Molly killed the swordtail :(

[fawnmodel]

Well our naughty female Dalmation Balloon Molly,

- killed our new male swordtail

She has a tendency to bully others, most of them outrun her but she was biting his sword when she could and tore his tail fin. Still chasing him, two days later he was hiding in the ship I have, and in plants, to get away from her. I was hoping since she chases the others too...he wouldn't stress too much . Well he died today. He was pretty timid

The only other fish she spends alot of time chasing is the male Sailfin Molly. He doesn't take her abuse so much, he will raise his sail and outrun her, but he approaches her too. He is getting more tolerant of her too.

I think we are going to add some more danios, she leaves them alone and they tend to distract aggressive fish, so I hope she mellows out. It may be that she is preg again as her belly is fattening up....so we shall see! There are lots of hiding spots and plants in the tank....

 

[aquagirl]

Oh yeah?! Welll, Video killed the Radio Star, so mleh!
I'm sorry. That probably wasn't funny. But it just came to mind. Anyway... I'm sorreh about Mr. Swordie! And, my balloon molly is expecting fry soon as well! How awesomeful.

 

[fawnmodel]

Ok I read alot of other relevant posts on bully fish tonight.

I've finished the tank cleanings, and spent some time sitting watching her and she was still beating the crap out of the majority of other fish. We moved her to the breeding hut for now.

If anybody has any helpful input on what to do it would be appreciated. Otherwise we will leave her in it for a few days. And then return her to the tank after. If she ends up continuing when we put her back I'll take her back to the petstore. Our children love her so hopefully it will all be ok.

 

[glolite]

I think mollys are the worst bullies of the livebearers. One of my silver molls bullies the other female and the siver male. She is also pregnant so I wonder if it is a defence thing, you know, feeling broody, very moody!! The male still pesters her and she gets furious with him so I'm tempted to remove him for a while, at least until she (hopefully) gives birth.

 

[Ddraig Goch]

Hi, sorry to hear the bad news.
Mollies and swordtails don't get on very well together, your fish shop should not have sold you both together.
What type are your other fish?
You are right to separate her from the others, it might stop her behaiviour but if not I'm sure your LFS will take her back.

 

[afireinside]

huh, no offence, but i think ur molly just might be bad, i used to have a molly community tank and i had four, a female black, 24 karat, and dalmation and one male silver. but excpect the male molly to bug the pregnet molly during birth. anyways, i am sory for ur loss

 

[Angry_Platy]

If anybody has any helpful input on what to do it would be appreciated.

Try rearranging the tank a little while she is in the breeding hut thing. Then the other fish can get confident in their "new" environment and the bully will be the new kid on the block when released back with the others and will hopefully tone down the behaviour a bit

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I agree with angry platy, you could also try buying another female while she is isolated so that the current pecking orders between the fish are re-arranged and she has to start off at the bottom of the pecking order again and behave a bit better, but yes mollys can be quite boisterous at times- my favororite gold and balck molly female is the top of the pecking order in my tank and used to be a bit fearsome but as she has grown older she has matured a bit and no longer harrasses any fish, although your situation does sound more dire than what i had.
Not all mollys are like this and like bettas their personalitys varys greatly from molly to molly but on the whole they are very friendly fish and do not cause problems for others.

 

[Elisabeth83]

I've got a 27 gallon tank with balloon mollies and regular mollies and they all get along. I am so surprised to hear that they can be bullies I've had mine for a long time and they are the sweetest little things. I've only ever seen my males chase eachother but not much.

I never knew they could be so vicious Maybe it has something to do with mixing different fish together? Like I said I only keep mollies in the 27 gallon so maybe they are happier with their own kind