Black Moll question

[ashtin49]

I posted this in chit chat probably should have posted here.


I posted a bit ago about one Black Molly bugging my other Black Molly. This is still happening. One seems to almost swipe the other with it's tail and will NOT leave the other one alone! UGH! I thought they were supposed to be friendly fish? I can't tell but they both seem to be girls? Any ideas why this is happening?

Thanks!

 

[Tempestuousfury]

Well, the first thing that comes to mind is that they're of different genders. Another reason could be that they are both males and are vying for territory. If you want to know the genders of the fish, the anal fin, (single fen near tail and behind pec. fins) is fan-like in famle and rod-like in males; the females are also usually bigger than males (at least platies, anyways). Hope this helped...

 

[MAM]

could be a number of things. first things first, figure out for sure if they are males or females, then we can give you better advice

 

[Juggernaut22988]

Could be mating...

 

[ashtin49]

Ok, I finally figured out they are both females.

 

[MAM]

okay, two females. that rules out mating, which is good, because if they were a male and a female, the only solution would be to get another female. but with two females, whats most likely going on is one is establishing dominance over the other. mollies are a lot like dogs in that they develop a hierarchy, an order amongst themselves, and one is always "top dog", that one is the one that gets to eat first and such. my males do this all the time. i may have to find a new home for one of them. now, you don't have to worry much about actual physical harm but you do need to watch out as the stress from the bullying can actually cause your other molly to die (i've seem it happen, not a pretty thing). you could try either getting rid of one of the females or get a male which will distract the dominant female from her bullying, hopefully. though that may not solve it either. mollies aren't necessarily schooling fish, but i've found they are less likely to bully in larger numbers (i have three females and they get along fine, even though one is dominant, the other two have learned to stay out of her way and use the males for cover when need be). mollies are listed as peaceful tropical community fish, but they're not really even semi aggressive, more of something between semi-aggro and community (a category that doesn't really exist). sometimes they'll be peaceful and fine with each otehr and other fish, at other times theyre almost like throwing a male betta in a fancy guppy tank
hope your situation works its self out

 

[aquarius]

i've read somewhere that mollies are "spirited" fish. that's between semi-agressive and peaceful

 

[MAM]

i've read somewhere that mollies are "spirited" fish. that's between semi-agressive and peaceful

"spirited"
thats a nice way to put it