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i still have problems keeping male livebearers, females i have no problems.

i got about 3 months ago a group of sailfin mollies(4f,5m) and all the males have died and all i have are the female left, the females are in perfect health and were in the same tank.

this has been happening to me for many years. odd eh?

can someone fix this. every livebearer is housed/feed/cared the same as any other.

It may be genetic, the space, or your ratio of M:F. How big is your tank? They may be too cramped. Sailfins tend to get really big. The best ratio for live bearers is 3F:1M, although with heavy plants and hiding spots it is easy to get away with a 2F:1M ratio. Lastly, did you get them all from the same store/breeder? Sometimes if you get them from a shop they tend to be very inbred, and often develope genetic diseases. For example, my parents have guppies and they are on thier 5th or 6th generation, and the females have developed a genetic disease where they would die off at about 1". There are many reasons why this could be happening.

Inky

Certainly the ratio for them must be 1-3or4 at a minium as the males could become very aggresive towards each other.

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Keith

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You must keep 1 male with 3 females & see how it goes.
Sometimes males get a bit aggressive towards each other.
How big is the tank & what are the tank mates?.


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sailfins arent as breed crazy as guppies mind you

the raito isnt the best, but its alright, my male sailfin molly never goes after the feamle, just hangs out with her, although my male reg molly goes after the guppies

for this time these fish were in 20 gal QT tanks. alone. agression i dont think played a part in this, as this always happen were thier were right ratios, also a few males got moved and still died.

Are all these fish from the same source? It could just be they are poorly bred.

I had trouble keeping female rams alive but I found it was probably due to stress from their tank location. I also lost a male as well but the females seemed much more sensitive to the environment. That probably wouldn't be the case with livebearers though. They don't get stressed as easily from sound or motion around the tank and you'd also be losing the odd female with the males.

nope, good idea, but these fish are from different sources, while yes, most come from one importer, but i found unsecessful in keeping males that i buy at lfs.

the only males that i can keep alive ATM are male endlers that genes are all messed up, but they were my grandfathers so i dont complain.

<quickly knocks on wood for luck.