New Molly Owner - Need Some Advice

[maurap]

Hello all
 
I just signed up for the forums here hoping to get some advice. I've had many fish before, but always beta fish. For the holidays I received a nice 5 gallon starter tank to get some different fish. So I went to the pet store and immediately fell in love with molly fish. I set up my tank, got their heater, everything set and running, and then purchased three mollies, as 3 was the most the pet store recommended. I have a black molly, a sunshine lyretail, and a Dalmatian molly.
 
But I'm having a bit of trouble with the Dalmatian molly. She seems overly aggressive towards the other fish. I'm pretty sure they are all three female, I've been staring at them to check for any "boy parts". Though I can't be 100% certain. The lyretail and the black molly get along fine. But the Dalmatian will charge the others often. At first it only happend when I was feeding them, but now as I've been watching them for a while (they sit near my computer desk so I can see them), she's doing it constantly. More often to the black one, but also to the sunshine.
 
I'm not quite sure what to do about it. Their tank is clean, I've only had them for about a week, week and a half. I'm pretty sure they are getting enough food (when the Dalmatian doesn't try to eat it all), and the temperatures are correct.
 
Any advice is appreciated. If they're just establishing a pecking order and will ease up eventually, I'll be happy, but I don't want the little black one (who gets most of the abuse) to get hurt.
 
However, the past few times she's bullied the black one while feeding, the black one did fight back. 

 

[Ninjouzata]

to TFF! Hope you enjoy it here. Sorry you probably won't like what I'm going to say next.
 
This tank is too small for them, long term anyways. Mollies get chunky and are fairly active. Most recommended tank sizes I see are 20-30g for them.
I imagine this may be part of why they're being aggressive. There is not enough space.
 
Your water quality is likely not going to be in good shape either, depending on how you cycled the tank. If you don't know what cycling is have a read of it HERE.
 
I'd recommend taking them back to the LFS and getting something better suited, or upgrading to a bigger tank.
It'd be best to take them back to the store right now anyways so that you can cycle the tank without putting stress on them.
 
Hope I havn't come off as rude or harsh, I don't mean to be at all. Just want what is best for your fish and better for you to know these things now rather than later!

 

[mrstwalker]

I agree that the tank is too small for 3 mollies. You could possibly take the dalmatian back to the pet store, or all 3 and possibly go with some guppies or platy fish. Good luck!  

 

[the_lock_man]

Hi, welcome to TFF.
 
I agree that 5 gallons is too small for mollies, but it isn't necessarily contributing to the aggression - some mollies are just vicious little blighters anyway.
 
We have a forum section dedicated to nano-tanks (ie 10Gal and under) a little further down the list. There is a pinned topic there with various suggestions as to what fish are suitable for your tank (you'll also notice that platies are not amongst the suggestions ). Have a look through that, see what floats your boat. But definitely take the mollies back.