Molly Help!

[Wingman-Goose]

Hi,

I have had Mollies since first setting up my aquarium and have got increasingy frustrated with them. I started off with two males and one picked on the other so I added females and it got worse until I was down to one male and two females.

They bred and I ended up with about 70 odd Mollies which I have reduced by giving alot of them away.

My problem is that the males constantly harass the females which has caused me to lose some females who cannot handle it. When the males are not picking on the females the males pick on each other over the females / pecking order. I have tried making sure there are 3 females or more to every male but this not altered anything. The bullying just makes the tank unpleasant to look at. I am considering getting rid of all of them apart from my favourite male.

So my question is, can I keep a single Molly with the other fish ( mainly tetras? Or is there anything I haven't tried which would prevent the bullying? If not I will probably just give away all of the remaining Mollies.

 

[Blueangel4730]

You can keep just one mollie. I believe the issue is the male wanting to mate. Perhaps you should choose all of one sex or several females to one male

 

[Wingman-Goose]

I have tried only males and having more females than males but doesn't stop the aggression. Unfortunately, the males seem to pick on the females constantly until they start dying!

 

[LyndaB]

What size tank do you have them in and how are your water params?

 

[Wingman-Goose]

They are in a 40g! The water has been constant

Nitrites - <0.3mg/l
Nitrates - 25 mg/l upto 50mg/l
PH - 7.5-7.8

 

[LyndaB]

You shouldn't be showing nitrites at all. Is this tank cycled?

 

[Wingman-Goose]

It's not showing Nitrites but the test kit I have has the lowest reading as <0.3mg/l ( it's the Tetra laborett ).

The tank is cycled and has been running for 9 months which has included a house move. The only fish I have lost in the last few months have been down to the house move or Mollies causing too much stress!

 

[LyndaB]

So, it's giving you a range of 25-50 for your nitrates? That's crazy! 25 isn't dangerous but 50 is. How would you know?

 

[Wingman-Goose]

The Nitrates gives readings of 0, 25 and 50 ! I mentioned the 50 as it did get to this before I got rid of about 30 juvenile Mollies to let things settle down.

It does have higher readings than 50 but it only got higher once when the house move happened and I was trying to juggle everything.