Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => New Fishkeepers => Topic started by: hilly on June 29, 2018, 11:55:12 AM
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Hi again everyone. Hopefully a quick question.
I have 5 mollies in my 60l tank. I now know that they will outgrow this tank so I'll either get a much bigger tank (hopefully) 😉 or they'll be moved on as they grow.
One of the females is a right bully! She harassing anything that moves at the moment. Even the larger male! I THINK I have 1 male 4 females but there could be an immature male in disguise!
I was thinking that she could be pregnant but now I've looked it up she doesn't have the dark gravid spot although she does look quite bloated. Is it compulsory to have the spot?
Water parameters are as good as I can get em. I'm even using 50/50 ro/tap water to make things a little more cosy. (I have high ph and nitrates in my tap water).
Many thanks for reading.
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Hope this picture of the little 'terror' helps.
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It is hard to tell from the photo I'm afraid.
Late maturing males will look like females, so the fan shaped anal fin isn't definitely 100% female until you know the fish is mature.
Not all females get a gravid spot when pregnant, it depends of the muscle development and skin/scale pigmentation around that area. Thick muscles and heavy pigmentation obscure the gravid spot, and larger fish will have more muscles.
Females which are near to dropping fry tend to become more aggressive; they prefer to be left alone and will object to being disturbed. In the last few days, their body shape looks as though they have swallowed a box, although a young female won't get quite this bad as they have smaller numbers of fry for the first few batches.
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Hi again Sue.
She isn't at all box shaped. So maybe early pregnancy at best.
She also isn't getting annoyed at being disturbed. She is actively seeking out trouble.
It's quite funny cause one of the others may of found a bit of peace for a moment and then 'she' turns the corner and they just decide to 'do one' so as not to end up in mither! And the mature male hasn't shown his fin for days. I think he's too scared!
It could be that she's just a total bully and needs to go!
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Just because mollies are normally not aggressive doesn't mean they all conform to the norm. There is always the change of a rogue fish in any species.
If this one is proving to be a problem, rehoming her might well the best option for the other fish.
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It might be just because the tank is too small. They do like their 'personal space'.
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What is your water hardness? Mollies like hard water and if you are using 50 50 RO and tap water this will decrease the hardness.
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Ah, I missed that point. Yes mollies need hard water. If you have to use RO to reduce nitrate, you need to add remineralisation salts to boost the hardness back up. The lowest hardness for mollies is 15 dH (267 ppm), and they are OK as high as 35 dH (624 ppm)
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Hi guys.
My water out of my tap is liquid Rock! 😂
The 50/50 mix is giving me around 6° GH and 8° KH which according to API is fine for mollies. I wanted to broaden my scope of fish I could keep so brought the hardness and PH down to a more accommodating level.
I've taken the aggressive little get back to the shop. When I got home I have some fry!! Now not sure if it was her or maybe another that dropped them while the bully was segregated for the night.
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Actually 6 dH is not fine for mollies; it is far too low. They need a minimum of 15 dH, almost 3 times higher that your RO mix. Don't believe API if they say 6 dH is OK for mollies.
What other, if any, fish are in the same tank?
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Oh,,,,,,,,,,,,
OK Im pretty sure you're right Sue. They are displaying signs of the 'shimmies' so just checked my GH and KH again. 7° and 5° respectively. So here goes. Going to do a 10l water change using 75% tap and 25% RO. Hopefully that will begin to raise my hardness a tad again for them. I suppose once settled I'll just have to find the right balance
At the moment is just a pair of Dwarf gourami with them and this site says they should be fine with the water a little harder.
This hobby is taxing. 😰
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Yes, take the hardness up a bit at time. It's changing it it a lot at one go that would distress the fish.
Dwarf gouramis should be OK up to 18 dH so I would aim to get the hardness around the 15 dH mark in stages.