Advice

Kimmpf · #1 (**permalink**) 05-11-2009, 10:15 PM

Hi all,
I have a small 36l tank and a 125l tank for my tropical fish. At the moment the small one is only being used for the babies from my big platys and all my other fish are in the big tank. 5 of the fish I have were given to me by my friend when their fish had babies. One of them has grown bigger than the rest and he follows one of the female fish around all the time and if any of the others come near her he chases them away - why is this? Is he being protective over her or acting as a bully? I have attached some pictures of him and also of my algae eater - can anyone tell me what type he is or their name? Thanks in advance.

Fishyfins · #2 (**permalink**) 05-11-2009, 10:51 PM

the algae eater looks like an ordinary plec to me, though the golden colour variety thats commonly available. beware, as, although they are a peaceful fish, they do grow very large! certainly over a foot long, and usually more around 2ft long! he will soon need a much larger aquarium than even your 125L.

as for the other fish, he is a male molly. mollies can be quite arge (4-6") long, and get very amorous with the females. hes probably just fighting away any fish from what he sees as his female, seeing the other fish as a threat, and being top dog as it were. do you only have one female molly in there? id perhaps add another 2 or 3 females just so his amorous behavior is divided between several targets. that will also help with this agression of his!

hope this helps

Fishy

Kimmpf · #3 (**permalink**) 05-11-2009, 11:04 PM

Thank you for your help on this thread and my other one, she is the only black and white female molly I have but I also have a female molly the same colour as him, along with my platys. This may sound like a silly question but do platys and mollies look similar? I wasnt sure whether he was a platy or a mollie until you told me

Fishyfins · #4 (**permalink**) 05-11-2009, 11:53 PM

there are certainly similarities between the two, but platies and mollies tend to look quite different. mollies tend to be longer, and a lot stockier than platies, as well as mollies having different shaped mouthes. if your confused with fish identification, if you post more pics of the fish your confused about, we'll be happy to name them for you.

CanIgoHome · #5 (**permalink**) 09-11-2009, 08:30 PM

the plec is a golden bristlenose grows no bigger then 6inchs and the sailfin mollies males follow all female livebearer around the tank all day long my endlers do and I have 2 males to 8 females but I have 4 males to 1 female platy (poor girl the boys do not leave her alone)

all livebearer babies look the same as fry till the color starts to come out

By the way the mollies look great and the bristlenose is female too

PoisonGirl · #6 (**permalink**) 09-11-2009, 09:58 PM

Youre meant to have more females than males to stop them getting stressed and dying.
I have 2 male and 5 female platy and they dont get chased.

Great id on the pleco too

Bristlenose are nice but I can't seem to get them here!

x