Aggressive Female Molly

[FloatyLight]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to keeping tropical fish and very recently bought 3 mollies (1 orange and black female, 1 dalmatian female and a black male) and 2 balloon mollies (one black, one silver, both female). I have found the orange and black female molly is quite aggressive, chasing both my baloon mollies around, especially the silver one. The silver one is now spending some of the time slouching around the bottom of the tank, poor thing. The aggressive behaviour happens throughout the day, not just at feeding time. So far I have seen no fin nipping, just chasing with occassional body clashing. I do not believe she is pregnant as I can see no dark patch behind her anal fin and she is not plump. My male is showing no interest in her either lol! My tank is 60 litres so I do not believe over-crowding is the problem either.

I am wondering if it would be beneficial to net her and keep her away from the group for a few hours and see if she improves. I also wonder if it would be kinder to take her back to the pet shop where I bought her. Also, would the pet shop do this and offer a replacement?

 

[nosoup4you]

I find that molly's personalities vary greatly from one fish to the other. I have one female that is so mean that she has to be kept separately from the rest except when breeding her. She is so aggressive that she has even gone so far as to stress another fish to death. I doubt that removing her for awhile would do much good, she would probably revert back to her old ways after a brief readjustment period.