Need Help With Stocking Please

[AngKat]

Hi all!

I have a 54l tank and yesterday I bought a female balloon molly, a dwarf gourami and a black molly to go with my 5 male guppies and male betta. The gourami and betta hated each other (after googling I realised why) and I suspected the black molly was ill. So today I returned them both and got 2 male balloon mollies (this was before I realised my other balloon was a female!). The 2 new males keep fighting each other and the beta hates them too!! I noticed that it seems his tail has been a little torn an I think one of the new mollies has done it. He has no problems with the female.

So tomorrow I'm going to take the 2 males back, but what can I swap them with? I thought maybe 2 balloon females, but will 3 females fight? Or is there some other kind of fish I could get? I just want them to get on. Removing the betta isn't an option as I don't have the money to do a whole new set up. Please help asap as I'm going at 10am tomorrow.

 

[AngKat]

Anyone? Doing some research and was thinking 1 female platy and 3 Pygmy cories. Any ideas? I don't have sand though.

 

[laura120381]

hi again!

with mollys etc you really need 3 females to each male or they might harass the female to death!! thats about all i know about mollies i'm afraid! it is not likely 3 females would fight if there is no male in the tank. corys should really be kept in groups of 6+ but you might get away with 4 in a tank your size. what substrate do you have? as long as it is quite smooth the corys should be ok although sand is preferred. what about some shrimp?? you could try a group of tetras if your betta is not overly aggresssive.

hope that helps a wee bit??!!



maybe harlequin rasboras (again in groups)?? you'd have to research that one though!!

 

[AquaticAustin]

I have a similar problem to you in that I actually have 3 males to one female ration (backwards lol) and they fight but luckily the less dominant ones just run away and can escape just fine, I also have a 55 gal tank with plenty of places to hide. I would get platys if like them I have 6 and they all get along with everything and eachother and should be ok with your beta. Also for tetras thats possible you could get a few large congo tetras which look great full grown and tap out around 3-4 inches

 

[the_lock_man]

Mollies do have a tendency to be aggressive towards each other, and occasionally other species. I once had a very aggressive female that would bully the other female, but would leave all the other species alone.

If your betta took a dislike to the mollies, I'm amazed he's tolerating the guppies, as they often mistake a guppy's tail for that of another betta. It would be a good idea to watch out for that.

 

[AngKat]

Thank you for the advice. I ended up with a female platy and a female balloon Molly. The betta seems disinterested in them both. My original Molly has spent some time chasing the new one around and the new one has now taken to hiding next to the filter. Hoping it is just curiosity and will settle in a few days.

I think the betta didn't like the male mollies because they were bigger males than him. I don't know. He really doesn't care about the guppies, maybe because they were there 1st. I never knew keeping fish was so complicated!!