Dalmation Molly Vs. Balloon Molly

[zochick]

Hi guys!

Well I've had my tank for about 6 months now and everything has been going great. The tank looks awesome, the plants all look healthy and my fish all seem happy...


except! I have 3 neon gouramis and one dalmation molly. they get along great, chase each other around in a playful manner. I thought I would get another molly to keep pepperface some company.

I got a orange fatty balloon molly, he's adorable and seems really friendly. but I noticed that he keeps to himself a lot. he stays in opposite sides of the tank than the other fish and hides a lot.

Today I noticed that Pepperface (female molly) was chasing Stripes (male balloon molly) around like crazy. Stripes seems very agitated and stressed out. Pepperface picks on him any chance she gets and she is very aggressive towards him.

I'm starting to feel bad and I'm wondering if I should separate them. I know for a fact pepperface is female and stripes is male. I always thought the male would chase the female around if he wanted to mate.. but it seems like pepperface just doesn't like stripes!

is this common?

 

[zuulan]

How big is your tank? Do you have plenty of plants/hiding places?

 

[OldMan47]

It is not unusual for a particular molly to take on a dominant role. The fish's gender doesn't seem to matter.

 

[zochick]

How big is your tank? Do you have plenty of plants/hiding places?

My tank is a 10 gallon. I have a few hiding places (castles, etc) I have a lot of nice live plants too, some floating some in the sand. the molly likes to hide around the floating plants or in the castle somewhere or around the filter.

It is not unusual for a particular molly to take on a dominant role. The fish's gender doesn't seem to matter.

Hmm, okay that makes sense. Should I be worried at all? can the dominant molly hurt the other? or is she just chasing him around and giving him a hard time?

 

[cryton 5]

hi ,i had a smiliar situation with previous mollie's one more active then the othe two kept nickung food drove me crazy ,kept in net too give others a fighting chance in end it's sometime 's the strongest who survive in the end the batch all died ,
learning the hard way is not all way's good but you cannot mother now ive got all on even keel ,patience watch the one's you feel are being agressive you cann't get in there and help but a net or two worked for me best of luck cry !