We had a pair of sailfin mollies and unfortunatley we recently lost our female.. now my boy sits around the bottom of the tank a lot and i dunno.. just looks sad.. is this right or will he perk up when we can get another female for him????l

It could be that conditions are not correct for him so he is not well. Can you give us some information as to what size tank he is in, what is in with him, water temp, pH, ammonia and nitrate levels?

Hi Caryl.. he was one of our original fish and is fit and well.. until his mate died last week.. he still eats and swims around but just seems for lack of better word "sad".. all other fish are active etc we have a 3 foot tank, not sure on levels of nitrates etc...temp sitting around 26 and he is in with mainly tetras, platys, plec, catfish and a couple of dwarf gouramis..

I'm not sure if they're technically schooling fish, but I'm pretty sure they do tend to prefer company of their own kind. Could be he's just being stressed because he's on his own now.

Also, if the fish were bought together and one has died of possible old age, it is a good chance the other is the same age.

If they were a pair for a long time it is quite possible he is missing her.

Could try hanging a St John's wort teabag in the tank :lol:

I read somewhere that some fish can get quite depressed like that if a mate dies and sometimes its difficult to get them to accept a new mate. Sometimes they even die soon after a mate dies.

They say that fish only have a five second memory level.. (I don't agree here), but let's face it, if a fish has spent most of its life in the company of another and that other is removed, it's bound to make some effect.

Get the poor bugger a female... or two even, and he most certainly will pick up again... (Although I'm surprised the Platies aren't interesting him)

I Saw a thing on tv with some scientists in the uk disproving that 5 second memory as they had trained fish with a clicker thing for feeding and they go to the exact spot the food go's in.

Not this argument again. The 5 seconds is SHORT term memory. That's a totally different thing than long term memory which is what the clicker training would have been in. Long term memory is more of a physical rewiring of the brain.

Like if I tell you my middle name, you'd probably forget it in a few minutes. That's short term memory. But your own middle name, that's in long term memory, you'll probably remember that until you get old and senile.

sometimes when i'm really drunk i forget my entire full name, is that a short or long term memory issue?

...sorry, couldn't resist!

That's due to a an imbalance of the blood in your alcohol system.