# My Dalmation molly and balloon molly fighting??!!!!



## lilly0x (Jun 22, 2010)

I've had these two fish for about two months now. and just recently saw the dalmation molly nipping at the balloon molly (which has since been in the corner of our 10gal tank). AND the balloon molly has lost color on the top. is it stressed out? i don't know their gender but i think she's a girl. were they fighting?? i heard somewhere this could be a sign of mating as well. i'm worried about both of them.


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## iamntbatman (Jan 3, 2008)

Welcome to TFK!

Mollies are fairly easy to sex. On the rear end of their bellies, females will have a fan-shaped anal fin while males will have a long, thin appendage called a gonopodium. 










In this picture, you can see a female on top and the male on the bottom.

Ideally you want to keep 2-3 females per male, as the males can really pester the females about mating, so the more females you have per male, the more his pestering gets spread out. If your ratio of males to females is too high, females can get stressed out by all that unwanted attention and become sick and die.


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