Super Aggressive Molly?

[juhason]

So I have recently bought 2 dwarf gouramis and 2 golden lyretail mollies, and they are accompanying my very placid firemouth in a 35 gallon. All the fish at the moment are pretty young. Anyways, the male lyretail molly is VICIOUS. He is ruthlessly chasing my dwarf gouramis, and as they are all new fish, I think the gouramis are just not comfortable enough yet to fight back. Either that or they are not mean whatsoever. I have even seen my molly go after my firemouth, but then the firemouth flared at him and he left it alone since. I am soon getting more females in hope to distract him from the other fish. Can anyone suggest anything else I can do to lower his aggression? He seriously reminds me of the convict I JUST moved out of there in hopes of a less aggressive tank. 

Also, are they capable of any serious damage? Cause usually my gourami only swims away after 3 or 4 pecks, and it doesn't look as if he is being hurt, just bothered.  Thanks in advance!

 

[gizzmo341]

i dont know much with mollies, but i would try adding in some places to hide and and call his territory

 

[Doomchibi]

I have had some annoying mollies, but I very much doubt they are capable of harming any fish that are bigger than they are. Our guppies do more damage to eachother than mollies ever have. Maybe you should add more plants or wood, decor etc to break up line of sight a bit? Is your other molly a female? I'd say try getting another female like you had mentioned and hope he settles down a bit.

 

[antoniolee]

I have female black molly who constantly chases my male dalmation molly for this past months but no damage on his scales or fins at all.
I think mine is only playing. but I think you should separate him the stress might kill the gourami.

 

[the_lock_man]

In my experience, mollies can be horrible little things.
 
To be honest, I'd take the gouramis back, and get something more robust, like tiger barbs

 

[juhason]

Thanks for the replies everyone! I did get more females and he still chases but not nearly as drastically as before, cause he is much more focused on the other mollies now. I just recently removed one gourami as well, but for other reasons (serpae tetras randomly decided they like his fins, and he is too timid to fight back. The other gourami is a king. Not as aggressive as the firemouth but aggressive enough to stand his ground against the firemouth.)

 

[ray311]

I have a bothersome black male Molly who chases my other fish regardless of what they are and after much observation i have concluded that he is chasing them when the other fish are pooing! Lol weird, i know. I dont know why but he doesnt harm anyone.

 

[juhason]

Lol! 

 I have heard of mollies being very gregarious eaters, maybe he thinks its food!

 

[This Old Spouse]

I had a molly who killed anything he could. I got six of them at the LFS and he'd killed two of them by the time I got them home. I eventually had to destroy him. It was awful. I'll never have them again!

 

[juhason]

I had a molly who killed anything he could. I got six of them at the LFS and he'd killed two of them by the time I got them home. I eventually had to destroy him. It was awful. I'll never have them again!

Oh my. 

 That sounds horrible. IME now,  all mollies are aggressive and you may get the occasional peaceful one, rather than vice versa. This is what I have observed from the various mollies I went through.

 

[spencer_41188]

i personally have mollies, 8 of them but I was told by a lfs worker that having 1 male to 3-4 females will keep them distracted I have 1 male creamsicle lyre-tail one male dalmation lyre-tail , 1 creamsicle lyre-tail female 1, silver lyre-tail female 1, black lyre-tail female , 2 female dalmation lyre-tails and 1, gold dust lyre-tail molly that seem to get on fine, with 4 platy's and 4 guppies, but my creamsicle male has courted/mated with atleast 3 females so id say he's the alpha-fish