Aggresive Female Molly

[smeed]

We have a 30 gallon tank with a few guppys, corys, and one male molly and one female. Yesterday we brought home another female. Now today, she is chasing and nipping at the male. Just wondering what we should do, we do have a birthing net to seperate them but I would rather not. I just don't know if the stress is going to kill him. The new molly also keeps hitting herself on the bridge that we have in there. Is any of this normal? lol. Just wondering if we need to get rid of the new female, or if things should calm down. Thank you!

 

[Neptune54]

Welcome to the forum!

Is the female physically hurting the male in any way, such as nipping and damaging his fins? If so, I would get rid of her, since keeping an aggressive fish probably won't improve or help anything in your tank. If she's not hurting him, give matters a little while to settle down. She might just be trying to express her place in the hierchy. If the problem doesn't solve itself, I'm afraid that you might have to find a new home for her.

 

[the_lock_man]

This is why I stopped keeping mollies, you do occasionally get nasty ones. Unfortunately, it's a tough choice, take her back, or wait and see.

 

[smeed]

Well, things have changed now. It looks like the new female has calmed down, but unfortunately the male is now dying. I'm not really sure what's happening. He is on his side gasping for air. This happened once before early on in the tank, and we thought it was due to new tank syndrome. It looks like the scales on his nose are discolored, and maybe dry. please help.

 

[Neptune54]

Did the fish who got the disease first die? Do you have a quarantine tank? If he got his fins torn, it's possible that there's a bacterial infection or something along those lines.