fighting mollies

[Ford]

we had 2 lyretail mollies (m&f) judith and magdalana, 2 swordtails (m&f) lilo and noni, and a balloon molly (f) squeaker. we decided to get another swordtail (f) scrump and two more balloon molliies (m&f), wrench and metallica. they were getting along good; wrench was trying to get fishy lovin from both females , until last night. judith has been the dominent molly since the day we got her and wrench was attacking her last night and today. we don't know if he was trying to take over the dominent spot or if he was just trying to get with her and she didn't want to. he would chase her and then they would swim in a circle while he hit her with his fin. then they were biting each other's fins. after a while he would pick on magdalana (yes, we know its a girl's name, but it's cool!). today we found magdalana on the bottom of the tank swimming sideways. so we took him out and put some salt in with him. what can we do about wrench and his picking on the other fish

kristyne and james

 

[saxxy]

Would it not be a good idea to separate the troublesome molly from the other fish before he does any more damage?

 

[PJGuppies]

I have the same problem as you Ford....I have a HUGE Silver female Molly that is terrorizing(sp?) my tank!!!

She is trying to kill my Guppies, chasing my other 2 female Mollies and has had many battle royals with my Male Black Lyretail Molly I have even seen her trying to pick a fight with "Fred" my Pleco

My Guppies are sooo scare they hardly move I love fish but this fish I HATE!!!

I dont know what to do with her, I dont have a place to put her

I am hoping when I set my 25 gal up and it cycles and I put everyone in there, everything will be alright, I will have lots of plants and caves so maybe the other fish can hide from her!!

And get this when I got her my daughter named her "Angel"... Boy was that the wrong name for her!!!! I think we should have called her "Devil" cause thats excatly what she is!!!

BTW I cant take her back to the IFS cause my duaghter freaked out when I said I was going to do that!!! So I dont want a heartbroken kid!!!

 

[Kissifish]

Let's face it. As much as we all like mollies, they can become the "terror of the tank". I've had at least 2 or 3 mollies since I was a child and all of them were hyper, fin-biting pains. Adding more just seems to settle down the nipper only to let another one start nipping. My advice: give them their own tank with a plec or 2.

 

[snowrat2004]

one thing that you could try (it worked when i had a problem molly) is take out the problem fish, rearange the decorations and let the other fish set up their territories, this took about two hours with mine. the way you can tell is the fish will not be "searching" and will be acting normal, unlike right after you rearange. then put the problem back in, if it doesnt work you can see if your LFS will trade him for another one (that is hopefully calm/non-nipper), mine offered but told me to try that first.

 

[Ford]

thanx guys for all your input! it really helps to have others to talk to about our little ones! we are working on getting another tank to separte the trouble maker and juith seems to have given up her spot as top dog to wrench, her mate magdalana ended up dying on her and shes been in hiding ever since. but you guys are awsome and it really helped!!! thanx a whole big bunches!!!

kristyne

 

[Aqua_Princess64]

I think you should probably isolate the fish.

 

[Jo]

Yeah, I agree with all of you guys....I have a REALLY evil molly too, she has killed off two of my other mollies by all af the behaviour that you have mentioned above...I tried seperating and re-arranging, unfortunately it didn't work...I think that getting a seperate tank set up permenantly is probably a good idea...

My molly is pregnant and I'm hoping that when she drops this lot of fry she will calm down a little bit...if not it's into another tank, complete with all her babies, to see if having lots of mollies with her helps..if it doesn't then I'm afraid that I'm going to have to take her back to the fish shop before my housemate kills her like she keeps threatening (Joke btw )

I had no idea when I bought the molly that they were so evil, I wouldn't reccomend that another newbie buys one, as it is just to distressing to see your first fish being killed, or having to kill them yourself (at any stage in your fishkeeping career really!)

 

[haaris]

separating and rearanging worked for my baloon molly!!
but not for my double tail it took her a few days then she
just bacame normal
they all have thier own personalities