Color Bias! Need Help!

[rrey82]

I am fairly new to this forum. Just recently I bought some balloon mollies because they are my favorite tropical liveberaing fish. I also have a green male sailfin mollies and two females. These mollies especially the male and the bigger female love to harass my white balloon mollies. I bought two white balloon mollies and one orange. After observing them awhile my green mollies started chasing one of my white ballon mollies and attacking it while the other white balloon mollie was hiding in plants. I moved it to a breeding net just to keep her away from being harrassed and killed like what happened a week ago with another white balloon mollie that was pregnant. All of a sudden the green mollies found the other white balloon mollie and they did the same so I also put her in the breeding net. Why are they harrassing only my white balloon mollies and not my orange ones that I have in which I have four orange and a black balloon male sailfin mollie. Has anyone had this happen to them? How can this problem be solved? I need help so I don't stress out my white balloon mollies and have them die on me!

 

[ncjharris]

Hi and welcome.

We're gonna need some more info before a diagnosis is possible.

Ok,
whats the size of your tank?
what fish, and how many of each have you got in there?
what are your water readings (ammonia, etc)
whats your tank maintainance regime like (cleaning, feeding etc)

although I don't really think many of the above will have much to do with whats going on, it will help.

My gut feeling (although I don't know the size of the tank) is a terratorial issue - although I'm not too hot on molly's and I didn't think that was usually an issue.............

 

[Annastasia]

It sounds like you have a lot of Mollies in a tank together. That can cause aggression right there, especially with Sailfins. Also, what's your male to female ratio? And the sexes of your Balloons?

 

[rrey82]

I have a 30 gallon tank! Right now I have two mail sailfins (one orange and one green), I have two female green sailfins and two sand dust mollies and one creamsicle. I have six female balloon mollies and one orange balloon male sailfin mollie. I also have two female black mollies and also one female dalmation lyretail mollie. So right now I have three males and 14 females. I heard that you you should have four females for every male. At the moment I took out my two white balloon mollies and put the two green female sailfin mollies in one breeding net and in the other breeding net my male green sailfin mollie. This type of mollie is the only one that are harrassing my white balloon mollies. I might just get rid of them or get them a new tank. I clean my filters about once a month and I keep the filter for about two months before changing. I clean my tank about once a week with a 25% water change. The only thing that is way high are my nitrates which I buy the most lethal stuff to fix that problem but it never works. I have not had too many problems but I am tired of buying these fish and about four days later when I can't take them back for a refund they die. I know my fish have plenty of room to swim around in but most of the time they like to clutter around the same area at times. I am planning to get a 125 gallon tank as soon as I move in about four months.

 

[Annastasia]

I think you have too many Mollies in a smallish space. You WILL see territorial issues with the Sailfins when there are lots of Mollies in their space. I would seperate them out, or get them a new tank, but definitely take them out of the Breeding Net soon. The longer you leave them in there, the more stressed they will become, and eventually they could die. Sailfins are just too big for Breeder Nets. I know you are trying to do the best you can for your fish. And that's good, but you'll need to sort out the Sailfins soon.

Are your white Balloon Mollies pregnant? As that could have something to do with the chasing.