# male guppy fancies the female mollie?!



## zero (Mar 27, 2012)

one of my males will not leave one of the females mollies alone, he literally follows her every where! surely the fish should know there not the same?!


----------



## Elz7676 (Nov 9, 2011)

I always choose livebearers because they're easy to look after and a lot of them have gorgeous colours. I had 2 female swordtails and bought 2 male guppies thinking it'd be ok but my males were soon trying it on with the females! 

If I remember rightly, swordtails and platys that can cross (relatively easily.) And unfortunately for you mollies and guppies (however much more complex.) It's not a good idea to crossbreed, the fry will be weak and may not even survive. Be careful there. 

Even so, if it's not possible to crossbreed a pair of livebearers it's not unusual to see them try *r2


----------



## zero (Mar 27, 2012)

I don't want them to cross breed, I need good quality offspring from the mollies and the guppies 1 to feed my carnivorous cichlids and 2 as I'm selective breeding to get purple guppies. Is there no way to stop him bothering her??


----------



## CuppsSmith (Sep 19, 2012)

I'm having the same issue. I just bought the fish yesterday, think the female balloon molly is already pregnant at the time we got her, and the male guppy won't stop following her and sometimes looks like he's nipping her.


----------



## Knotyoureality (Sep 4, 2012)

Mollies and guppies readily interbreed, no way around it other than not putting them in the same tank.


----------



## navigator black (Jan 3, 2012)

Actually, while there have been guppy molly crosses, they are not common, and are reputed to be sterile. Both fish are Poecilia, so there is a genetic relationship, but it is a stretch. 
A male guppy will try to breed with a snail, a rock, a tetra...
I even saw one try a male Betta once. Only once. 

Female guppies in the wild are reported to dive by the mouths of predators, to get the more colourful trailing males picked off. With males that annoying, it's apparently a risk worth taking.


----------



## Isrolina (Sep 16, 2012)

zero said:


> one of my males will not leave one of the females mollies alone, he literally follows her every where! surely the fish should know there not the same?!


If you want to breed guppies, put two females with every male. If you're just breeding them to feed you cichlids, that's cruel. Use feeder fish to feed your cichlids.


----------



## zero (Mar 27, 2012)

Why is it cruel to feed guppies to cichlids but not feeder fish?,


----------



## Auban (Aug 8, 2010)

Isrolina said:


> If you want to breed guppies, put two females with every male. If you're just breeding them to feed you cichlids, that's cruel. Use feeder fish to feed your cichlids.


i don't see how that makes any sense. not only is it less cruel to the fish being raised, its also safer.

fish that are healthy and free of stress from the moment they are born to the moment they are fed off seem like a much better choice than fish that are mass produced, transported halfway around the world, and exposed to some of the most ridiculously crowded conditions up until the day you buy them.

maybe im just biased. i AM a very big proponent of live foods after all.

still...


----------



## navigator black (Jan 3, 2012)

If you are going to use feeder fish, you are much better off breeding them yourself. Feeders get terrible care in pet stores - they are overcrowded and undervalued creatures, and disease is rampant in those tanks. There is no better way to kill all your fish than to put pet shop feeders in the tank.
Roseys are a mutant form of a common North American minnow that nests, practices territorial behavior and does things way more interesting than any inbred guppy ever does. They sell the pink ones because their camouflage is hopeless - it is not the colour of the natural fish. Goldfish in feeder tanks are like plague rats, and the guppies sold in feeder tanks are often clamped up from parasites and poor nutrition. 
You can't really start ranking life by value - if you are going to use feeders, they could be guppies, goldies, Bettas (if you are rich), cichlids... or, if you have qualms about the practice, use no fish at all.


----------

