Fish Bullying

[aquamanA]

I have this kind of fish I dont know what it is called but I bought him my pet shop owner said that the fish would pick on the other fish but not too much he is not aggressive he does not attack other fish but he picks on other fish like chases them is there anything I can do??

 

[annabel_roo]

How long have you had it, sometimes new fish chase other around and visa versa when you first get them! Can you put a pic of it up or describe it, might be able to help more then xx

 

[Rodders]

Get a bigger tank or get rid of him...

 

[black molly3]

i would either take it back and get another fish or iccolate it in a breeding trap


black molly3

 

[aquamanA]

no, come on I cant do that poor little bugga he is my baby he would hate to be lost without an owner there to take care of hime here I will try and get a photo of him herethis little bugga.....tell me what they are???.....

 

[Dubby]

no, come on I cant do that poor little bugga he is my baby he would hate to be lost without an owner there to take care of hime here I will try and get a photo of him herethis little bugga.....tell me what they are???.....

Give your other fish lots of places to hide such as plants, caves etc. Giving these might help your fish (the bossy one) establish his/her territory as well.

 

[Marcos]

To be honest isolating him won't change anything. You've got to take him out of the trap sooner or later and he won't change. What is it? I had a problem plattybut he grew out of it.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I have this kind of fish I dont know what it is called but I bought him my pet shop owner said that the fish would pick on the other fish but not too much he is not aggressive he does not attack other fish but he picks on other fish like chases them is there anything I can do??

Well can you describe what the fish looks like and how big it is etc so we can help you ID him, its imposible to give you any accurate advice on what to do with him/her without knowing what type of fish it is- some fish are just plain agressive by nature, while others display agressiveness only towards certain types of fish, and then you have fish that are agressive because of the tank enviroment and stocking/tank mates etc...
How many gallons is your tank as well and what types and how many fish do you have in it plus any other ones that you dont know what they are?

Most fish that start to bully others usually dont stop until large measures are taken to prevent them from bullying, like separating them from the victum fish etc..

 

[Cheese Specialist]

We definatley need more details before being able to give accurate advice but often rearranging the tank can help.

Although to be honest if it is an aggressive species or your fish are incompatible, it really won't help much.

 

[Kitikat]

Yes I had the same problem with some fish I bought recently. I bought 3 baloon mollys on a special offer buy two get one free!! big mistake. I think I have two males and one female. One male fish is very dominant, at first he was pecking the two others then he stopped pecking one of them and seems to be following the orange one all over the place and never leaves her side.

He had the other one backed into a corner and every time he came out he would go for it. So I put the bully in a nursery net and he went berzerk, I felt awful. But it was a joy to see the other fish swimming around freely. The thing is that when this one is with the other one they do swim beautifully together they are in synchrony. Also the other fish kept coming to the nursery net, although the bullied fish did come out and swim about more, he still kept to one corner of the tank.

So I decided to put the bullied fish in a quaranteen tank and put the bully back with the other fish. The bullied fish is very subdued in the quaranteen tank but, what else can I do, perhaps I will get another baloon molly but should i get another female?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Yes I had the same problem with some fish I bought recently. I bought 3 baloon mollys on a special offer buy two get one free!! big mistake. I think I have two males and one female. One male fish is very dominant, at first he was pecking the two others then he stopped pecking one of them and seems to be following the orange one all over the place and never leaves her side.

He had the other one backed into a corner and every time he came out he would go for it. So I put the bully in a nursery net and he went berzerk, I felt awful. But it was a joy to see the other fish swimming around freely. The thing is that when this one is with the other one they do swim beautifully together they are in synchrony. Also the other fish kept coming to the nursery net, although the bullied fish did come out and swim about more, he still kept to one corner of the tank.

So I decided to put the bullied fish in a quaranteen tank and put the bully back with the other fish. The bullied fish is very subdued in the quaranteen tank but, what else can I do, perhaps I will get another baloon molly but should i get another female?

You should really have at least 2-3females per male, harrassment in livebearers from lack of females is quite common and will not stop until the gender ratio has been sorted, although of course you need to take into consideration wether you have the space for more females- if you cannot find the space, i really advise you take one of the males back to the lfs and replace him with a female .
You also need to take into consideration that mollys can have alot of fry every month or so, so you need to decide what you will do with the fry if you get any before you find them as its easy to end up with a badly over stocked tank due to breeding problems. If you decide to just have male mollys, ideally you should have 5males as it will help spread out agression between them .

 

[wendywc]

If he is agressive and you really have to keep him, you better save up for another tank. Have you figured out what he is yet? What other fish do you have? And what's your tank size?

 

[aquamanA]

my tank size is actually 1 in a half meter 1 foot and I think the fish is a, crap sorry guys I need to check
he is pretty large for a small tank like that I am not getting rid of him becasue of his cuteness I have to reward him for that he does not attack other fish he just chases them untill he gets his own territory and thats it. funny little cute bugga he is

 

[dwarfgourami]

You really need to find out what he is; in case, he grows very big, it may not be safe for him to stay in your tank; you wouldn't want your cute fish to suffer from ammonia poison? Then again, he may not be a giant-to-be, but still have special needs; you just can't look after a fish properly if you don't know what he is.

 

[Inchworm]

This thread is pointless and it has gone on for too long. aquamanA, if you would like to identify the fish, you may begin a new thread.