Can fish get jealous .......

[skimpy]

Hi guys, been away from TFF for a while (you know never enough time for ME! just doing what I want like sitting on the computer all day chatting to ya all).

Anyway, I had three silver Molly's but the male one eventually went back to the LFS because he was so agressive to the two females. Any way these two females left were a little agressive to each other after the male was returned and then settled down for a while (except for feeding time, they showed their agression then).

Well today I noticed that the two of them were really sparring, nose to tail, round and round in circles. It went on for quite a few minutes and only stopped when the Male Black Molly nose dived in between them and jabbed at each one. They then swam off into seperate parts of the tank. One had fins clamped and looked very sheepish and hid, the other quite puffed up and sort of strutting around. After a few minutes I then noticed the Male was trying to mate with the one strutting around. ) It made me wonder a couple of things.....

Is this normal behaviour for molly's or do my two females just not get along ??

Could the female's be trying to get the Male's attention and could one get jealous if the other succeeds ??

Should the clamped fins worry me or are they clamped just because she got scared or lost a fight. ( I do know all my readings and water is fine).

Any comments, stories about similar molly behaviour or suggestions greatfully received.

Thanks Guys

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

My Mollies do it all the time, the one who goes off with the clamped fins is usually the one who lost, dont worry about it..they will do it alot more. You may be right in saying there trying to get the males attention. My Males do it alot more than my females do..but neither one of them seems to want to back down

 

[gadazobe]

Whenever there are a school of the same kind of fish, they develop a "pecking order" - who gets a mate first, who gets the best bits of food, the best hiding place, etc. That's what your fish are doing. It's not only mollies that do it but other fish also.

 

[Vip]

i think they get p@#$%d off with each, and they get even more mad when it comes to eating, when my oscar gets all the cubes of blood worms my blood parrot tends to bite him and push him.

 

[skimpy]

Thanks for your replies, I find it really interesting to hear your stories on how your fish behave. I can find a lot of information about disease, or descriptions of fish in books and on the net, but fish behaviour is something i can't find to read about.

If anyone else has any stories about how their fish behave, I would love to hear about it