Bettas With Silver Molly

[TheChards]

Hi guys,

My wife and I have just moved most of our fish from one tank to our new one and are now left with the smaller tank (60-litres) containing just a couple of Upsidedown Catfish. She would like to stock this tank with a small school of Silver Molly and would also like to have a Betta with them if possible. I'd be surprised if the catfish will cause much of a problem but I would be grateful if anyone could advice as to whether Silver Molly and Bettas can live happily together?

Thanks,
Dan

 

[saltynay]

Silver mollies can be nippy I would go for a smaller livebearer like endlers or guppies (with guppies though the tails should not be too long as the betta may attack them) its really russian roulette on personalities between the fish and whether they will get a long. There are accounts of one bullying the other and vice versa however if both are added at the same time then they will generally get a long better.

 

[LionMom]

Personally, I would not do it. They SAY mollies are a community, peaceful fish, but that has not been my experience. Years ago I had a gang of mollies kill a VERY large angel fish - went after her eyes.

It took me the LONGEST time to figure out what was going on and by the time I did, it was too late.

Everybody's experiences are different, but that was mine. Since then, NO MORE mollies for me!!!!

 

[TheChards]

Hey LionMom,

Sorry to hear about your Angel Fish.

Were the Mollies and the Angel Fish introduced to the tank at the same time?

 

[LionMom]

Hey LionMom,

Sorry to hear about your Angel Fish.

Were the Mollies and the Angel Fish introduced to the tank at the same time?

No - the mollies WERE there first, but the angel was SO MUCH larger I really did not anticipate any problems. Broke my heart, it did - Duchess was a HUGE angel and SO beautiful!!!

I know some people adore mollies, but not me.

 

[ReMz]

Sorry to hear that Lionmom... that's a major bummer. .... and to think that mollies were the culprit, wow.

I would avoid putting silver mollies and a betta together. You COULD try it under very very very very very very very close supervision. Did i mention VERY close.

Best solution would be to not mix possibly explosive ingredients - even carefully.

Edit: To be more exact, you will probably end up with a betta with nipped fins. Or you might end up with a few dead mollies. On the rare occasion, nothing may happen.

 

[saltynay]

I added my betta to my tank 2 hours ago and I have been keeping a very very close eye on the guppies and the betta. I have spent about an hour to an hour and a half actually with my nose pressed against the glass, I would reccomend you do the same, I haven't yet seen any aggressive behaviour except for the betta flaring once when a guppy accidentaly cornered it in a cave but I will still remain looking into the tank often to ensure there are no issues.

 

[TheChards]

I guess there are no completely "safe" options when it comes to finding suitable tankmates for Bettas. I have read that Bettas wouldn't get on with Guppy because they look too similar but it must depend on the fish.

I hadn't heard of Molly being particularly aggressive though, and am hoping that as long as they're added at the same time as the Betta that they should get along OK. If they don't, I can move them into another tank but I'm hoping I won't have to. So my plan is to:

- add both the Mollies and the Betta at the same time
- keep a very close eye on how they appear to get on at first
- move the Mollies if there are any problems

Does this sound reasonable?

Thanks,
Dan

 

[saltynay]

Yes sounds reasonable and logical

 

[ReMz]

I added my betta to my tank 2 hours ago and I have been keeping a very very close eye on the guppies and the betta. I have spent about an hour to an hour and a half actually with my nose pressed against the glass, I would reccomend you do the same, I haven't yet seen any aggressive behaviour except for the betta flaring once when a guppy accidentaly cornered it in a cave but I will still remain looking into the tank often to ensure there are no issues.

Give it 48 hours. you will probably end up with a disaster. You've been warned that guppies and bettas are not a good mix. Be negligent to proper advice if you wish. You "watching" for 1 to 1 1/2 hours is pretty negligible.

I guess there are no completely "safe" options when it comes to finding suitable tankmates for Bettas. I have read that Bettas wouldn't get on with Guppy because they look too similar but it must depend on the fish.

I hadn't heard of Molly being particularly aggressive though, and am hoping that as long as they're added at the same time as the Betta that they should get along OK. If they don't, I can move them into another tank but I'm hoping I won't have to. So my plan is to:

- add both the Mollies and the Betta at the same time
- keep a very close eye on how they appear to get on at first
- move the Mollies if there are any problems

Does this sound reasonable?

Thanks,
Dan

Yes sounds reasonable and logical

You can give it a go. Upon any issues, isolate the betta. If you have an agressive betta, you can forget housing it in a community tank.

 

[saltynay]

I said so far bear in mind the betta arrived at 7 am and entered the tank at 8 I then was next to the tank (on the computer) until 1pm then had to go out for 4 hours then again was next to the tank for another 6 hours. Although the betta appears shy I have checked every part of his tail for nips and the guppies. Also today I will be rearranging the tank and placing the betta in first for approx 8 hours as before the guppies were in for a day before the betta, so that he is able to mark a territory.

I have followed advice and the advice was that its dependent on the fishes personality and to watch them closely for any signs of dominance through physical bullying and hiding instead of being active. The guppy females I will chuck out to a friend in an instant if the betta is stressed.

 

[ReMz]

I said so far bear in mind the betta arrived at 7 am and entered the tank at 8 I then was next to the tank (on the computer) until 1pm then had to go out for 4 hours then again was next to the tank for another 6 hours. Although the betta appears shy I have checked every part of his tail for nips and the guppies. Also today I will be rearranging the tank and placing the betta in first for approx 8 hours as before the guppies were in for a day before the betta, so that he is able to mark a territory.

I have followed advice and the advice was that its dependent on the fishes personality and to watch them closely for any signs of dominance through physical bullying and hiding instead of being active. The guppy females I will chuck out to a friend in an instant if the betta is stressed.

I bow to your experience. It must have taken so many hours.

 

[oscars r ace]

i HATE guppys, i had 7, they stripped my male betta completely, that was before i discovered this forum! funny enough, i bought a south american puffer, thought id try him with the guppys in a seperate tank before adding him to the community tank, and it was the guppys that attacked the puffer not the other way round, to my amazement!

Anyway, i have 2 mollys in my tank with my male, they get along fine, i do have a lot of plants and stuff tho so i spose they can hide. i don't know if it would be different having a school of them, i think being in a school makes them more aggressive. How about a school of corys?



Tom

 

[saltynay]

I bow to your experience. It must have taken so many hours.

I don't have much hands on experience with tropical fish but I have been reading and absorbing every scrap of information that I can for the last month. Everyone has to start somewhere and rather then criticising my advice with no constructive comments let us debate a little which is the whole point of a forum. Just because someone has kept fish for a number of years does not mean they are doing it correctly, so in my opinion hands on experience and theory are on equal terms.

 

[TheChards]

I guess most people learn best from their mistakes and then (hopefully) not repeating them. The trouble with forums like this is that there is so much expert advice flying around that people can either go against it and learn for themselves the hard way or follow everyone else's advice and come to rely on it without really learning anything. I'd never ignore someone's advice simply because I think they're wrong or that I know better, but in order to further my own knowledge of fishkeeping I feel that it's kind of necessary to make a few mistakes along the way even if I don't necessarily have to by consistently following the advice of others. Of course, this is just my opinion and I wouldn't get offended if nobody else agrees with me on this!