sociopathic molly

A

Avatar of Jeff

AC Members
Mar 15, 2004
10
0
0
51
Triangle area, NC
Visit site
I have six mollies in a 55 gal. tank. Two are males, four are females. I'm not sure of the specific variety as they appear to hybrids of lyretails and sailfins.

The larger (variety appears to be mostly sailfin) of the two males has become extremely aggressive towards every other fish in the tank. The smaller (more lyretail) male is berated almost constantly. Even the larger gouramis give this little wolverine space. The only fish he doesn't show aggression towards is a red fin shark.

He's also extremely hyper, like a ferret on pcp. Is this behavior normal in mollies? I have heard some livebearers establish role based societies with defined pecking orders but this guy seems to go overboard and has had more than two months to establish the pecking order.

In case the environment's a factor, here are the specs:

6 Mollies
3 Swordtails
4 Dwarf Gouramis
3 Pepper Cories
3 Albino Cories
4 Rosey Barbs
1 Redfin Shark
8 Black Mystery Snails

Tank is sparsely planted -two anacharis plants and two water lilies -with lots of open space.
 
I have a few livebearers in a smaller tank. I have a few mollies and a few platies (living alongside some neons quite happily).

My mollies and platies tend to chase each other round, quite frantically sometimes. Some of them want to play and some of them don't like this.

I found that by increasing the cover in my tank with extra plants and a few rocks, it gives them ideal places to hide away when they don't want to play.

I think most of the time, it's just the males getting randy!!

I think increasing the cover in your tank is an idea. Mine all look healthy enough for it!!
 
I had a male molly that was a bully as well. I removed him to a 1-gallon container for a few days and returned him to the tank. He's never shown aggression since. Not sure if this is repeatable but you might try. I tried to seclude my gold gourami to keep him from terrorizing everyone else but he refuses to be tamed. Kyle
 
My mollys act like this also. in my tank i have a big female that chases everyone around. she chases the big male as well as the female balloon molly. the only fish that she doesnt mess with is my betta, she will take cheap shots at him if she can, but he owns the tank.
 
I do have some cover in the tank, just not overkill. It's mostly plants along the back and those big tree root looking statues.

I have spoken with several people in this area including a few at the lfs's and several have heard of this. One guy at the local petsmart said they had even discussed labeling them semi aggressive because of a lot of these kinds of stories.

I work in the dog show world and am very familar with line bred and inbred dogs developing similar problems. Maybe mollies are beginning to develop similar problems from overbreeding? I know mine show traits of at least two if not more species.
 
I've witnessed some mollies which were very peaceful, but I have also had two which killed/injured 3 dwarf gourami before they were done.

In any case, mollies can't hack it with semi-aggressive fish so they should probably stay in the peaceful category.

In your case, I would relocate the fish or take him out of a situation where he feels he needs to go on a power surge :D.

HTH
 
I wouldn't flush him :shake: , he could be alive for some time in a septick(sp) system, and I don't think it would be pleasant. I would only ever advise flushing a dead fish. If you really must euthanize something, the small cup in the freezer is the easiest method.

Instead of euthanizing him though, why wouldn't you just take him to the LFS and trade him for another male molly? It's cheaper that way ;).
 
It's not unusual for individual mollies to go completely hyper and chase everything in the tank.

This happens often when you put a mollie in a new tank, or bring new fish into a molly's tank, and a lot of the time they aren't being bullies exactly, they're trying to breed everything in sight, male or female.

Mollies can have VERY different personalities, and some of them are loners and pay no attention to other fish, and others are always in other fish's business.

But their personalities often change over time, so I would give him a few weeks to mellow out.
 
Thanks guys. I think I'll give him the benefit of time and see if chills.

I won't euthanize. That's just mean. Worst case scenario, he'll end up with his own little pad, a nice two or three gallon with a view.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom