Swordtail In Love With Mollies

[fluvial]

I have a black male swordtail in my tank, and being a caring type of fish keeper
decided to get him 2 female swords, both being an orange colour.
At the same time I bought 2 black female Mollies which are in the same tank.
Since then he has been absolutely besotted with the Mollies, following them around everywhere,
and completely ignores the 2 female Swords.
I can only think that this is a case of colour preference / over a species preference.

Has anyone else come across something like this - or is he just a wee bit simple ??

 

[OldMan47]

I'm afraid you male sword is just a bit confused. I have seen males of various species follow females of other species when there were no females of their own species.
What you may have on your hands, especially with swordtails, is two late developing male swords that look like females to you or me. The male sword may be completely correct that there are no female swords in the tank. The signs that we rely on to sex fish are not necessarily the same clues that a male swordtail uses.
I recently sold off 6 wild type swordtails that were all males. I never saw any mating behavior in their tank although I was sure, when they were about a year old, that I only had one male and 5 females. At 18 months old, I was just as sure that I had about equal numbers of males and females and at 2 years old, when I sold them, the last male was just starting to develop a gonopodium and a sword. For some reason, even the first young male knew his brothers were all males from the very beginning and did not bother trying to mate with them.

 

[fluvial]

Thanks OldMan 47 - I think you have probably provided the answer.
Interestingly - when I first got the black male swordtail I bought 2 of them,
and one "disappeared" after a couple of weeks when I was away for a while.
Never did find out who the culprit was ... just hope he doesn't disappear the
2 orange ones when they grow up abit !

At least the Mollies should be safe !