molly report

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meodix

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First, i've nearly always had mollies.
Of course, when you start, they have one of the best ratio price/colors/toughness. But for me, it's also the excellent ratio energy/non-agressiveness.
I have a bit of a crush on dalmatians, here's my experience on them. Apart from those i just bought, the last one i had, Mathilde, past away a few weeks back at about 5 years old. She became quit big (about 10 cm with the tail, see blurry photo from about a year ago, 3693web). And like all molly dalmatian i had, the older she got, the darker she got too.
So when she passed, there were only two left, Sebas and Doric, which were transferred in my new 55 gallons.

Here's when it got interesting.
I then bought 5 more: 2 dalmatians (1 male, 1 female) and 3 gold-dust (3 females) for a total of 2 males and 5 females. I really thought it was a good ratio but nature throws you a curve ball sometimes.
The 3 gold-dust females are snobed by the others! So i had two groups: 2 males, two females; and the 3 female gold-dust. I bought another female dalmatian to lessen the pressure on the 2 females of the first group, and hoping to change the dynamic. But it didn't completely.
I can somehow understand the 'bond' between Sebas and Doric (they were alone together for a few weeks in the other tank). But i'm surprised that they and the dalmatians don't want much to do with the gold-dusts (only Sebas sometimes slows down to look them up). I've watched carefully, the group of five, even though the ratio is not optimum, seem to have a good balanced relation: Sebas and Doric are often together (even when Sebas goes away, Doric comes back to stay near him), the male dalmatian has his fins full with the 2 females and they all mixt together, giving some space to Doric when she wants to. I will continue to check if i need to buy another female.
That leaves my 3 female gold-dusts. They seem to feel left out, so i will buy a male gold-dust this week (they had none left the last time i went).
Photo 1212web: Doric at the front, the white one just behind her is Sebas, with a gold-dust at the top and one of the new dalmatians peekabooing from behind the wood.

So, for those who had dalmatians before, was it the same for you, did they get darker the older they got too?
Is it normal that the others snob the gold-dusts?

Thank you for your reactions :)
 

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So apparently, not many people are interested in mollies. Too common perhaps, but i like them.
So i've added a male gold dust and it seems to have balanced things nicely. Not perfect tough, Sebas and Doric still stay together a good amount of the time, the dalmatians too but there is more interaction with the gold dust.
Still don't understand (and i haven't seen anything similar anywhere) why the gold dusts were snobbed by the other mollies.
 
Still don't understand (and i haven't seen anything similar anywhere) why the gold dusts were snobbed by the other mollies.
Common livebearers like mollies, platies, swordtails and guppies like in groups with a pecking order. The dominant fish has a group of close friends and they rule over the others. Your fish simply don't like the gold mollies.

It happens in lots of tanks, you might get a group of males that decide they don't like a new male, or it could be a female that doesn't like another female in the tank. As long as there is no aggression between them, they are fine ignoring each other. However, if they fight or one gets bashed, you will need to separate them.
 
Yeah, i have seen a lot of what you describe over the years. But never to this extent, where a whole sub-species is ignored like this. Before she passed, i had Mathilde in the 25, she was the matriarch, she ruled even over the platies (to some degree)! But after her, pecking order was pretty much open, perhaps because they mainly grew up together.
I had never move 3 (or maybe 4) sub-species of adult mollies from 3 tanks into one before! Perhaps they bonded separately in each of their tanks. Anyway, there's always a surprise somewhere, as nature cannot be confined to a simple set of rules that we humans imagine are the norms for every situation.
When i say 'or maybe 4': are black dalmatians and red ones considered 2 different varieties ?
 

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