Tropical-community??

[GentleHeart]

I thought molly's were tropical community? meaning not agressive?
i have 2 males and 2 females in the tank but seems one of the males continues to chase the other one all over the tank... i've only had them for about 3 days now.... they were in the same tank at the store and not doing that.
THe one being chased a lot now seems to sit around around the bottom when he's not being chased....doesn't act like he did before
i don' tknow what to do with him but doesn't look like it's good
there are SEVERAL other fish in the tank but none of the others bother each other and the molly's don't pay any attention to them.....or not that i've seen.


GentleHeart

4 Molly's (2m 2f)
9 neon tetra
1plecostomus
3 rainbow shark
3 lamp eye tetra
3 australian rainbows

 

[gixer]

you really need a better ratio of females to males. idealy you need 3 or so females to every male.....if only this was acceptable in our lives too

 

[Cheese Specialist]

Sorry, just noticed you have 3 rainbow sharks. These are meant to be one per tank as they are aggressive with their own kind.

I agree with gixer, you need 2 females to every male or the males will fight with each other over the few females and the females will be constantly harassed by the males.

 

[__guppy_girl__]

Listen my guppy was supposed to have babies today I could tell BUT.....She died and didnt have the babies could I save the babies?

 

[Ben]

with the sharks you must have a group of 6 or more or only 1 because theyre aggresive fish and i had one and he killed my black ghost and my eel

 

[Ron9]

I have a similar problem. Five weeks ago I put two male lyre tail Mollies in a 10 gallon tank - no other fish in there. The Dalmatian is all over the black one - he is constantly putting his face in the black one’s “private area”. He also gets aggressive at feeding time. I started right off the bat showing the Dalmatian how it felt - when I see him get aggressive I get aggressive and he goes to a corner and cowers. The problem is - his memory is about 2 seconds long and he is back at it again.

I have a yellow lyre tail nine days into quarantine (in another tank) hoping it will create a diversion and give the black molly a break. BUT ..... the “now problem” is I can not tell if the yellow molly is male or female - there is nothing in the area were the anal fin (female) / gonopodium (male) should be. I read a (detailed) article that it sometimes takes a long time (maybe even three months) for a male molly to start showing (his gonopodum). Also the late male bloomers grow bigger than the ones that sexually mature in say six weeks. I sure hope that is the case with this yellow lyre tail. I sure don’t want to put a female in a tank with two males.

In my case there is no female in the tank with the two males - yet the Dalmatian is still aggressive. He is a total pest. At first he was smaller than the black one but now is larger. I make sure the black one gets to eat. I am bigger than the Dalmatian so I win the fights lol

 

[Ron9]

I have a rainbow shark in my 55 gallon tank. He thinks he is king of the hill - I am not sure two or three would be a good idea for me. I am sticking to one only. I have had him for six weeks and he is growing like a weed. I am glad the two Rosy Barbs are fast lol.

 

[pendragon]

Just reinforcing what others have said: three rainbow sharks is not such a good idea. They need to be kept alone or in a much larger group.

I'm not the end-all expert on mollies, but you either need several females for each male (and expect the young that will result), or keep only females. Keeping only males, or keeping too low a ratio of females-to-males, will generally result in the emergence of aggression between males.

pendragon!