies I've heard of is them eating their children... I guess your mollys are good parents lol.

 

[corylover5]

Sounds strange to me too, I bread black mollies years ago and never saw that only the adults going after the fry. Are you going to try and raise the fry?

Yes. I have a breeder box(not for the mom to have her babies in but to keep the fry from being eaten) once they get big enough I may keep a few and give the rest to my LFS

 

[Retired Viking]

Yes. I have a breeder box(not for the mom to have her babies in but to keep the fry from being eaten) once they get big enough I may keep a few and give the rest to my LFS

That is very good, I keep a breeder box just in case my tetra have fry. I had so many molly fry I ended up giving over 30 young adults to the LFS after giving away all I could to other people. They took over several of my tanks back then. I like fry but tend to get over populated when I try to breed them. Like with Cichlids, mollies, guppies and red eyed tetra. Wish I could be as lucky with my other tetras.

 

[corylover5]

I have 32 dalmation Molly fry and 1 white with red eyes molly fry (not sure what type she is)

 

[Retired Viking]

I have 32 dalmation Molly fry and 1 white with red eyes molly fry (not sure what type she is)

I had primarily black molly fry but several dalmatian and white ones showed up too. I had 6 tanks going back then and they took over two just for fry plus one for the adult mollies.

 

[Salty&Onion]

I have 32 dalmation Molly fry and 1 white with red eyes molly fry (not sure what type she is)

An albino

 

[Colin_T]

I agree with Essjay regarding the male wanting to breed with the female so is driving other fish away so they can't breed with her.

re: the male protecting the babies, that is unusual and worth following up on. I would keep the young fish and grow them up. Breed them and see if the young males protect their babies. If they do you could have a new strain of livebearer that shows brood care and that would be very interesting.