The Platy, Molly And The Loach

[hhosurfer]

I have started adding new fish to my 29gallon tank

1 Loach which is about a year old
3 Golden Twin Platy (2female, 1male)
2 Red Platy (1male, 1 female)
2 Mollies (1male, 1female)

4 mystery snails

Water temp runs 76-78degrees

The male molly seems to be chasing and ramming the other fish.

Why?

I usually feed them once a day at around 6:00

 

[gbailey141]

Hi there and welcome to the forums.

I have a male mollie and he chases the females all the time. I guess he is just trying to get a mate so I wouldn't worry too much at the mo. However if you notice a change for the worse in the other fish, you may need to remove him. Also I think the rule of thumb seems to be 2 females to 1 male too.

Gav

 

[mattlee]

with many fish the male will chase the females and if not enough females are in the group it will eventually stress them out to the max with constant harrassment. if you have room the best thing is to add more females to keep the chasing down on each individual to a minimum. also you could, or should i say will end up with loads of fry with a male/female mix so maybe just go for males or females, although the females may be already pregnant if kept with males at the lfs.
for a more peacefull tank just go for 1 sex of these kind of fish, the same applies with platys, endlers etc etc etc livebearers basically.

 

[commoncarp]

I returned my male platys back to the shop as they were so aggressive towards the female, the other day I bought a female molly for my sailfin molly, he nearly killed her so had to return her back to the shop, from now on I am staying with the same sex fish to stop aggression.

 

[onebto]

Welcome to TFF

I had a similar problem with an imbalance of male/female Platys I managed to get a home for the females but only after they had produced 4 more males. But probably a wise choice to go all one sex, at least until you want to breed them.

What Loach have you got I am a big loach fan, Do you have any pictures of your fish or tank if so we would love to see them.

Regards onebto.

 

[hhosurfer]

Oh I have a video on youtube with the tank.

That was the setup a year ago (about)

Then I had some mosquito fish in there but since got rid of them for soem more color etc.

http/www.youtube.com/user/hhosurfer

THe loach I think is hiding in the video.

BTW I am still learning on Tropical Fish and keeping them. Lets just say it has not been pretty over the last year.

But this setup is 10months old without one single fish death.

MY next step is to go bigger 100+ gallons free standing or in wall setup.

just have to get the wife to agree with that.

 

[hhosurfer]

Ok I went and got 2 more mollies
One Silver and one Silver with Black Spots Both female
Also
2 Mickey Mouse Ploty both female

Also did a 10% water change and completely cleaned the tank

I did notice that since we were cooler inside (cold outside) the house the tank temp dropped to 74degrees

I never had to heat the water before. It maybe a few days before it gets back to normal around here.

THink it will be alright?

 

[OldMan47]

You are keeping fish that I would only heat to the 74 to 76F range. They should be fine.

 

[hhosurfer]

Woke up this morning and all the fish were happy to see me ;->

Except the spotted dalmatian molly. She seems to be sitting up in the top corner. Did not feed this morning??? All her fins are out except the top one.

She was fine last night.

 

[hhosurfer]

the dalmatian molly did not live. found it sticking t he filter when i got home

RIP

I think it had something from Pet Smart

 

[Julia1904]

the dalmatian molly did not live. found it sticking t he filter when i got home

RIP

I think it had something from Pet Smart

I bought a dalmation molly from petsmart too, she doesn't seem to happy, I have her in there with black mollies, I have had her for almost two weeks, when I get my bigger tank I might buy another dalmation to see if that perks her up.

 

[hhosurfer]

I had to buy a tank heater.

THe water temp came way down. Said 72 but I know it was less. house was 69-70

Been cold here in Florida.

SO WHERE IS THIS GLOBAL WARMING THING?

 

[OldMan47]

Don't you know that they have been calling it global climate change lately. It seems that the doom sayers have noticed that it is not all in the warmer direction. At 69 to 70F, many of your fish should have been fine.