Pushy Molly

R

reiverix

Aye
Sep 4, 2004
1,470
0
0
56
Columbus, OH
Over the last 5 days or so, my dalmation molly is getting really aggressive towards my peppered corys. It seems to happen when I feed the fish and then goes on for several hours afterwards. It headbutts them fairly hard and now the corys are getting a bit spooked every time the molly goes near them.

It doesn't give my ottos or SAE any hassle and has learned to keep away from my clown plecs territory. Only my corys get the rough treatment.

I'm a bit puzzled because everything was fine until recently, but can I expect this to be just the normal molly behavior?
 
I'm not too sure I'd like to add more mollies to the tank only because I feel the stocking level is fine the way it is. It would also mean quarantining new additions for a few weeks. I might as well use my 20g QT tank as a new permanent home for the molly and set up a small brackish community. I'll just monitor the aggression for a few more days and see how it goes.
 
I had two mollies, one of them was so agressive it killed my platie. I had to get rid of it, I now have just the one and he is fine by himself, I'd never get these fish again, they just don't seem to be as friendly as my other fish are.
 
I had a male molly that was a lot like that, very aggressive. He would attack my female dwarf gouramis so he found himself at the local store. I find that females are ok and one male is ok if there are some females.
 
My Sailfin molly is always up in my Black molly's business...literally. It constantly follows the black around nosing his behind...I've seen the black following the Sailfin so he's not running from it. Is this mating behavior or just a really annoying Sailfin?

I'm giving them to my boyfriend's mom for one of her tanks in her third grade class. I really don't like mollies at all...and now I have 13, thanks to the sudden live bearing habits of a molly in a newly established tank haha I mean the Sailfin is beautiful, but it was a gift and I'm not really sure I like them around.

I was just wondering if that behavior meant they'll have more babies when I transfer them to the new tank...I hope not *crosses fingers*
 
The problem with alot of Liverbearers is that they can be bullies. The best way to avoid this is to keep Species only tanks or atleast fish that can push back. The best thing to do for keeping Males Docile is to give them plenty of mates and the other fish plenty of hiding spaces, such as drift wood and plants. Again, mollies like to have plenty of swimming spaces, especially for the larger mollie species, such as Sailfins.
 
Yes - many of my livebearers have little personalities that need, ahem... "adjustments". :D

I just rearrange the aquarium; change the plants around, add fish at different times (maybe adding the fish that has been picked on would eliminate the bullying problem?), and try to start over if the problem gets too bad. On occasion, I'll actually take the fish out and put him/her in another tank. If you don't have multiple tanks set up, this can be a problem though.

Good luck finding a solution!
 
The molly has been not too bad the last few days. I've been adding some freeze dried daphnia to their diet which keeps the molly occupied at the top of the tank while the corys get their sinking food. The problem seems to be that the molly can't stand the fact that the corys are eating while it is not.

I'm also still thinking about setting up the 20g as a brackish tank though. The molly would probably be happier in it. I'll take a look and see if there is anything compatible in that area.
 
I am currently experiencing the same problem...starting to get worried. All day our large black dalmation molly and our gig. gold balloon molly have been bullying our black balloon. It's odd- first time we've seen it happen and the large dalmation has been pushing it around, herding other fish away from it, and slapping at it with its tail. For HOURS now! What is odder, our small gold balloon which usually swims around freely is hiding scared for a couple days. No change or additions in tank. Any advice?
 
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