Newbie: Opinions would be Nice =]

hello everyone!

so I got a 2.5 galloon fish tank for christmas and now here I am...


just recently got 5 molly fish about a week ago and they seem to be doing quite well.  I made a mistake by not "researching" specifics on them prior to buying them.  ive been wanting a black moor fish so I did all my research on them and I somehow ended up with some molly fish.  I knew I should've gotten only three but my dad insisted on getting five since he was payin for them? they seem to be fine with the space but...

*is too crowded for them?

my plan is to definitely purchase a larger tank so that I can just use the one I have now as a quarantine tank or for the fry...

second thing i'm concerned about is my uncertainty of their sex.  i've been readin up on them and I'm still kinda unsure about some? for sure there's one female molly and now I'm beginning to think that the rest are males.  I know that that's a bad combination so...

*what should I do for now??

 

Ooooh, yikes. WAAAAAY too many fish! Sorry, just that they must be so crowded in there. I have 7 mollies in a 50G tank. Not that you need that much space, but 20 Gal will be good. Your fish will NOT make it otherwise. The way to tell the sex...the girls will have a fan shaped analfin (the one under their belly), the boys will not. They have a pointed one. If you have both sexes then you can definetely see the difference. You should ALWAYS have more females than males. Otherwise the males will often fight over the females and will basically kill the female, or exhaust her, making her more susceptible to disease. I have 2 males and 5 females, and still my boys often fight over the girls.

Another concern is that you added fish to an uncycled tank. The ammonia levels will go out the roof with the fish in there. I suggest asking the fish store if you can return them, or at least have them hold the fish for you until you cycle. If the ratio of males to females is wrong, most stores will exchange the fish for you. And as far as the amount of fish...all I can say, is go and buy a bigger tank like yesterday. Your size tank can hold ONE molly. Would be a nice setup for maybe a Betta.

Izabela

 

At the "breeding board" there is a sticky topic named "Sexing Livebearers" It shows how to sex guppies, mollies, swordtails, and platies.

 

hey thanks guys! i've checked out the site already. and I'm workin on gettin a new tank. the problem is that I don't think I can get it anytime soon. I'll go see who can donate an old one for now or something. thanks for the help so far!

 

You can usually get a 10gal complete tank setup with filter, hood, light, usually comes with water conditioner, and sometimes a heater at Walmart for like $30-$50. It usually isn't much more to get a 20 gal starter set. The sooner you get a bigger tank, the better or else you might lose all of your fish. Remember the general rule is 1 inch of adult fish per gallon, and some mollies can get up to 5 inches I think. Good luck! ;D