Non Mating Livebearers

[Daveypaul]

I have 1 sailfin Dalmation male molly, 1 female dalmation molly and 2 other female mollies.
Also have 1 male swordtail and another male Platy with 4 female Platy's
All these have been together for over 5 weeks now but they are not mating!!!!!!!

Can anyone suggest or know why they are not mating !

 

[amy1994]

Are you sure you're right about how many females and males there are?
And you need to let them settle in their new home
But you could try water changes, drop in temp, feeding frozen foods
Are you sure they haven't and you just haven't noticed?
You don't want too many fry to start off anyway, it is lovely to see happen and to raise the fry, but you can easily be over run.

 

[keimak]

How big the tank their in? They maybe pregnant but won't drop cause of the space restriction of stress caused by other fish

 

[Daveypaul]

How big the tank their in? They maybe pregnant but won't drop cause of the space restriction of stress caused by other fish

its a 240l tank, so its definatly big enough, lol

 

[Daveypaul]

Are you sure you're right about how many females and males there are?
And you need to let them settle in their new home
But you could try water changes, drop in temp, feeding frozen foods
Are you sure they haven't and you just haven't noticed?
You don't want too many fry to start off anyway, it is lovely to see happen and to raise the fry, but you can easily be over run.

Whenever I buy Platy's or Molly's I always buy 3-1 or 2-1, regular water changes I do, temp is between 21c and 25c, the only thing I havent tried is the frozen food, but with my last tank I never fed any frozen food and they mated like it was an oylmpic sport and they was going for gold. I will just have to wait patiently........!

 

[keimak]

How big the tank their in? They maybe pregnant but won't drop cause of the space restriction of stress caused by other fish

its a 240l tank, so its definatly big enough, lol

Such a big tank but so little fishies
Try isolating a female in a smaller tank for a month or so, maybe the babies got eaten O:
Or plant more plants to ensure baby survival!

 

[lilfishie]

I have a similar problem with my Swordtails, with 2 males and 6 females, 1 female produces fry as i picked her pregnant, theres also 5 male platies in the tank

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Do you have any other fish in the tank? What are the planting levels in the tank? Do any of the fish have white/stringy poop? Internal bacterial infection can kill off the sex drive of livebearers. There is also the possibility that your fish have given birth to fry but they have been eaten.

 

[Daveypaul]

Do you have any other fish in the tank? What are the planting levels in the tank? Do any of the fish have white/stringy poop? Internal bacterial infection can kill off the sex drive of livebearers. There is also the possibility that your fish have given birth to fry but they have been eaten.

yes some of my fish have had stringy white poop but I have treated this and need to re-treat in 2 days, hopefully the treatment will work. Interpet anti internal bacteria (9). Should do the trick. Have quite a few plastic plants and plenty of hiding places. I got given a few Molly fry and they are still there and doing really well.