What The?

[missigfunk]

i have a pair of pure white sailfin mollies and they have had fry twice and they look like they are up to it again

i ended up buying a spotted pair of sailfin mollies because i think they are really cute. i have a male and female of each.

the spotted male is totally ignoring the spotted female and is trying to breed with the white female.

im not a breeder or anything, my fish just have babies and im not sure the actual details of it all. would it be because the white female is 'in season' or something? or do they have to be a certain age before they have fry? i have no idea. lol

any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Hi and welcome to the forum .
Males are more or less attracted to females depending on how pregnant they are, but also it just seem that some males and females just prefer each other, it depends on the pecking order and health between the fish in the tank etc.

You should really have 2-3females per male though with mollys, without enough females the males will over-harass certain females which will stress them out. However mollys are quite large and active growing livebearers, some varieties of mollys can grow to 4inches long, so be prepared to have a tank of ideally 20gallons+ if you plan on having 6-8mollys or more (which you would need if you were to have enough female for your two males) .

Do you have any other fish in the tank at all ? Mollys often thrive best with a small addition of marine salt to their tank (since many mollys originate from slightly salty habitats in the wild- they can actually survive in anything from freshwater to brackish to full on marine if they are acclimatised properly over time) however many types of freshwater fish (mostly numerous types of catfish, barbs, sharks and tetras/cyprinids and characins etc) find salt damaging to their health in the long term. If you cannot add some marine salt in the tank then you should be able to find special liquid vitamin/mineral supplements designed for fish which you can add to their tank water and/or food, since the main thing is that the mollys have enough minerals in particular in their environment and diet to help ensure long term good health- without salt or mineral/vitamin supplements then a lot mollys develop fungal infections when kept in freshwater in the long term, black mollys seem particularly prone to this.

 

[missigfunk]

Hi!

I have a 3ft tank and I have HEAPS of different types of fish in there. I know it isn't ideal, but they have been all living together for months now. I did however have an episode of white spot that sent all my babies dropping like flies, and I lost 2 other fish (the ones that caused it all )

I didn't know what the problem was, so I took a sample of my water to an aquarium and they tested it and said there was nothing wrong with my water. Then they asked me if any fish had tiny spots on them and I was like yeah they did! Anyway, I found out what it was and sorted it all out. No more fatalities yet B)

Anyway, back on track lol. In answer to your question...

I have:

3 bumble bee gobys
2 gouramis
4 sailfin mollies (2 female, 2 male) I will sort out the ratio problem
4 platys
2 angel fish ( I didn't want them because my previous one grew to be MASSIVE! Bigger then the 'Large' ones they sell at the shops. I had it for 2.5 years and it died not too long ago. My mum recently bought me the angel fish. While I really appreciated the gesture, I really wish she chose a different fish lol.

Hi and welcome to the forum .
Males are more or less attracted to females depending on how pregnant they are, but also it just seem that some males and females just prefer each other, it depends on the pecking order and health between the fish in the tank etc.

You should really have 2-3females per male though with mollys, without enough females the males will over-harass certain females which will stress them out. However mollys are quite large and active growing livebearers, some varieties of mollys can grow to 4inches long, so be prepared to have a tank of ideally 20gallons+ if you plan on having 6-8mollys or more (which you would need if you were to have enough female for your two males) .

Do you have any other fish in the tank at all ? Mollys often thrive best with a small addition of marine salt to their tank (since many mollys originate from slightly salty habitats in the wild- they can actually survive in anything from freshwater to brackish to full on marine if they are acclimatised properly over time) however many types of freshwater fish (mostly numerous types of catfish, barbs, sharks and tetras/cyprinids and characins etc) find salt damaging to their health in the long term. If you cannot add some marine salt in the tank then you should be able to find special liquid vitamin/mineral supplements designed for fish which you can add to their tank water and/or food, since the main thing is that the mollys have enough minerals in particular in their environment and diet to help ensure long term good health- without salt or mineral/vitamin supplements then a lot mollys develop fungal infections when kept in freshwater in the long term, black mollys seem particularly prone to this.

I'm just trying to figure out how to reply without quoting...

I'm not use to how forums work

It may take me a try or 2 to figure it out haha

Oh ye...I have a tropical tank with heaps of real plants and I have 3 snails. The damn thing won't stop popping them out!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Your fish are all generally speaking pretty salt tolerant, so a rather small addition of marine salt would be fine if they are all the fish you have in the tank, however it is important to work out the exact gallons of the tank as it may or may not be over-stocked depending on its measurements and gallons, if you post the length, width and height of the tank i can easily and quickly work out the gallons and liters of the tank .

 

[missigfunk]

I'm not sure about the actual measurements.

It's just a general 3 foot tank lol

It's a fairly big tank. I think I had it overstocked before and that's why some of the fish got white spot. That's what the aquarium guy told me anyway.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I'm not sure about the actual measurements.

It's just a general 3 foot tank lol

It's a fairly big tank. I think I had it overstocked before and that's why some of the fish got white spot. That's what the aquarium guy told me anyway.

Over-stocking tanks will make fish stressed, and when fish are stress their imune systems weaken and so the fish are more likely to get ill- also if the tank was over-stocked in the past, then its filter may have not been able to cope with the bioload of the tank and the water quality may have gone bad which would have also make the fish more vunerable to sickness and death. But in the case of the whitespot, it was most likely introduced to the tank by new fish you bought- the parasite may not show any symptoms for up to 2-3weeks after infecting fish so can easily be accidently introduced to aquariums by seemingly healthy brand new fish.
If you can measure out your tank at some point then that would be good .

 

[missigfunk]

My tank is about...

910mm long
370mm wide
500mm high

Roughly...

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

My tank is about...

910mm long
370mm wide
500mm high

Roughly...

Actually your tank is a pretty decent size;


Dimensions 91 x 37 x 50cm/36" x 15" x 20
Surface area 0.34 sqm/3.66 sq ft/ inches sq in
Volume 168 l./37 gal. (44.38 US gal.)
Probable volume 151 l./33 gal. (40 US gal.)



So right now the tank isn't overstocked at all, in fact you have a fair amount of space for new additions of fish depending on what they are .

edit: BTW/by the way, do you know what type of gourami's you have?

 

[missigfunk]

Looks like I'll be adding some female mollies

Regarding the gourami's..... I didn't even know they were gourami's until I saw them in another shop. The shop I bought them from had no name on the tank haha.

They are blue with like darker blue marking on them. They don't look like the usual type.


Also, I wanted to add that the spotted female sort of follows the spotted male, but he just isn't interested?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Looks like I'll be adding some female mollies

Regarding the gourami's..... I didn't even know they were gourami's until I saw them in another shop. The shop I bought them from had no name on the tank haha.

They are blue with like darker blue marking on them. They don't look like the usual type.


Also, I wanted to add that the spotted female sort of follows the spotted male, but he just isn't interested?

If the gourami's are a blueish color with or without patterns then they are most likely pearl/opaline or three-spot gourami's- these are actually all the same of gourami, just different color/pattern variations, you can see some pics of pearl/opaline/three-spot gourami's in the links below if you click on them;

[URL="http/www.alnomrosi.net/aquafish/images/F...ramiOpaline.jpg"]http/www.alnomrosi.net/aquafish/images/F...ramiOpaline.jpg[/URL]

[URL="http/animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/anab...miWFA_C2237.jpg"]http/animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/anab...miWFA_C2237.jpg[/URL]

[URL="http/z.about.com/d/freshaquarium/1/0/M/c/fw4004.jpg"]http/z.about.com/d/freshaquarium/1/0/M/c/fw4004.jpg[/URL]

[URL="http/www.aquariumlife.net/profile-images/blue-gourami.jpg"]http/www.aquariumlife.net/profile-images/blue-gourami.jpg[/URL]

[URL="http/www.alnomrosi.net/aquafish/images/F...amiOpalineF.jpg"]http/www.alnomrosi.net/aquafish/images/F...amiOpalineF.jpg[/URL]


Etc ....

Gourami care/info;

http/www.fishforums.net/content/Labyrint...ourami-Opaline/

 

[missigfunk]

Yep, those are it here...

http/z.about.com/d/freshaquarium/1/0/M/c/fw4004.jpg



I have 1 really big one, and another smaller one. They are the biggest fish I have in the tank at the moment.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Opaline gourami's can be kept in pairs or groups or just on their own, but it depends on the gourami's genders and their personalities- watch out for any territorial disputes or aggression between the gourami's and the angels particularly as the angels grow up as they can both be territorial fish at times and because they like the same sort of habitat they may end up having squabbles over prime places in the tank etc. Also be careful with the angels themselves- if you have a male and a female, they may decide to pair up for breeding as they mature, and if this happens they will become very agressive and territorial towards all other fish in the tank as they defend their choose spot for laying eggs on etc.
Either way though, both gourami's and angels enjoy planted tanks a great deal, plants which grow up all the way to the waters surface or floating plants are ideal for tanks with angels or gourami's in .

 

[missigfunk]

How can I tell if they are male or female?

Yeah, I know angels are heaps aggressive, that's why I didn't want anymore, but my darling mum bought me 2 of them! haha

 

[missigfunk]

i also seem to have an ant problem.

they are crawling up the leg of my tank and they are even inside it!

how can i get rid of them without harming the fish?

also, why are the ants even here? ive never had an ant problem with a fishtank before