Tank Mates For An Agressive Molly?

mwood2 · Jan 23, 2009

well I am looking into my next fish and have been buuut I may need to change my choice. It seems that the Adult Molly is agressive again or rather has been off and on I now am trying think think of an explanation. From what I have seen she goes after fish that are smaller then herself. Also she tends to leave bottom feeders alone as well since she usually doesn't bother ADF or Oto's. The fry are around 1/4 to 16 of her size and she tnds to chase them alot. I may just move them into my other tanks and give away. She also may be pregnant again since she does look it. All of her previous tank mates have been smaller so I think that and pregnancy is the culprit. Now what I am thinking are:

Corydora: These are available as Green, Albino, Emerald, Peppered, Julli in the petstores around me. She doesnt bug them but I'm not sure if there a good choice with 4 oto's as is.

Platy/Sword Tail: Now I have had her with platy before but I would assume these to be to small since she chases them too Sword Tails I think are to big for the tank for even 1 though.

Gourami: I am thinking Gourami buuut due to there aggressiveness it may be a bad choice.

Molly: I am thinking another adult Molly since with a fish of close to equal size she may leave it be. My GF likes Black Mollies and Ballon Mollies so that may seem like a logical choice since most of them sold at the stores seem to be female.

I don't know if any other types would work that are close to the same size. I would like suggestions since I plan to look around the pet store tomorrow since its payday.

Inchworm · Jan 23, 2009

Hi mwood2

If you don't think she'll be aggressive toward them, and if you don't add salt to her water, a group of corydoras would be a good choice. They will get along fine with the otos.

tqfan · Jan 25, 2009

sorry to butt in here, but what's ADF stand for? :huh:

mwood2 · Jan 25, 2009

Stands for afrcan dwarf frog

mezzic · Jan 26, 2009

mollys generally eat their fry so if you wanna keep them you'll have to seperate them, also molly's store sperm for upto 6 months from what i've read

OldMan47 · Jan 26, 2009

Sorry Mezzic but does this 10 day old drop look like my molly is eating her fry?

The female has been with the fry non-stop since their birth. I have seen adult female mollies that I would not trust with another adult molly though MWood. They are like everything else and personalities vary quite a bit between fish. If you have a very aggressive female, she will torment other mollies. I have experienced that very thing in the past with some of mine. I would be looking for a way to re-home the aggressive molly and replace her with a number of nice black mollies or some platies. How big is this tank we are talking about? A swordtail won't be happy in anything much less than a 20 gallon. I keep 6 of them alone in a 20 and the tank is as full as I would like to make it. The cory suggestion is a good one if you have enough room for them in your tank.