Aggressive Male Molly?

[taggart2004@ukonline.co.uk]

Hi all

Although I have been using this site for many months to get great information this is my first post.

I have had a Dalmatian Molly for a few months now, since introducing him to a community tank (Ruby Shark, Neons, tetras, swordtails and Clown roaches) I have lost a number of fish.

4 Female mollys (2 brought with him and a further 2 at a later stage) and 1 male and 2 female swordtail when I was on holiday. I found all the Mollys bodies but not the swordtails.

I had 2 week feeders in the tank and a timer set for the lights.

The water tests are all fine and the molly does not seam to cause any problem to the other fish when I am in the room.

Any ideas

Thanks

Iain

 

[Corleone]

My friend's molly is aggressive around food, but not particularly dangerous. I could see it hurting small fish like neons, but other mollys and swordtails should be able to take whatever he could give. Could be a disease that took out a chunk of fish while you were gone, or maybe something went wrong with the two week feeder that caused an ammonia spike. I've had that happen once - lost a handful of fish, but the ammonia was back to 0 when I got home after four days. The only sign that it had spiked was that nitrate was around 80, where it's usually not over 30 after a week.

Depending on how big they are, the shark or clown loaches could well be capable of killing tank mates before the molly.