Aggressive molly?

[So many livebearers]

I have 4 platies and 2 mollies in a 10 gallon tank. They are all females. One of the mollies has suddenly gone mad! She is chasing the other fish, and nipping at their fins. This just started in the last 3 days. I took her out of the tank today, and put her in my extra 1 gallon tank. What should I do? Should I leave her in the small tank alone? Or put her back in with the others?

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[Holly]

Maybe buy her a man to sort her out...?!!!

 

[William]

Tough question, some fish are just evil I guess )

Buying a male molly and a male platy may help to sort out your problem though - why don't you have any is it because you don't want babies or what?
You could always try reintroducing the trouble molly now she'll come back and won't have any territory of her own while it may make her fight for some hopefully she'll calmly slot in (IN theory!!)

 

[ostrow]

I had a similar situation with a similar combination in a 6G tank. My problem was probably overcrowding (I had males, so that wasn't the issue). Others here told me mollies can be aggressive. While that seems to fly in the face of the generally accepted wisdom, reports on fish behavior have convinced me of this:

... on the issue of aggressiveness, anything can happen. One person's "passive, great community fish" becomes another's terror.

If you have decorations in the tank, try moving stuff around, adding or shifting hiding spaces. That CAN help.

In the case of the aggressiveness in my 29G tank, that, and time, did help. In there, I had a temporarily psychopathic platy.

Good luck.